Board Approves Proposed Changes to Bylaws and Code of Conduct
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The Trusted Professional THE NEWSPAPER OF THE NEW YORK STATE SOCIETY OF CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS VOL. 16 NO. 4 | APRIL 2013 | WWW.TRUSTEDPROFESSIONAL.COM | WWW.NYSSCPA.ORG Board approves proposed changes to bylaws and Code of Conduct NOMINATING COMMITTEE REPORT P. 3 NOMINATING BIOGRAPHIES P. 4 BYLAWS AND CODE OF CONDUCT P. 6 BY ROBERT BUSWEILER Trusted Professional Correspondent he NYSSCPA’s Board of Directors voted unanimously on March 18 to approve a slate of proposed changes to its Tbylaws and to adopt the AICPA Code of Conduct to According to New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, several issues pose “significant budget risks” for New York City in the years to come. replace its own Code of Professional Conduct. For more, see page 15. Image courtesy of the Office of the New York State Comptroller. The vote paves the way for the proposed changes to be included in the proxy ballot mailed to all CPA members of the Society with the April issue of The Trusted Professional. Because revisions to the bylaws require a general membership vote, a ballot that features Members are asked to carefully review the proposed changes Trusted Professional and on the Society’s website is sufficient, the proposed changes and the slate of 2013–2014 board and prior to making their choices on their official proxy ballot. and recommended removal of the press release requirement. officer nominees is also included with this issue of The Trusted The Professional Ethics Committee (PEC) suggested The second proposed change to the bylaws was in Article Professional. The Nominating Committee Report and biographical changes to two sections of the NYSSCPA bylaws this year. The XII.19–Disclosure to Regulatory Authorities. information for the nominees appear on pages 3–5. committee’s first recommended change was in Article XII.15– At the committee’s January 2013 meeting, a change was The proposed changes to the bylaws and Code of Publication and Notification. proposed deleting item (f) [on any other occasion the Professional Conduct are printed in their entirety beginning on In 2007, the Society changed its bylaws to expand disclosure professional ethics committee deems appropriate] to Article page 6. Additionally, postmarkup final versions of the rule texts of certain disciplinary matters by adding a press release as a XII.19, due to the danger of inconsistent application. for the Code of Professional Conduct have been published on method of publication. In its report to the board, the “In simple terms, these proposals limit the exposure of the pages 6–9 to illustrate what the final product will look like. committee noted that publication of such matters in The Society. We’re not diminishing the functional and capable See Bylaws, on page 14 Internal school district audits preserved in NY budget BY ROBERT BUSWEILER schools and Board of Cooperative Educational Department, the NYSSCPA estimates that scandal that saw more than $11 million lost to Trusted Professional Correspondent Services (BOCES) districts was removed approximately 340 of New York’s 696 school fraud. Working as part of a good-government before the budget was passed last month. districts will not be required to provide an coalition, the NYSSCPA helped draft ollowing a dedicated outreach effort by The language in the final budget bill raises annual internal audit function under this new legislation that put a series of financial the NYSSCPA, last-minute language the district size threshold to enact the language. controls in place to help protect public school quietly added to the education portion requirement to 1,500 students per district. In 2005, as part of a group of five district funds. Fof the New York state budget that Previously, that threshold was set at 300 organizations, the NYSSCPA sought to create During the past few years, several state sought the complete removal of a required students. Based on a preliminary review of the required annual internal audit function, legislators have attempted to chip away at the annual internal audit function for public data from the New York State Education following the Roslyn (L.I.) School District annual internal audit requirement, claiming See School District, on page 14 z INSIDE THIS EDITION INSIDE RISK MANAGEMENT TECH CAREER Opinion ...........................................2 Newsmaker ..................................12 Responding to a subpoena: Should employees use Improving time Taxation........................................15 what firms should know personal electronics at work? management Advocacy......................................16 CPAs in Industry ..........................17 History..........................................21 PAGE 18 PAGE 19 PAGE 20 Chapter News...............................22 2 April 2013 | The Trusted Professional | www.trustedprofessional.com Opinion The Trusted Professional PRESIDENT z PRESIDENT’S COMMENTARY Gail M. Kinsella, CPA PRESIDENT-ELECT J. Michael Kirkland, CPA SECRETARY/TREASURER The age of committees Scott M. Adair, CPA VICE PRESIDENTS he NYSSCPA reached