Profession's voice: CPA day attendees grow in number for 2017.

• Author: Fox, Jason
• Position: Capitol Beat

The largest gathering of CPAs in recent years made its way to Sacramento in January to attend CalCPA's CPA Day at the Capitol More than 260 CPAs stepped up to represent their profession at the capitol, meet their effect representatives and discuss issues that affect CPAs, businesses and taxpayers in California. These dedicated CalCPA members demonstrated their commitment to being leaders within the CPA profession by becoming active participants in the public policy process.

Tax on Services

For the last two years, legislation has been introduced to enact a sales tax on services--including those provided by CPAs. While legislative proposals neither gained traction nor articulated bow such a Complex shin in the tax burden would be accomplished, the introduction of legislation keeps the conversation continuing within the public policy arena. CalCPA has been active in communicating to legislators the significant concerns with this proposal. This issue may again emerge in 2017. The grassroots efforts of CalCPA members will continue to be instrumental in malting sure that CPAs arc not unfairly treated or harmed should a tax on services proposal take a more substantive form.

California Business Climate

In recent years there have been a number of legislative and regulatory proposals that have, or would have, significantly impacted the California business climate. Each time one of these policies is considered in Sacramento, businesses across the state must adjust accordingly, which can make starting and maintaining a successful small business more challenging.

Being at the heart of many business decisions for their clients, CPA's have a unique perspective within the business community. This makes the CPA profession an ideal voice to provide a real-world perspective on how tax and labor law changes impact the business environment in California, both positively and negatively. Legislators and policy leaders in Sacramento need to hear from leaden within the business community about what they are seeing and (hat California CPAs arc ready, will ins And able to help businesses address the challenges they face, understand their options and achieve financial security.

Financial Literacy Efforts

CalCPA continues to discuss the success of its financial literacy program with legislators and offers to partner with them to host events and plan community outreach efforts in their districts. These efforts will be particularly important with the number of new...