June 2012 Newsletter
President's Message
Bethe Davis beach walking in Homer, Alaska
The annual meeting was a success this year with great attendance, CPE that generated a huge amount of positive feedback, and a beautiful setting that even cooperated by staying mostly dry despite the gloomy forecasts. Our feedback has been very positive and participation in all events was high. The "Jay A. Ofsthun Distinguished Service Award" was presented to Max Mertz, with Elgee, Rehfeld & Mertz in Juneau and Lisa Rogers, with Rogers & Company in Anchorage. Sandra Wilson, with Wilson & Wilson, CPAs received the "Public Service Award" for all her work with the National State Boards of Accountancy. Congratulations and thank you to the award recipients for all their dedicated service to the profession and the society.
When I reflect on the events of the past weekend, I would like to share a couple of thoughts and observations. What struck me most about the entire meeting was the overall sense of community. As an organization, we constantly struggle to adapt and remain relevant in a changing environment, but underlying any changes we make or contemplate is the continuity of the overall feeling of community.
Wine tasting reception at Bear Creek Winery
When I attended national training by the AICPA for the society this past October, I was grouped with other “small” (population) states. There was a lot of discussion of the challenge to overcoming your size as if it were a weakness to be dealt with. I strongly disagree. I think for Alaska, our size builds our substance. Our size brings us together to interact and participate. Our interaction and participation have built a community, and our overall community is our strength.
Melody Schneider, Amy Cooper and Josh McIntyre enjoying the fun at the banquet.
Banquet fun and games.
Sean Halloran, Cathleen Hahn and Rebecca Martin aboard the Danny J for the trip back from Halibut Cove.
Philip Granberry, Betty Cronin, Lance Bodeen and Mike Davis
“First Grade Fireballs” triumph, overcoming last place on the final
bonus round for the title “Smarter than a Fifth Grader”.
Lisa Rogers, our AKCPA legislative committee chair, spoke at the meeting about the controversy surrounding SB 98 and how close we came to having this privacy issue eliminate our ability to sit for the CPA exam in our own state. She discussed the e-mail she drafted and had sent out by the society requesting a quick response from its membership and the overwhelming response and results received by our officials. We rapidly, overwhelmingly, and victoriously responded to this challenge. Our community is our strength.
I would like to thank you all for the opportunity to serve this professional community in the coming year. I thank all who already participate and encourage those who do not to consider increasing their level of involvement. We have many committees and activities that would welcome your support. We would appreciate any feedback from our members on our activities or suggestions for the future. We are in progress in updating the website to be more user friendly and functional and want your thoughts. We would also like to become involved in more activities within local communities and request suggestions from you all. We will endeavor to keep you informed and in touch and are focusing on more local issues within our newsletter while still providing national information and links (please follow up by reading our “Spotlight on Teaching” for the scoop on training for advanced placement classes for accounting in the works for Alaska).
For registration and more information visit http://bit.ly/apaccounting
Please feel free to contact our esteemed executive director Linda Plimpton at akcpa@ak.net with any questions or suggestions. We welcome your feedback.
Click on the link below for a copy of the annual meeting packet.
http://www.akcpa.org/writable/news/2012_annual_meeting_packet.pdf
Alaska State Board of Public Accountancy Report
Melody Schneider, Board Liaison
The spring meeting of the Board of Public Accountancy in Anchorage carried a full agenda which included some significant changes. The theme of this meeting was transition, as new personnel have come on board and new points of focus have come into view which will affect many Alaskan practitioners. A high-point summary follows.
Cori Hondolero filled the new Executive Administrator position for the Alaska Board of Public Accountancy. Cori worked for almost ten years in the Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing, and has experience with many different licensing programs, many in a supervisory capacity. Cori holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration and a Bachelor’s in Business Management, both from the university of Alaska Southeast. The Executive Administrator position is permanently relocating in Anchorage (in the Atwood Building), and should be there by the end of August. Until then, here is the best way to contact the Board:
e-mail – cori.hondolero@alaska.gov
Fax – 907-465-2974
Mail – Alaska Board of Public Accountancy
PO Box 110806
Juneau, AK 99811-0806
Current information will be posted on the Board’s website as the move reaches completion: http://commerce.state.ak.us/occ/pcpa4.htm
Karen Brewer-Tarver and Don Wayne filled two positions which opened in March. Their service began with this meeting of the Board. Karen is a CPA from Juneau and Don is a Public member from Anchorage.
