I got the part!

I finally got the part I've always wanted. Peter Pappas has cast me as Glinda "the good witch" in Professionalism: A Love Story. As I commented on his blog -- if I seem as nice as Glinda, then I must have an incredible hidden talent for public relations.

There has been much debate in the tax blogosphere about the issues of professionalism, rules of conduct, and so forth. Spineless though it may seem, I am opting to abstain from this discussion, primarily due to my inability to articulate coherent thoughts on the matter.

In general, my writing has been sadly lacking of late, due to an unexplained lack of ideas. Yesterday, I commented on this writer's block to my husband, and added: "I figure quality over quantity, so I'll wait until inspiration strikes."

I guess I can't keep my mouth shut, even if I'm lacking inspiration. These days, the issue of tax reform remains on my mind. On my "to do" list is to read ideas on simplification from top blogger Robert Flach, along with the AICPA's Tax Reform Alternatives.

Have you been reading any other good simplification ideas lately?

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Principles vs. rules

I finally finished my CPE course on IFRS, which wasn't nearly as painful as one might expect. As Joe Kristan put it: "We're tax! We don't need no stinkin' AA!" (For those new to public accounting, "AA" refers to Accounting & Auditing.)

As a tax practitioner, I could opt to renew my license under the non-attestation category. I take the AA courses because I want to keep the "full fledged" license as long as I can. I keep wrestling up 24 AA education hours every two years, since I figure the hard part's over, which was getting the field work hours for initial licensure.

Based on my limited AA education, I understand that IFRS is a principles-based framework, compared to the rules-based U.S. GAAP. This is an interesting experiment in human behavior, and I look forward to seeing how it unfolds. Can a system based on trust in people to use sound judgment and act ethically be successful? I hope so, though I admit to some skepticism.

I've said before that we cannot regulate human behavior, and so should not over-regulate society; and at the same time we still must have some semblance of law and order. The challenge, of course lies in finding where to land on the spectrum between trusting everyone do just do what's right and forcing them to.

Will we start to see a corresponding move in tax policy toward a system of principles rather than rules? I doubt it. And although I do like Joe Kristan's suggestion to simply pass a "happy fun times tax credit" for everything to be wonderful, I'm thinking the path to getting people to behave morally may be a little harder than that.

But maybe I'm just being difficult.

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Broken record

There's lots of buzz these days about increased regulation of tax preparers, including recent posts from Joe Kristan, Peter Pappas, and Robert Flach.

My two cents on the matter of regulation is in an earlier post. I know I sound like a broken record, but I just keep coming back to what I believe to be the real problem: complexity.

As Mary O'Keefe says, "We need a tax code PEOPLE can understand."

The reason we haven't had significant reform is that people are not shouting for it. As Annette Nellen wrote, "one big roadblock (among many) is that the public is not crying out for simplification."

Why?

Because, as Mary O'Keefe puts it, "Americans are busy with their day to day lives. It's hard to get their attention on important long-term problems."

I hope the new movie "An Inconvenient Tax" will get the public's attention. Down the road, I'll be contacting the AICPA and the NATP to find out what they are doing on the issue. As I ponder ideas for a group of Tax Professionals for Simplification, I am inclined to think the group would need to agree on a plan for simplification. This, of course, presents a real challenge, but one I like to think we could overcome.

To all the tax gurus out there, what plan would you like to see tax professionals support?

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