Highlights of the 1998 Tax Education Symposium.

• Author: Rubin, Jane T.
• Position: AICPA

The 1998 AICPA Tax Education Symposium, titled "Innovations in Tax Education: Educational Technology and Teaching Methods for Today and Tomorrow," was held on June 5--6 in Las Vegas. The University of Nevada at Las Vegas hosted the symposium, allowing it to take advantage of the University's existing technology infrastructure.

This symposium is one of the major commitments the AICPA has made toward the development of tomorrow's accountants. A major effort has been made to keep the symposiums registration and housing fees within reach of academic budgets, and to make the meeting relevant to academic accountants. The success of this year's symposium reflected these efforts.

One hundred and forty participants from 41 states and the District of Columbia attended the symposium. (This was one of the highest participation levels in the biannual meeting's history.) Most of the participants were academic accountants, but a significant number of practicing accountants were also present. Some of these practitioners observed that it was unfortunate that more of them were not present, stating that their peers could have benefited in at least two ways, by (1) learning about technology that is useful in practice and (2) gaining insight into what they can reasonably expect their new hires to know.

The symposium commenced with the co-chairs of the planning committee, Michele Miller of Arthur Andersen and Dick Weber of Michigan State University, welcoming the participants. This was followed by a presentation by Michael Mares (Witt, Mares & Company), the chair of the AICPA Tax Division's Executive Committee, entitled, "2001: A Tax Odyssey," dealing with the future market for CPA services. Mr. Mares noted that the revenues from traditional services will decline while those from new services will grow, emphasizing that CPAs who evolve with the market will prosper, while those who do not will be left behind, and that accreditation of specialties in accounting will be necessary to meet market needs. Technology is a force to be mastered, because it will allow CPAs to more efficiently provide services in new ways and expand their service repertoire. Developing and marketing these new services is key to accountants' future success. The skills needed in the future are broader than those needed for past success. Quantitative skills and a reputation for honesty and impartiality will continue as assets, but tomorrow's CPAs will have to develop an ability (and even an...