The CPA—A Value Added

Back in the days when I was single, and looking to meet qualified candidates of the opposite gender (ok, to put it plainly, when I was a young, newly licensed CPA trying to meet girls), the phrase, “I’m an accountant” was not the greatest pick-up line, or conversation starter.  I don’t remember anyone asking me, “How are your numbers?” And, when I told them what I did for a living, nobody ever asked if they could see my calculator.

But, alas, the role of the CPA in the last 20 years has broadened, and the definition has widened to that of being both a protector and an enforcer. Dare I say it – the accounting profession has become sexier – in these post-Sarbanes-Oxley days after Enron, and other horrific financial collapses. Accountants are the ones responsible for protecting the public’s assets. We are the ones who are supposed to prevent fraud. Professionally speaking, we are the ones to test the validity of financial reports, and to make “them” present numbers fairly (definition—“correctly enough”) to you, the public. I remember being a young auditor in the late 1980s; the then president of Rutgers University Dr. Edward Bloustein addressed 100 of us at a motivational seminar. He said, “The auditors are important…. They protect my company’s assets.…”  These are not new responsibilities, but in the wake of various scandals, particularly the Arthur Andersen debacle, they’ve been given new life to an old profession.

The same is true for the CPA’s role in tax preparation. The IRS has finally woken up to the fact that unscrupulous tax preparers exist; such as those preparers who promise $10,000 refunds, which the taxpayers receive, followed a year later by audit notices and $10,000 tax assessments, plus penalties and interest. There are other accountants who charge fees but refuse to sign or identify themselves on clients’ tax returns. The IRS is now requiring all tax preparers to register, and to pass competency exams.  These are standards that CPAs have been held to since 1913, when the 16^th amendment to the Constitution made income tax a permanent part of American life. So again, these rules are nothing new to the CPA—and this is value added.

Still, there are those practitioners who, for lack of a better term, “cheat on their homework,” by not fulfilling their continuing education requirements, by not paying their license renewal fees, or worse, by telling the public that they’re CPAs when indeed they are not.  There is one easy way to check if your CPA is actually one. Just look online to verify that your CPA maintains an active license in good standing and also to see if the State Board has taken any actions against a particular practitioner. 

And beware of advertising that says a CPA is “registered” with the IRS. The IRS keeps no registry of CPAs. Licenses are issued by each of the 50 states, not by the IRS.  Other designations, such as “certified tax consultant” or “certified senior tax specialist” simply don’t exist.

They still say that Coke is the “real thing.”  CPAs are value added–make sure that you’re getting it.