Advocacy

Tax reform on the docket for special session

The Virginia General Assembly’s regular session wrapped up in February with two major items left unresolved — the Commonwealth’s budget and tax reform. The former was being dealt with in a special session when this issue went to press. The latter is headed for a similar fate.

While the budget session is a big deal — and included movement on the much-discussed Medicaid expansion, which passed the Senate on May 30 — we’ll be focused more on the tax reform special session, which likely will convene this fall. Here’s what the General Assembly will be discussing — and where the VSCPA, and you, can make a difference.

WHERE THINGS STAND

To recap the tax reform issue, President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law last December. (We’ve got an overview of the changes at vscpa.com/TaxReformNews.) Virginia has dealt with certain aspects of the bill, as well as extenders passed with the federal budget in February, that impacted returns from 2017 and earlier, but that still leaves a host of federal changes that take effect for this year.

The VSCPA Tax Advisory Committee is currently analyzing those changes with the intent of offering comments to Secretary of Finance (and VSCPA member) Aubrey Layne, CPA, this summer. We’re also looking for any feedback from our member tax practitioners through a couple of different venues.

The VSCPA’s 2018 Professional Issues Updates were held in June across the state, and Society leadership solicited feedback from members at those events to assist the committee with its work. We’ll also be posting a survey on our tax reform resource center

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(vscpa.com/TaxReform) to capture member feedback on potential changes. The questions in that survey will be:

• What was the biggest issue you experienced related to federal tax reform during this past tax season?

• What issue do you think will most affect 2018 returns?

• How can the VSCPA best help practitioners with tax reform?

MORE TAX ISSUES

Unrelated to federal tax reform, the Tax Advisory Committee also expects state and local tax reform efforts to be a focus under Gov. Ralph Northam. Several proposals are under consideration, including the expansion of sales tax on services, including professional services. That issue was the subject of two 2018 bills (HB 966 and SB 390), which were sent to the Joint Subcommittee on Tax Preferences for further study, along with HB 1444, which would have allowed taxpayers to take the standard deduction on federal returns and still itemize deductions on Virginia returns. The Tax Advisory Committee is also seeking input on those issues.

MOBILE WORKFORCE UPDATE

In federal advocacy news, the VSCPA and the rest of the CPA community continues to push Congress to move forward on the Mobile Workforce State Income Tax Simplification Act. While the bill has support in both houses of Congress, it is unlikely to be considered as a standalone bill in the Senate, meaning it may need to be attached to a larger bill.

The Mobile Workforce Act would create a uniform national standard so that employee earnings would not be subject to state income tax and withholding outside their home state unless the employee worked in another specific state for more than 30 days during the calendar year. The VSCPA sent a letter to Virginia’s congressmen and senators in support of the bill in March. n

VIRGINIA BOARD OF ACCOUNTANCY UPDATES

On the Virginia Board of Accountancy (VBOA), Gov. Ralph Northam has appointed VSCPA member Barclay Bradshaw, CPA (above left), to a second four-year term. Bradshaw, a principal at Harris, Hardy & Johnstone in Richmond, initially joined the VBOA in 2011 and served through 2015 before cycling off the board. During his first term, he worked with another VSCPA member, the late Steve Holton, CPA, to create a guide for CPAs who volunteer with nonprofit organizations and helped modernize the VBOA’s communications to licensees.

Bradshaw replaces another VSCPA member, Andrea Kilmer, CPA (above middle), who is wrapping up her second term on the board. In addition, VSCPA member Susan Ferguson, CPA (above right), an accounting professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, takes over as VBOA chair July 1, replacing 2017–2018 chair Matthew Bosher, the board’s public representative.

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The VSCPA is months away from launching a new website! Go in-depth on the new features, including an upcoming new online grassroots advocacy system, in the September/October issue of Disclosures.