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Americans for the Arts survey highlights jobs created, money spent; economic development leaders say value extends beyond the numbers.

The SEC recently adopted a series of rules and amendments aimed at strengthening transparency around securities in the capital market.

The new term highlights the friction between the return-to-office push and flexible work schedules.

The Internal Revenue Service announced tax relief for individuals and businesses affected by the terrorist attacks in the State of Israel. These taxpayers now have until Oct. 7, 2024, to file various federal returns, make tax payments and perform other time-sensitive tax-related actions. In Notice 2023-71PDF, the IRS provided relief to certain taxpayers who, due to the terrorist attacks, may be unable to meet a tax-filing or tax-payment obligation, or may be unable to perform other time-sensitive tax-related actions. The IRS will continue to monitor events and may provide additional relief.

Mfon Akpan, CGMA, DBA, an assistant professor of accounting at Methodist University, and Scott Dell, CPA, DBA, an assistant professor of accounting at Francis Marion University, explain why CPAs and other professionals can be left behind professionally if they don't spend time learning about tools such as ChatGPT. They talk about productivity gains, the competitive divide that could develop, and how, in the short term, more training is needed to fully harness generative AI.

The number of students earning U.S. postsecondary accounting degrees fell sharply in the 2021-22 academic year, according to a biennial American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) report on trends related to accounting graduation rates, the CPA Exam and hiring demand by accounting firms. Some 47,067 students earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting in the 2021-22 school year, down 7.8% from the previous year, according to 2023 Trends: A Report on Accounting Education, the CPA Exam and Public Accounting Firms’ Hiring of Recent Graduates. The number of students who earned a master’s degree in accounting, meanwhile, fell 6.4% to 18,238. In the previous Trends report, the comparative rates of decline were 2.8% and 8.4%, respectively.

David Goldfarb has been a volunteer at Saint Francis Hospital, part of Trinity Health of New England, for more than ten years. David is one of the hospital’s volunteer patient care representatives, visiting with patients on a cardiac unit. He seeks to ensure patients are satisfied with the care they are receiving during their stay at Saint Francis. “I want to make sure that the patients I visit are having as good a day as possible,” said David. “During the early times of the pandemic, when volunteers were not allowed in the hospital, I missed this work so much and I was so happy when I was finally able to return. I like meeting the patients. If I can make a patient feel a little better, it makes me feel good.”

Mark Boughton, commissioner of the state Department of Revenue Services, described a new effort to formulate CT's first-ever long-term tax strategy recently at a forum in Hartford sponsored by the Yankee Institute.

Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Wednesday that would extend the deadline for companies created or registered in 2024 to file their first beneficial ownership information (BOI) reports. The NPRM (RIN 1506-AB62) would provide 90 days for those companies to file initial reports rather than the original deadline of 30 days from the earlier of the date on which the company receives actual notice that its creation or registration has become effective or the date on which the secretary of state first provides public notice that the company has been created or registered.

The Internal Revenue Service is reducing the annual cost of a Preparer Tax Identification Number after a court ruled that the charge was too high.

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Connecticut District Office facilitated $362.2 million in lending to the state’s small businesses over the last 12 months, an 18.5% increase over the previous year. SBA’s recently completed fiscal year ran from October 2022 to September 2023. During that time, the Connecticut office oversaw 834 traditional loans, a 12.7% increase from a year earlier, according to newly released federal data.

Cybercriminals love to exploit a crisis – and unfortunately during a time of turmoil like we’ve seen in recent years, data incidents are more prevalent now than ever before. Infiltration can happen anywhere and with an even greater frequency considering the dependence on technology by industries worldwide.

Efforts to grow and diversify the pipeline of accounting talent have been buoyed by the introduction of legislation that would add accounting to grades K–12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education programs, better known as STEM.

The platform plans to add AI to help recruiters, sales professionals’ searching for prospects, and those conducting B2B marketing campaigns.

There is a need for more accountants in the accountancy sector, as the number of applications dropped by 36% between 2021 and 2022. There are fears that this decline could undermine the strength and stability of the accounting industry, as some firms have reportedly been forced to turn away work due to a lack of skilled employees.

Allocations toward employee well-being are crucial as it is directly connected to productivity, engagement, and retention.

The PCAOB adopted a new standard relating to the auditor's requirements for the use of confirmation. Effective for financial statement audits for fiscal years ending on or after June 15, 2025, the standard will replace a 1991 AICPA standard adopted by the PCAOB on an interim basis shortly after the board's formation in 2003. The PCAOB first formally considered updating the standard in 2009.

More than 24,000 employees of Prospect Medical Holdings in Connecticut may have had some of their personal information, including Social Security numbers, exposed during the recent cyberattack that paralyzed many operations in three hospitals for nearly six weeks.

The August cyberattack was far more debilitating than hospital officials publicly acknowledged. Now, it threatens a sale of the hospitals to Yale.

Practitioners preparing for the new AICPA quality management (QM) standards now have access to a practice aid designed to help their cause. The free practice aid, Establishing and Maintaining a System of Quality Management for a CPA Firm's Accounting and Auditing Practice, is available in versions for sole practitioners and for small- and medium-sized firms.