Last Thursday I attended the all-day 2008 Annual Meeting and Conference of the NJ chapter of the National Association of Tax Professionals held at the Hilton Woodbridge (in Iselin, not Woodbridge?).
I usually do not attend this annual NJ-NATP seminar because it generally deals with federal tax topics. I was sorry, though, that I missed last year’s offering – A Day with Dave Mellem (former head of NATP’s national research department) – but I had a scheduling conflict.
When I arrived at the seminar room I noticed that, rather than the normal set-up of long rectangular tables with chairs, there were round dining tables set up around the room. I do not come to these events to “make friends and influence people”, but I figured “as long as I am here” and selected a table. For once my luck was good – I ended up, as I was many, many years ago (during my days as the Business Manager of the YWCA in Summit in the late 1970s), a “token male” - a “thorn among roses”. And most of the “roses” were members of the local chapter's Board of Directors.
When relying on a state or federal agency to provide speakers the results often vary widely in quality of content and speaker. However the IRS batted 1000, or at least 750, with its four speakers. Three of the presentations were top drawer – and I hope the speakers are invited back to future seminars. The third, on new preparer penalties by the IRS Return Preparer Coordinator for NJ, was not a bad presentation, but the speaker did not have the experience or ease of presence of the other more senior IRS representatives.
We were not so lucky with the sole NJ team – from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The lead speaker was clumsy in reading a presentation prepared by her supervisor, although she did better in answering direct questions. Her “assistant”, who appeared to be on hand solely to work the "projector", would have been a better choice to make the presentation, as he proved when occasionally interjecting a comment or adding to the answer of a question.
The first topic of the day was “Worker Classifications and Misclassifications – Independent Contractor or Employee” from the DOLWD. It reinforced what I had already known from past experience – a worker could be properly classified as an independent contractor by the IRS for federal payroll tax purposes, but could be required to be treated as an employee by NJ and subject to SUI and SDI taxes and SIT withholding.
My experience in this matter was more than a dozen years ago – so it appears that nothing has changed in NJ. The old “A,B,C” test still applies.
I had mentioned to my table mates that in my experience of years ago I felt the DOL auditor was extremely “inflexible”. It seems that is something else that has not changed, as it was the exact same impression of one of the Board members based on more recent DOL audits.
Next up was Lyle Lauterbach, the head of the NJ branch of the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service. Lyle has had long experience with the “ombudsman” function of the IRS, having joined the former IRS Problem Resolution Office (the predecessor of the Taxpayer Advocate Service) in 1992.
Before going on to discuss the function of the Taxpayer Advocate Office (with which most of us present had previous satisfactory experience) he confirmed what I had known – that the ill-conceived Economic “Stimulus” Payment (referred to as ESP by the IRS) program, which had been thrust upon the Service by Congress at the worst possible time, had “overwhelmed every aspect of the IRS”.
Lyle discussed the National Taxpayer Advocate’s required reports to Congress, especially the Annual Report that includes a list of the most serious problems encountered by taxpayers. It was ironic that the number one problem in the 2007 report to Congress was caused by Congress itself – the impact of late-year tax law changes!
While giving us nothing really new, Lyle was an excellent and witty speaker and did provide some interesting statistics and insights on the program. He also told us what the initials IRS really stood for – It Really Sucks!
Following Lyle, as previously stated, the IRS Return Preparer Coordinator talked about the new preparer penalties that came about via the 2007 Small Business and Work Opportunity Tax Act and the new standards we preparers have to use.
We were pleased to learn that we would be “off the hook” if we relied on third party documents – such as a Form K-1 that was prepared by another accountant – that were later changed or amended resulting in substantial additional taxable income, as long as the original documents appeared to us to be “reasonable”.
The speaker was very careful when answering a question about a specific circumstance, such as with the K-1, to say “in that case you may not be liable for any penalty”.
Before breaking for a buffet lunch we heard from a member of the Board of Directors of NATP, from Minnesota, who presented some statistics on the NJ chapter membership and discussed the benefits of membership in NATP.
The chapter held a brief “annual meeting” with election of Board members after the satisfactory lunch. They are looking for NJ-NATP members to fill vacant spots on the Board. It was also reported that the chapter will soon have its own website, separate from the NATP national site, up and running. I will let you know when it is “open for business”.
Following the Annual Meeting was IRS Special Agent Alan Drucker, who came with a box of unique “visual aides” (sort of like that comedian – either Gallagher or Carrot Top). This was the first time I had heard a presentation from the Criminal Investigation branch of the IRS tree.
Special Agents conduct tax investigations that are intended to result in criminal prosecutions. They are in a way the police officers of the IRS. They come with badge, handcuffs and, I expect, a gun. Alan gave a good talk on “How to Protect Yourself from Your Clients”.
Actually when I first read the topic I thought we were in for a “self-defense” class. Hey, you never know when a client is going to “snap”.
The final speaker of the day was Glenn J Gizzi, IRS Senior Stakeholder Liaison. He spoke on two separate topics – “IRS Issues of Importance for Practitioners” and, what has unfortunately become an obligatory topic at just about every tax seminar, ”Ethical Issues and the Tax Preparer”.
Glenn started off discussing identity theft, and gave an interesting and eye-opening example of how a tax preparer’s office could inadvertently contribute to this problem. He also discussed the IRS Stakeholder Liaison program and announced that the annual Working Together Seminar would be held at Kean College in January 13, 2009. The keynote speaker will be National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olsen, a good speaker who I have heard before at the IRS Nationwide Forum.
At the break before Glenn’s final presentation I told one of the seminar organizers, who was at my table, that I felt the constant repetition of 1 or 2 hours of ethics at every single tax seminar offered was ridiculous and a waste of my time.
“If I am not honest now after 35+ years of practice listening to an hour on ethics ain’t going to suddenly make me so!”
The Board member said she agreed with me, but that if ethics was not included in the program the chapter would get complaints and attendance would be reduced. This is because of the requirement for EAs and CPAs and other registered professionals to have at least 2 CPE credits of ethics each and every year. A typical organizational knee-jerk over-reaction to a perceived problem. A one-hour review every 3 or 5 years is more than enough. Needless to say I did not stay for the ethics talk.
All in all I did enjoy the seminar and was glad I chose to attend this year. To be honest I really did not learn a lot of new “stuff” – but I took away enough tidbits to make it worthwhile. The chapter’s Education Committee did a good job and deserves a pat on the back.
Next year will be the chapter’s 20th anniversary (I remember attending a special meeting about starting a local chapter at a NATP national conference – was it 20 years ago!). Something “special” will be planned to celebrate the milestone.
TAFN