an important technical standards and guidance within the was an unprecedented amount of traffic. Filers Sherry L. DelleBovi, CPA David Evangelista, CPA experienced not only slowdowns and timing milestone last fiscal year, when profession. That the NYSSCPA is able to release Suzanne M. Jensen, CPA statewide committee membership dozens each year is a direct reflection of the outs, but in some cases, lost work. Jeffrey S. Anthony J. Maltese, CPA climbed to the highest levels we’ve strength, size and quality of our committees Gold, chair of our New York, Multistate and T EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR seen in recent history. Some 1,800 members that work so hard to draft them. Our Local Taxation Committee, quickly participated in at least one of the Society’s 67 Society con tinues to be one of the reached out to the tax department Joanne S. Barry committees. Many were active in more than most sought-out responders. about the issue and got the DIRECTOR one committee, which explains how that same The list of ways in which department’s assurance that it OF COMMUNICATIONS number of members was able to fill 2,450 our committees have benefit - would work with filers who were Colleen Lutolf different committee positions. Although the ted the Society and the unable to file by the deadline EDITOR Society has not yet compiled final figures for profession as a whole is because of those problems. This is a Nicole Saunders committee membership this fiscal year, all seemingly endless. For ex - win for both our members and the indications point to a continued strong ample, the NYSSCPA Real public we serve. STAFF WRITER Chris Gaetano showing. Estate Committee and the Committee service offers a Gail M. Kinsella Our members, who as a rule tend to be AICPA Auditing Standards number of benefits to individual COPY EDITORS passionate about the profession, have always Board recently worked with the New York members as well, including opportunities to Gene Cioffi been an active group, and the effort and output City Tax Commission to align one of the city’s develop leadership capabilities and expand Christopher Davis we’ve seen in recent years, specifically at the real estate forms with the AICPA’s Statement technical skills. Nearly one quarter of our EDITORIAL ASSISTANT committee level, has been remarkable. As my on Auditing Standards (SAS) 122, Statements statewide committee meetings within the last Anna Rakovsky term as President nears its conclusion, I say on Auditing Standards: Clarification and fiscal year featured some form of CPE. thank you to each member who has served on a Recodification. The effort came about after a Members who join a committee also have an ART DIRECTOR committee—and encourage those who haven’t Real Estate Committee member realized that opportunity to meet and network with other Larry E. Matthews yet had the opportunity to consider doing so. New York City’s Form TC309, Accountant’s professionals who share their concerns and, in GRAPHIC DESIGN MANAGER Statewide committee operations, in Certification, was not in compliance with many cases, develop relationships with key Ernesto Darío Lara concert with chapter participation, is the glue professional standards. regulators and decision makers. GRAPHIC DESIGN that holds the Society together, allowing us to I hope you are beginning to see the many NYSSCPA committees also provide a Sara M. Gold speak in a single, unified voice, while ensuring means for the Society to respond quickly to benefits of committee membership. Visit the individual input and involvement. Indeed, member concerns. We saw that just last NYSSCPA’s website, www.nysscpa.org, to get a The New York State Society of CPAs and this is how we execute much of our strategic month, when NYSSCPA members reported better sense of the committees that might align The Trusted Professional greatly value plan to advocate for the profession and experiencing serious technical difficulties with with your interests. No man is an island—the editorial contributions from our members, influence the adoption of sound accounting, the state tax department’s new website. It was Society and the profession are immeasurably readers and those affiliated with the tax and finance policy. Take, for instance, the first time that taxpayers with sales tax stronger when we work together. accounting profession. Additionally, we are comment letters, which represent official liabilities of less than $3,000 were allowed to happy to publish pertinent ads and notices. To ensure that each issue of The Trusted positions of the NYSSCPA and help to shape e-file their returns through the web, and there [email protected] Professional is distributed on a timely basis, we have issued the following deadlines by which such materials must be received: June issue—April 23 Formal Notice of 2012–2013 July issue—May 29 August issue—June 25 Annual Election Meeting of the New York State Society of CPAs For more information on submitting an article, email [email protected]. Please note that the annual membership meeting of the New York State Society of Certified Public To update subscription information, contact Accountants will be held on Thursday, May 16, 2013, at 6:00 p.m.