The CPA Journal Online

Federal Tax Reform
Time to go back to the drawing board?

By Larry Witner and Kathleen Simons

OCTOBER 2005 - On January 7, 2005, President Bush established the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform. He asked the advisory panel to recommend reforms that would promote simplicity, fairness, and economic growth.

During its first phase of operation, the advisory panel evaluated the current tax system and found it to be flawed. During its second phase, the advisory panel considered a wide variety of tax reform proposals. President Bush requested the advisory panel to make at least one of its recommendations based on the current tax system.

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October 2005 Issue

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Features

Federal Tax Reform

New Pension Disclosure Rules

Corporate Governance Proposals

History of E-filing

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Essentials

Publisher's Column

Perspectives

New Pension Disclosure Rules

A defined-benefit pension plan requires a company to pay each qualified employee a monthly benefit that begins at retirement and terminates at the employee’s death. The full extent of the cost of this obligation is unknown until the employee dies. Full Story

Peer Review: How Well Does It Fit the Profession?

As the NYSSCPA’s Quality Enhancement Policy Committee continues to look at peer review, I’ve noticed that many people know relatively little about the types of peer reviews that may be performed as well as their scope. Full Story

Accountability and Valuation

In 1994, after almost a 15-year hiatus, I again began preparing students for the CPA exam. On the theory portion of the exam, I persistently got the question about the purpose of financial accounting wrong until I read the review book’s explanation. Full Story

The CPA Journal is broadly recognized as an outstanding, technical-refereed publication aimed at public practitioners, management, educators, and other accounting professionals. It is edited by CPAs for CPAs. Our goal is to provide CPAs and other accounting professionals with the information and news to enable them to be successful accountants, managers, and executives in today's practice environments.