Tax laws and regulations are a revolving door of changes. It seems every year there are new
developments or tiny tweaks. Sometimes a law will change in the middle of a tax season with a
retroactive start date too (looking at you, COVID-19 non-taxable unemployment wages). This can be
difficult to stay up on, but there are ways to manage the overload of new and changing information.
First, assigning different staff members a certain area to keep tabs on. For example, "Bob", an
employee at a firm oversees knowing everything about itemized deductions. He pays attention to
that section of a 1040 specifically and if anything changes or is new, he researches the IRC and
relays the information to the other staff members. By having specific pieces assigned to various
staff members, the information becomes easier to manage. If one person is supposed to keep up
with every single change, it will become overwhelming and there is bound to be mistakes or things
missed.
Another resource is to subscribe to accounting and tax newsletters. These could be from the IRS,
AICPA, larger tax firms, etc. Additionally, by updating your tax software each year, there are often
announcements for changes made. Thomson Reuters will highlight changes to tax law or forms
when you open the program. They also have a tax blog/newsletter.
Additionally, CPAs are required to take CPE classes each year to retain their licensing. You can take
CPE courses based on new tax laws and learn the topics at hand. This will increase your firm's
knowledge as well as earn the credits you need anyways. If your firm has multiple CPAs that need
to take these courses, you could plan it out for them to take specific courses so that all bases are
covered, and they do not all just take the same course. They can then share the information
learned with the rest of the staff.
Just some other resources: RIA Checkpoint, Bloomberg, informal communications or presentations
from other firms, legislative tax reports, etc. Overall, the best way to learn and retain new and
adapting information is teamwork.
As a firm, you know your specific clientele. If you have a lot of high wealth investment clients, you
may not need to know the complete ins and outs of taxing a small business, or vice-versa. I think
it's important to keep up on the relevant information for your specific client-base. If there are tiny
changes that do not have a huge effect on your clients' tax, it is more up to the business owner to
know or to ask. If there is a change that will have a substantial impact on your client, I believe it is
up to the tax advisor to notify their clients. Even sending out a general monthly newsletter with any
changes to your clients would be a good idea to notify them and let them know to ask questions if
they do not understand the implications.
Reference:
Walker, April (2021, December 1). Keeping on top of tax changes. The Tax Adviser. Retrieved on July
24, 2023 from, https://www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2021/dec/keeping-on-top-tax-changes.html
