Kistler named educator of the year by Massachusetts Society of CPAs

              to use their personal exclusions at the trust
level without generally imposing complex
attribution or record keeping costs. To
preclude the creation of multiple trusts
which could seek to use the exclusion pro­visions
to escape all taxation, the exclu­sions
should not be made available to
trusts. Undistributed income would con­tinue
to be attributable to the trust and
reported by it as income on its fiduciary
income tax return.
Finally, the taxation of bequests would
create liquidity problems and these should
be addressed in any integration proposal.
Benefits to alleviate liquidity problems
should be made available based on need,
not on the form of property received as
is the current case under I.R.C. Section
2032A. Our plan would call for a forward-averaging
provision so as to smooth out
the tax impact of a one-time only large
bequest.
Conclusion
The present dual individual federal tax
structure has long proven itself to be
neither fair, understandable, nor efficient.
The current season of fundamental tax
reform, started with the Tax Reform Act
of 1986, now provides our government
with a unique window of opportunity to
turn away from patch-work repairs of the
wealth transfer tax structure and toward
a reunification of the historically-based
common bonds between income and
wealth transfer taxation. Recent history
has shown that Congress is not only
capable but willing to undertake "radical"
changes in the Internal Revenue Code for
the sake of better tax policy. Just three
years ago, who would have guessed that
capital gains would be repealed or that tax
benefits for homeowners would be curtail­ed.
Perhaps the time is right for going
back to basics and reuniting the mutual
policy goals of the original income and
estate taxes. TRA '86 began the process of
returning to both economically and pro­cedurally
sound tax policy. The time is
ripe for Congress to finish the job. The
worthwhile goals of the original wealth
transfer tax structure should now be ac­complished
through the income tax.
KISTLER NAMED EDUCATOR OF
THE YEAR BY MASSACHUSETTS
SOCIETY OF CPAs
The Massachusetts Society of Certified
Public Accountants, Inc. and the
American Institute of Certified Public Ac­countants
named Linda H. Kistler, CPA,
educator of the year in Massachusetts. This
award is given for an educator's significant
teaching contributions to accounting
education and for contributing to the pro­fession
through professional activities. The
Massachusetts Society honored Ms. Kistler
at its annual Recognition Banquet in
October.
Currently serving as Dean of the
University of Lowell's College of Manage­ment
Science for 1988-89, Ms. Kistler has
served as full professor there since 1974.
Ms. Kistler is an active member of the
MSCPA, AICPA, American Accounting
Association, Academy of Accounting
Historians and American Woman's Socie­ty
of CPAs. She served on the MSCPA
Board of Directors from 1982-84 and
1979-81 and was the Society's first female
director and second female officer.
A proficient writer, Ms. Kistler has co-authored
three books and authored near­ly
70 articles, consulting reports and
research monographs since 1966. She has
served extensively in university, college
and department committees, and has at­tained
a national reputation in financial
accounting, professional examinations, ac­counting
history and microcomputer
applications.
36 The Accounting Historians Notebook, Spring, 1989