AICPA News – Feb. 2024

Implementing long-term solutions to attracting and retaining talent will require the entire profession to work together. As firm leaders, community advocates, educators, and mentors, members play a vital role in strengthening the pipeline.

A broad profession-wide, multi-stakeholder effort to address hurdles at every stage — from K-12 to employment — is underway, and the AICPA is playing a major role in supporting these initiatives.

As a subset of this broader work, the AICPA released its updated Pipeline Acceleration Plan in early 2023. The Pipeline Acceleration Plan continues to drive the AICPA’s efforts to increase both student interest in accounting as a profession and the number of accounting graduates who go on to obtain licensure.

AICPA Pipeline Acceleration Plan
A synopsis and detailed version of the Pipeline Acceleration Plan are available for download. The following sections provide a high-level overview of a few initiatives outlined in the Plan. For a more in-depth overview of the status of all of the initiatives, download the Winter 2024 update.

AICPA-NASBA Experience, Learn & Earn program
Launched in September 2023, the Experience, Learn & Earn program (ELE) provides students an opportunity to work in accounting positions at a firm and gain a mix of work experience, study time, and affordable college credit hours. With over 200 firms expressing interest and an initial partnership through Tulane University’s School of Professional Advancement, the pilot is open to students who are employed with a participating employer and have completed a bachelor’s degree and core accounting courses.

The customizable program is not an internship or an apprenticeship. Instead, participants are first-year staff with a flexible workload and time to complete the credit hours they need to reach the 150-hour requirement.

The goals of the program include increasing accessibility to, and affordability of, entry into the profession for a diverse pool of candidates. CPA firms of all sizes and practice types could choose to recruit entry-level hires into the program. The program is also open to companies, not-for-profits, and government employers who hire CPA-track staff.

The AICPA and NASBA will continue to pilot the program in the spring, summer and fall 2024 semesters. For more information on the ELE program, visit the program’s website or contact us at Feedback@ExperienceLearnEarn.org.

Win STEM recognition for accounting
Interest in professional careers starts with exposure and awareness. The AICPA, state CPA societies, and academics are working diligently to secure recognition of accounting as a STEM field under the technology banner, focusing on three key advocacy efforts:

• Securing federal legislative support: Bipartisan bills would allow existing K-12 STEM grant funding to be used for accounting education, with a focus on improving access for underrepresented students.
• Seeking federal designation: The AICPA and 54 state CPA societies nominated six accounting-related degrees for inclusion on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s STEM Designated Degree Program List.
• College and university outreach: Nearly 60 accounting programs have received an official STEM designation from the federal government, enabling schools to broaden their student bodies.

To support the profession’s advocacy efforts, the AICPA has created STEM toolkits for educators and state societies, which include outreach materials, explainer articles, social media posts, infographics, and other resources.

Accounting Opportunities Experience
As part of the Pipeline Acceleration Plan, the AICPA’s Academic and Student Engagement (ASE) team has implemented other strategies and initiatives to promote accounting as a career, increase awareness, and offer resources and support for students and educators.

Accounting Opportunities Experience is a collaboration between state CPA societies and the AICPA to raise awareness of accounting career opportunities among high school students. It offers a chance to show students that the profession is an inclusive realm that caters to interests beyond the numerical-ability tropes still largely synonymous with the profession.

In 2023, the ASE team expanded its Accounting Opportunities Week to allow for greater flexibility in week-long or month-long outreach during November and retitled the event “Accounting Opportunities Experience.” As a result, state CPA society collaboration in the event increased from 35 state CPA societies in 2022 to 46 in 2023.

For more information on how you can get involved, please email Christin.Hunter@aicpa-cima.com. The ASE team has also created a variety of student engagement tools and resources, which are available online to anyone seeking to promote the profession.

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CPAs Inspire the Next Generation in High School Classrooms

In an era of rapidly evolving industries and technological advancements, it has become increasingly important to equip high school students with real-world insights into potential careers as certified public accountants (CPAs). The Accounting Opportunities initiative is a collaboration among state CPA societies and AICPA & CIMA to raise awareness of accounting career opportunities among high school students. The career awareness event aims to demystify the world of accounting, provide students with valuable insights into the profession, and encourage them to consider accounting careers as a viable and rewarding path.

Building on the success of the 2022 inaugural year, and with feedback from participating state CPA societies, Accounting Opportunities Week was retitled “Accounting Opportunities Experience” in 2023 and expanded to encompass the full month of activities planned in November.

