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
