At my firm, we use many outside resources to do update ourselves on tax research and
law. First thing we do is sign up to an IRS newswire to our emails. It sends us direct
emails that provide news update with the IRS and follow up links if we want to research
it further. We use a website called CPAAcademy.org that provides free webinars that go
over important tax topics. Tax webinars are an excellent way to learn about relevant
topics with peers in the field. Webinars generally review the major points of any tax code
or law that was introduced and answer a lot of questions other CPAs will have on the
topic. AICPA website is another good way to do research on topics or discuss topics on
their forums.
I think small business owners should at least have some awareness of tax laws and
regulations that are relevant to their business. Signing up for email alerts and other
notifications to the websites mentioned above are easy enough on their end and allow
them to at least know what questions they should be asking their accountant. What the
tax accountant keeps track of is very dependent on the type of engagement they have
with the client. Usually, an engagement letter will be created to specify what the
accountant is responsible for and the correlating fees for their services.
Tax professionals can stay up to date on tax law changes in many ways. Tax professionals
can use subscription-based platforms such as Kiplinger’s tax letters and Bloomberg Tax
Alerts. Another excellent way for CPAs to stay up to date would be for them to utilize
their required CPE credits on seminars that cover new tax laws and rules. An example of
this would be when my firm signed everyone up for a seminar through Surgent (a CPE
seminar provider) so we could understand the new K-3 form when it came out. My firm
also had another mandatory seminar for the updates to the K-3 form the next year so
that we would all be up to date on any rule changes there were.
One of the easiest ways for a small business to stay up to date on tax codes would be to
go directly to the source, the IRS website. Although this can be confusing at times there
are certain publications that make it easy for small business owners to understand rules
and regulations that pertain to them specifically. An example of this would be Publication
334 (2022), Tax guide for small businesses. “This publication provides general information
about the federal tax laws that apply to you if you are a self-employed person or a
statutory employee. This publication has information on business income, expenses, and
tax credits that may help you, as a small business owner, file your income tax return. (IRS,
2022).
Owners of businesses do not need to have extensive knowledge of rules and regulations
regarding tax codes, but it could be helpful if they understood certain topics that pertain
to their industry. By understanding certain rules and regulations business owners can
help tax advisors by driving them in the right direction because a Tax advisor is only as
good as the information they have.
Publication 334 (2022), Tax Guide for Small Business. Internal Revenue Service. (n.d.).
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p334