Alvin Kennedy was assigned as the new investigator to the Board of Public Accountancy (Alvin.kennedy@alaska.gov). Alvin is working with Susan Winton, a senior investigator with the Division, to follow through with current investigations and to follow up on the memorandums in place. In addition to licensing violations currently being considered, these investigators will provide guidance to the Board regarding options to add a level of investigation to address technical violations.
A licensee signed a consent agreement with the Board regarding charges of practicing without a license. The consent agreement requires payment of a civil fine, completion of additional education in the form of eight hours of comprehensive ethics, and a probationary period of three years. A summary of this agreement is published on the Board of Public Accountancy website at http://commerce.alaska.gov/occ/pcpa.cfm.
Fees associated with CPA exam administration and testing will increase by 10%. This is intended to help cover the Board’s administrative costs associated with the exam.
After each license renewal cycle, several licensees are randomly selected for Continuing Education audits. This year, 10% of all licensees were selected in addition to those under mandatory audit due to a prior memorandum of agreement. These audits uncovered a variety of issues including insufficient Continuing Education taken for renewal (either in total or to meet the annual requirement), or Continuing Education which was taken after the renewal date of December 31.
Additionally, all licensees were required to provide additional documentation as part of this (the 3rd) licensing cycle with the State-specific ethics requirement. After the 2nd cycle, a random audit was conducted to test compliance with this specific element of renewal, and a number of the selected renewals were found not to have properly met the requirement. As a result, the BOPA required licensees to provide proof of completion for the ethics component in order to complete this year’s renewal. Specific requests were sent out to all licensees who did not provide such documentation; and where the documentation received indicated the course was not taken timely (i.e. before 12/31/11) or that an Alaska-specific course was not taken, the licensee was referred to undergo a full Continuing Education audit. So far, 21 such cases have been referred.
The western regional meeting of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy will be held in Anchorage June 27th through the 29th.
Transition will continue to be the governing theme this year as the Board moves through these changes and works to strengthen our profession and protect the public we serve by providing needed support and relevant oversight.
AKCPA Director Cathleen Hahn, CPA
I love Alaska, it inspires me. The opportunities here are endless; growth in whatever direction a person wants, are limitless. Waking up on a spring morning when the leaves have finally burst out, you can almost watch them pop out of their buds, is one of the sweetest moments in the day. Watching the snow melt on the mountains, revealing their character and colors, their individuality, is a summer long enjoyment of the Anchorage bowl for me. Flying over the expanses of the state, on my way to anywhere in Alaska, I can’t get enough of watching the changes in the landscape …. rivers and creeks flowing to bays and inlets, and finally meeting the ocean. Mountains, valleys, flat plains of vast open area that stretch forever, until the next mountain, inspire confidence, hope, and reassurance that there is a purpose for life. It’s a reminder that there is a purpose for life, work, and daily effort to achieve, accomplish, and appreciate.
The opportunities in our young state are not without challenge and risk on our part, which means we have to pay attention to the economic landscape as well. How will our state weather the loss of federal government contracts? What can we do to supplement the loss? How well will native corporations develop to become independent, continuing to thrive? Will we have the fortitude to make decisions that impact us today, but give us opportunity for growth tomorrow?
As finance professionals, we are involved on a day-to-day basis and have an impact. Stay informed, keep reading, take classes, talk with your peers, participate in your neighborhood community council or a professional organization. Be inspired and be an inspiration!
IRS Stakeholder Liaison Visits
Marja Beltrami, CPA
Today I got the opportunity to meet with Mike Cvitkovic and Kristen Hoiby IRS Stakeholder Liaisons. We here at Beltrami & Associates have been interacting with Mike via his weekly/monthly newsletters over the past couple of years. Both of these individuals regularly reach out to Alaska Practitioners to assist in many procedural issues as they can and are presented with. They are not Code Specialists and their goal is not to be the one that finds and defines IRC for you. They are interested in the areas you struggle with whether it is IRC, or procedural issues and they attempt at either solving the problem for you or getting you connected with the right individual within the IRS to get your issues solved. They are both earnest in their desire to assist and resolve.
If you have not signed up to receive Mike’s newsletter you really should. His newsletters provide timely and informational advice. This year we are going to attempt to include Mike or Kristen or both in the tax roundtable here in Anchorage from time to time via teleconference. We will announce those times via the tax roundtable notices. So if you are interested in sharing or have procedural concerns or issues and want to participate in those tax roundtables, be sure to have your email submitted for inclusion on the tax roundtable notices. If you are not currently included in the notices call the Society Office and Linda can assist with that.
On another note if you have not, you should, check out the monthly Tax Power Hour that the AICPA produces. It’s a free webinar and they are excellent!