Preliminary reporting from the participating state CPA societies indicates the second-annual event surpassed the 2022 results. Collaboration in the event increased in 2023 with 777 accounting professionals and CPAs presenting at 571 schools across the country. In total, at least 21,185 students heard about the benefits of a career in accounting and becoming a CPA. We anticipate these numbers will rise as more state CPA societies report their results over the coming weeks.

Student engagement continues to be a key initiative under the AICPA Pipeline Acceleration Plan and the expanded Accounting Opportunities Experience invites year-round collaboration opportunities between the AICPA Academic and Student Engagement team and state CPA societies.

Some objectives of the initiative include:

1. Highlighting Career Paths in Accounting
   The event shed light on the various career paths within the accounting field. CPAs shared their career journeys, discussing the various accounting specializations, and highlighting the day-to-day challenges and rewards of the profession.
2. Breaking Down Stereotypes
   Accounting has often been misunderstood and stereotyped as a monotonous profession centered around numbers and spreadsheets. The event sought to dispel these misconceptions by bringing real-life CPAs into high school classrooms.
3. Offering Interactive Sessions
   One of the highlights of the events was the interactive sessions that allowed students to actively engage with the CPAs. Students were able to ask questions, gain insights into different career paths within accounting, and understand the skills needed to thrive in the profession.
4. Promoting Diversity in Accounting
   The accounting profession, like many others, benefits from diversity. The initiative actively seeks to encourage students from diverse backgrounds to consider careers in accounting.

The presentations were well-received by the students, who had the opportunity to ask questions and receive answers from professionals in the field. This gave the students a unique insight into the accounting profession, which they can use to make informed decisions about their futures.

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AICPA & CIMA Offer Series Focused on Latest Audit and Accounting Developments

AICPA & CIMA will begin offering a monthly series of town hall-style discussions focused on audit and accounting. The AICPA A&A Focus Series is designed to keep members up to date on developments and critical issues in accounting, auditing and assurance.

Each live, one-hour broadcast communicates the latest news and information, taking a deeper look at the topics and issues affecting CPAs’ daily work. The discussions will be led by recognized and respected thought leaders in the profession. Those in attendance will earn one CPE credit, which will be free to AICPA members.

The series aims to help auditors:

• Recognize the latest news and most pressing issues facing A&A practitioners
• Recall critical information on important trends and regulatory activities
• Identify practical and technical analysis of current topics
• Access helpful resources and tools.

For more information, visit the A&A Focus resource page.

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AICPA Responds to IRS Guidance on SECURE 2.0 Act, Catch-Up Contributions

The AICPA submitted a letter to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) this week in response to initial guidance issued related to changes made to catch-up contributions enacted in the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022.

On August 25, 2023, Treasury and the IRS issued Notice 2023-62 related to the changes to catch-up contributions made by SECURE 2.0. The AICPA provided comments in the following areas related to the notice:

Timing of application of Roth treatment to catch-up contributions and related federal income tax withholding issues – AICPA recommends that Treasury and the IRS issue guidance stating that federal income tax withholding with respect to a participant’s mandatory Roth catch-up contribution is not required before February 1 of the year in which the amount is contributed.

Coordination with actual deferral percentage test corrections – AICPA recommends that Treasury and the IRS issue guidance allowing an elective deferral which is treated as a Roth catch-up contribution due to being recharacterized based on the failure of the ADP test, to be taxable to the participant in the year of recharacterization.

Calculation of wage limitations for employees receiving wages from more than one employer in a controlled group – AICPA recommends that future guidance issued in relation to Section V.3 of the notice clarifies that for purposes of determining if an employee’s participating wages exceeds $145,000 (as adjusted), only wages from the employee’s specific common law employer in the previous year are included, and only if it is a participating employer in the plan.

Potential reversal of Roth designation – The AICPA recommends that Treasury and the IRS issue guidance stating that an individual who has deferrals characterized as Roth contributions as a result of not contributing deferrals equal to the regular limit be permitted to have them designated as regular deferrals.

These recommendations follow one of AICPA’s guiding principles of good tax policy – simplicity. Simplicity in the tax system is important to both taxpayers and tax administrators and is important both to improve the compliance process and to enable taxpayers to better understand the tax consequences of transactions in which they engage in or plan to engage. Complex rules lead to errors and disrespect for the system that can reduce compliance.