With tax season behind us, I want to thank you for all you do for taxpayers. Tax season is known for long hours and hard work, and the AICPA has also been working hard over the past year to make the season easier by providing tools and other valuable resources, expert guidance and advocating on behalf of tax preparers and taxpayers.
I’d like to highlight some of what has been accomplished.
AICPA's 2024 tax advocacy successes
In 2024, the AICPA Tax Division's Tax Executive Committee (TEC), alongside its committees, technical resource panels (TRPs) and task forces, achieved over 30 tax advocacy successes and produced 46 comments. These efforts had a significant impact on tax policy and legislation.
Key advocacy successes:
Treasury and IRS guidance —Nineteen items of Treasury and IRS guidance followed AICPA recommendations.
IRS National Taxpayer Advocate report —The report included references to, and in agreement, with five AICPA recommendations.
Government Recognition —Officials acknowledged helpful AICPA tax advocacy efforts.
Legislative successes —Three legislative successes included two disaster relief provisions and an extension of the Sec. 174 research-and-experimentation (R&E) expensing provision until 2026. Additionally, three states enacted AICPA-supported legislation.
FinCEN update —The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) provided an update based on AICPA concerns.
Federal legislation impact
The AICPA endorsed 16 bills in the 118th Congress. Among them, the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2023 was enacted on Dec. 12, 2024, as P.L. 118-148, including two AICPA-supported disaster relief provisions. The House also passed the bipartisan Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Relief Act of 2024, which included AICPA-supported provisions for R&E costs expensing until 2026. In the 119ᵗʰ Congress, the AICPA has endorsed H.R. 517, a bipartisan bicameral legislation postponing federal tax deadlines for state-declared disasters, and the Senate Finance Committee bipartisan discussion draft contained 13 provisions that AICPA supports. Two of the AICPA-endorsed provisions from the Senate Finance Committee discussion draft, H.R. 1152, Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act, and H.R. 998, Internal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Help Act, were included in bills marked up and passed by the House Ways and Means Committee in February 2025.
Beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting
On March 21, 2025, FinCEN issued an interim final rule (IFR) that removes the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons to report BOI under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). The rule now defines "reporting company" as an entity formed under foreign law and registered to do business in the U.S. by filing with a secretary of state or similar office. Additionally, entities previously known as "domestic reporting companies" are exempt from BOI reporting requirements. The IFR exempts foreign reporting companies from having to report the BOI of any U.S. persons who are beneficial owners of the foreign reporting company and exempts U.S. persons from having to provide such information to any foreign reporting company for which they are a beneficial owner.
Note that on Feb. 10, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 736, Protect Small Businesses from Excessive Paperwork Act of 2025. The bill was introduced by Rep. Zach Nunn from Iowa, and it would delay FinCEN BOI reporting for one year, until Jan. 1, 2026. The bill unanimously passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 408-0. This supports the AICPA's long-standing position for a significant delay to help small businesses. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration. A companion bill was introduced on Feb. 11, 2025, in the Senate by Tim Scott, R-S.C., the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Both bills affect only reporting companies existing before Jan. 1, 2024. Companies formed after that date are not affected.
Extensive resources and guidance to help CPAs navigate the new reporting requirements are available.
Future goals and legislative proposals
In 2025, as Congress considers expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the AICPA submitted to Congress its key tax legislative priorities and aims to have many endorsed bills reintroduced. To support this, the AICPA provided 61 tax legislative proposals, 14 updated disaster relief proposals and additional items for the Yale Tax Reform Project. In addition, the AICPA provided Congress its 2025 tax legislative compendium of 69 technical, simplification proposals that are non-controversial, and we hope some of these proposals will be included in a possible 2025 tax bill.
The AICPA continues to monitor, advocate for and provide resources on tax reform. The AICPA supported the bipartisan Taxpayer Assistance and Service (TAS) Act, which aimed to reduce burdens on taxpayers and tax preparers. It endorsed several provisions, including the digitization of tax returns, improved taxpayer communication and enhanced electronic access to information.
Disaster relief
The AICPA acknowledges the crucial role CPAs play in the wake of disasters. In the aftermath of such events, CPAs provide invaluable support through disaster preparation assistance, navigating disaster tax relief and guiding recovery efforts with their expertise in forensics and valuation services.
The current system does not provide uniform, permanent and immediate tax relief to those affected by disasters. Learn more about AICPA advocacy on disaster tax relief and view a timeline of disaster tax relief advocacy milestones
Additionally, tax relief for federally declared disasters varies by state, posing challenges for taxpayers — particularly those with multi-state operations. To simplify the complexity, we created a state-by-state State Disaster Tax Relief Guide that outlines state disaster tax relief provisions and which states automatically provide one additional month state disaster relief after federal disaster relief deadlines, helping to ease the burden of navigating diverse state rule.
Discover how the AICPA provides invaluable support during times of crisis by watching testimonial videos from Mindy Rankin, CPA, Tax Partner — Warren Averett. In these short video clips, Mindy shares her experiences helping clients in the wake of Hurricane Michael, offering a valuable primer on how CPAs can contribute to disaster relief and lead recovery efforts
And, as a reminder, the AICPA Benevolent Fund provides short-term assistance to members struggling with hardships due to unemployment, accident affecting personal or family health, medical expense exceeding insurance coverage, natural disaster or the loss of a primary source of income.
Blue J
CPA.com, the business and technology subsidiary of the AICPA, chose Blue J as their preferred partner for tax research. This collaboration leverages Blue J's generative AI-driven tax research platform to provide CPA firms with enhanced tax answers. The partnership aims to empower accounting firms with deeper, more actionable insights through AI, positioning them for success in the digital age.
Circular 230
Treasury and the IRS issued proposed regulations to update the rules for certain tax professionals who can practice before the IRS; these rules are contained in Circular 230. Among the changes, the proposed regulations would eliminate provisions related to registered tax return preparers, classify the use of certain contingent fee arrangements by practitioners as disreputable conduct and incorporate new provisions that better align Circular 230 with the current practice environment such as requiring that practitioners maintain technological competency as part of their practice before the IRS.
The AICPA submitted formal comments and a request to testify to the IRS in response to the proposed regulations. Subsequently, on March 6, 2025, the AICPA provided oral testimony addressing key issues such as rules governing authority to practice, duties and restrictions before the IRS, incompetence or disreputable conduct and appraisers.
Additional resources and guidance
The Tax Section homepage provides an index of over 100 premium resources for Tax Section members, such as the C Corporation Resource Center, the Disaster Relief Resource Center, the Tax season resource center, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and the FTC Safeguards Rule homepage and the State and Local Tax (SALT) Roadmap and Resource Center.
In addition, the Annual Tax Compliance Kit was refreshed for tax year 2024 and was available with a multitude of resources such as engagement letters, organizers, checklists and practice guides that were available for members during tax season, and beyond.
The Reimagining Your Tax Practice series continues with monthly sessions held on the third Wednesday of each month at 3pm ET. This engaging roundtable event provides a platform for the tax community to tackle the complexities of managing a forward-thinking tax practice that is efficient, profitable and agile. Tax Section members can also access previously recorded sessions by logging into their AICPA account, and a chat transcript is available for download.
We also provided outlets for professional learning with the Tax Section Odyssey podcast, Tax Practice Quarterly and Spring Rewind series and the Washington Tax Brief.
It’s hard to believe we are already several months into 2025, but the AICPA has already accomplished a lot and I look forward to the great work the AICPA will continue to accomplish this year.