AICPA Tax Division annual CD.

• Author: Holub, Steven F.

Each year, members of the AICPA Tax Division's Member Tax Practice Improvement Committee help compile information for a CD-ROM (CD) that contains a wide variety of useful information for tax practitioners. The CD can be a quick resource for numerous items tax advisers use in managing their practices. Many practitioners--even those who may use the CD regularly to obtain copies of checklists, organizers, etc.--are likely not familiar with the array of information it contains.

Background

The CD began several years ago as an additional way to distribute the annual Tax Practice Guides and Checklists. However, over the years, the CD has evolved to include other items. For 2003, the CD is divided into three main sections: Checklists and Practice Guides, The Tax Adviser Archives and Other Tax Section Materials.

Checklists and Practice Guides: This section contains organizers that can be printed for use in preparing different types of returns, including those for estate tax, gift tax, tax-exempt organizations, individuals, fiduciaries, partnerships, corporations and qualified retirement plans. The organizers can be given to clients to guide them in gathering needed information to complete a return. These organizers are available in both Adobe Acrobat[TM] and Word[TM] formats; the latter allows for customizing the organizers and/or emailing them directly to a client.

Several samples of practice management forms are available on the CD, such as a new client welcome letter, tax permanent-file contents, engagement letters, carryforward schedules, transmittal letters and filing instructions. These are also available in both Adobe Acrobat[TM] and Word[TM] formats.

This section also includes tax form preparation guides, on topics such as employee use of company vehicles, comparison of business entities, generation-skipping transfer tax, S corporation shareholder basis schedule, passive activity checklist and Sec. 704(b) practice guide. These guides contain worksheets, checklists, tables and other important information.

The last segment in this section contains preparation and review checklists. Tax advisers can customize items on these checklists to meet their specific practice needs. The checklists are easy to edit and customize when opened in Word[TM] format. There are checklists for a variety of returns, including estate tax, gift tax, exempt organizations, individual, fiduciary, partnership, S and C corporations and employee benefit plans.

There are...