CPA letter, 1999

              American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants
AICPA
Highlights
2
Advertising Campaign Directed to Minority High School/College Students Begins
3
National Accreditation Commission Starts Work on Specialty Designations
4
Statement of Position No. 98-9 Issued
5
CPAs Encouraged to Be Tax Season Volunteers for Low-Income Earners
6
AICPA and BAI Partner to Offer Conference on FASB Statement on Derivatives
7
Department of Labor Issues Final Rule Enforcing GAAP for Multi-employer Health and Welfare Benefit Plans
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AICPA Identifies Top 10 Technology Issues of
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AICPA Releases Study on Social Security at Press Conference in D.C.
At a press conference at the National Press Club in the nation’s capital, the AICPA released a comprehensive, non-partisan analysis of the major options to reform Social Security in an effort to aid leg­islators in what is expected to be a complex and contentious debate in the 106th Congress.
The AICPA strongly urges policy­makers and the public to have a clear understanding of the issues before Congress takes a position on the ‘right’ solution for Social Security reform. Some of the facts highlighted in the study, Understanding Social Security: The Issues and Alternatives, include:
• Social Security keeps the majority of Americans over 65 out of poverty. In fact, for 40% of America’s elderly, Social Security accounts for more than 75% of total income at retirement.
• About 90% of current retirees receive only $750 per month, on average, from Social Security, and future retirees will likely receive even less.
news update
• Serious pockets of poverty still exist for the elderly, and therefore, there is a corre­sponding reliance on Social Security income. Older women are twice as likely as
men to be in poverty, and for both African Americans and Hispanic Americans, the elderly poverty rates hover at approximately 25%—about two and a half times larger than that for white Americans.
• The number of workers to every 1 benefi­ciary continues to decline. In 1960, the worker-to-beneficiary ratio was 8.6 to 1; cur­rently it is 3.3 to 1 and is projected to be 2.2 to 1 in 2025.
Among the major issues examined in the study are the current financial condition of Social Security, Social Security and poverty in America, Social Security and individual fairness (in terms of benefits and invest­ments), Social Security and the national economy, Social Security and the stock mar­ket, and options for reform. The study takes an in-depth look at six major reform options.
continued on page 7
AICPA Migrates from Software Development, Acquires PPC’s Seminar Business
After careful evaluation, the AICPA has decided to leave the software development business after 10 years. Rapid changes in technology, coupled with the AICPA’s resource constraints in software develop­ment, had necessitated an intensive evalua­tion of how to best meet the needs of its software customers. The outcome was that the Institute should sell its ATB and Depreciation software product lines to a quality software development company that can better serve users’ needs.
Creative Solutions, part of the Research Institute of America Group, has purchased the AICPA’s ATB and Depreciation soft­ware product lines. The company has been
providing fully integrated software solu­tions to accountants since 1979 and offers top-quality software programs and service. Under the arrangement, the AICPA will continue to market ATB for Windows to members.
Current owners of AICPA ATB and Depreciation software products were mailed a letter with details on the transition and the changes planned for these products (e.g., year 2000 compliance).
As part of the same deal, the AICPA acquired the Seminar Business series of pro­fessional education courses from Practitioners Publishing Company, a division continued on page 4
January 1999 Vol. 79 No. 1 A News Report to Members
The
CPA Letter