NJ-NATP ANNUAL MEETING

Yesterday I attended the Annual Meeting, and all-day education session, of the NJ chapter of the National Association of Tax Professionals.  While the chapter’s January session is devoted to state tax issues (in my opinion a “must attend” for all NJ tax preparers), the September session covers federal tax issues.  As usual, the session was held at the Woodbridge Hilton in Iselin.

The education portion was billed as “A Day With Kathryn Keane”, a popular speaker from Brooklyn NY who formerly served on the national Board of NATP and the NY chapter’s Board.  This format follows that of successful September offerings of previous years, which included “A Day With David Mellem” (former NATP Research Director) and “A Day With Alice Orzechowski” (popular NATP instructor). 

What tax preparer could resist “A Day With Kathryn Keane”?

Kathryn’s topics for the day were –

* Foreclosures, Short Sales and the 1099C,

* Ins and Outs of Schedule D,
* Ethics (groan), and
* Hot Topics (real estate professionals, Schedule E audits, and hobby vs business audits).

As expected Kathryn provided an excellent overview of the chosen topics, with lots of personal anecdotes from her practice to punctuate her points.  To her credit she even kept me awake during the Ethics portion (the full required “100 minutes”) by basically turning it into a stand-up routine, and actually provided me with a few new things to think about.

My constant complaint about all CPE offerings is that it seems at least every other one contains the 2 hour ethics requirement.  So, while the IRS will require I take 2 hours per year, I end up with 4 or 6 (and, in my opinion, 2 is already too much)!  Unfortunately, as an NJ-NATP Board member told me a few years back, if they do not include Ethics on the agenda the attendance drops.

The attendance at this fall session was up substantially from past years – almost doubled.  One wonders if it is because of the new CPE requirements for previously unenrolled preparers (which actually does not begin until 2012), the ethics offering, or Kathryn Keane as the speaker.  With the new CPE requirements I do expect attendance at CPE offerings to increase beginning next year.

My only complaint concerns the Schedule D presentation, and is common to Schedule D offerings.  The one area I want to hear about is “puts and calls” – after 40 years this still confuses me somewhat – but this item is usually at the end of the presentation, and due to time constraints is usually passed over with just a brief instruction to “read what is in your text”. 

I realize that KK was giving an “overview” of the Schedule D, and would like to see a more detailed offering specifically on more “non-traditional” Schedule D items in the future.  Perhaps a day of “unique” Schedule A, D, C, and E topics.

If I may pick another nit with the Schedule D presentation, KK quoted the IRS’s initial position on “demutualization” of insurance companies – the basis of the stock received is 0 – she did not report that the United States Court of Federal Claims in Eugene A. Fisher et al. v. United States ruled that a taxpayer recognizes no gain from the demutualization of a mutual insurance company. The basis of “demutualized” shares is not “0”, as the IRS claimed, and we tax preparers had reported on sales of such shares over the years. A basis is allowed against demutualization proceeds.  According to the Court decision the basis of the shares in the insurance company received in demutualization is equal to the value of the shares on the date of the demutualization, up to a maximum equal to the total of the premiums the taxpayer had paid for the insurance policy up to the point of the demutualization. To be fair, KK did state that there was a Tax Court case on the subject (but provided no detail).  

One of the items in the Annual Meeting portion of the day was the announcement of and presentation to the annual Chapter Member of the Year.  As I sat there listening to the description of the 2011 winner I thought to myself, “hey, that could be me” (the presenter mentioned that the person wrote regularly for both national NATP and NJ-NATP publications) – and it was!

I was truly surprised.  I was told the Board debated whether to tell me in advance, or to leave it as a surprise, and I am glad that it came as a surprise.  My sincere thanks to the Board for this honor. If I may continue horn tootin’ – this follows my selection as national NATP’s January 2011 Member of the Month.

The NJ chapter of NATP is offering a few more education sessions – both half-day and full-day – before year-end.  More information is available on the chapter’s website – www.njnatp.com.  I am looking forward to the annual January state tax seminar.

TAFN