It happens every few years or so. A new starting point for tax practitioners and preparers, and for that matter, all CPAs. There is a substantial new tax law to learn. It doesn't matter if you are strictly an auditor or financial officer. The world expects you to know what a Roth IRA is, the deductibility of educational expenses, the new capital gains tax rates, and the new treatment of gains on sales of personal residences.

For starters, The CPA Journal's October cover article brings readers of all stripes an overview of the 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act. Authors Steve Colburn and Ted Englebrecht did a commendable job presenting many of the major new provisions in a straightforward manner--must reading for all CPAs. The Journal in the next few months will follow with coverage of specialty areas in greater depth--articles in the estate planning and employee benefits areas are already underway for publication in December or January.

In the meantime, the Journal has developed a series of links on its web site (cpaj.com) to sources of information on the tax act: the full text of the act; other sites (the large accounting firms) where commentaries and summaries are available, and the tax research vendors such as RIA and CCH. State societies and the AICPA will be offering courses, and as we learn of them, they will be added to the Journal's web site.