TCJA – what to keep, what to toss
Every few decades or more often our federal tax system has a major upheaval. After I got my accounting degree in 1977 my first two jobs were working in state government auditing focused on matters internal to the function of the government. I still feel I learned a lot during those jobs but it was not a good fit for me.
In the early 1980's I entered the world of public accounting which to a large extent is broken into two segments.
The first segment is a focus on attestation of financial statements with the level of services from the highest level downward being audit, review and compilation. The CPA firm issues an opinion on financial statements attestation work which requires practicing in a licensed CPA firm by individuals with required education that have passed appropriate exams, had appropriate experience and who continue to obtain sufficient and targeted continuing education. The primary purpose of CPA's in the attestation function is to serve the public by allowing limited reliance on financial statements which are the responsibility of the management of the issuer of the financial statements upon which the CPA firm opines.
The second segment is a focus on tax. Tax work requires a CPA or non CPA to follow the law and rules created by federal and state governments but the work is focused on helping business and individuals meet their objectives of tax compliance, planning and minimizing both tax paid and the cost of the tax work. A CPA license is not necessary for most tax work with the main exception being representation of third parties before the governments and in some legal matters.
We are now at a point in time where the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 are set to expire Dec. 31, 2025. I think that many of the complexities created in the TCJA should be addressed as the federal tax laws and rules will change but my hope is that more complexity is not added.
The Bloomberg government reporter has a good summary of what is changing in business, international and individual taxes at the end of 2025 if nothing is done.
https://about.bgov.com/insights/elect...
My major worry about taxes is that unneeded complexity of our tax system could cause system failure. We can and must do better.
In the early 1980's I entered the world of public accounting which to a large extent is broken into two segments.
The first segment is a focus on attestation of financial statements with the level of services from the highest level downward being audit, review and compilation. The CPA firm issues an opinion on financial statements attestation work which requires practicing in a licensed CPA firm by individuals with required education that have passed appropriate exams, had appropriate experience and who continue to obtain sufficient and targeted continuing education. The primary purpose of CPA's in the attestation function is to serve the public by allowing limited reliance on financial statements which are the responsibility of the management of the issuer of the financial statements upon which the CPA firm opines.
The second segment is a focus on tax. Tax work requires a CPA or non CPA to follow the law and rules created by federal and state governments but the work is focused on helping business and individuals meet their objectives of tax compliance, planning and minimizing both tax paid and the cost of the tax work. A CPA license is not necessary for most tax work with the main exception being representation of third parties before the governments and in some legal matters.
We are now at a point in time where the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 are set to expire Dec. 31, 2025. I think that many of the complexities created in the TCJA should be addressed as the federal tax laws and rules will change but my hope is that more complexity is not added.
The Bloomberg government reporter has a good summary of what is changing in business, international and individual taxes at the end of 2025 if nothing is done.
https://about.bgov.com/insights/elect...
My major worry about taxes is that unneeded complexity of our tax system could cause system failure. We can and must do better.
The post TCJA – what to keep, what to toss appeared first on HumbleDollar.
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