(UPDATE) Connecticut Accountant Denies That ‘Paperwork’ Is Code for ‘One Pound of Pot’

Posted on by Caleb Newquist
UPDATE: The Fairfield Citizen post now reports that the charges against Mr. Rosenberg have been dropped. 

The Fairfield Citizen reports that Stuart Rosenberg, 63, got a surprise package back in May:

According to police, a package was sent by overnight priority mail to Rosenberg's office from Oregon. However, Rosenberg was away and instructed an employee to open the package. Inside there was a small, sealed box addressed to Rosenberg containing the marijuana, at which point the police were contacted, according to the report. When he returned to Connecticut, Rosenberg came to Fairfield police headquarters with his lawyer and allegedly told police the package was supposed to contain paperwork. He denied knowing there was marijuana in the package.
Regardless, Mr. Rosenberg has been charged with possession and intent to distribute. We'll withhold judgment on Mr. Rosenberg for now but it bears repeating – selling drugs, whether you're a seasonal or year-round accountant – is not a good option.

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The National Society of Accountants Has a Bone to Pick with the AICPA

A couple weeks back the AICPA gave its members the go-ahead to Crtl+C, Crtl+V its letter to the IRS about how certain parts of the proposed tax preparer regulations were a load of crap.

We just assumed that everyone in the accounting biz was on the same page here but boy we’re we wrong. The National Society of Accountants sent this letter to Treasury honcho Geithner stating that they don’t want any tax preparers exempted from obtaining a PTIN (among other complaints):

NSA Letter Regarding CPA Firm Exemption


What’s especially interesting is that the AICPA is not named in this letter once, however they are named specifically in the NSA’s press release:

Now, at the 11th hour, just before the registration process is scheduled to begin, some – including the American Institute of CPAs – are demanding that staff members of ‘CPA firms’ be exempted from the registration requirements. This flies in the face of why this registration program was set up. The point of the new regulations is to ensure that all tax preparers are accountable for their work in preparing returns, and that should include anyone who paid to prepare all or substantially all of a return, no matter where they may work.

The basic tenet here is that big firms will get away with letting the underlings preparing the returns not be held accountable for their (apparently) shoddy work. The NSA’s position is that if every single legit tax professional is registered then they can track down the shitty ones and the IRS can act accordingly. The NSA claims that the “loophole” proposed by the AICPA will let these amateurs skate the testing and registration requirements and thus won’t be serving taxpayers one iota.

On the one hand you might have been totally against the tax preparer regulations from the start but now that they’re unavoidable, the AICPA’s request for exemptions in some cases may burn the unlucky bunch that wouldn’t get to enjoy waiver.

What’s the Future of the CPA Brand?

Brand is one of those business concepts that everyone knows about but few understand. When people talk about the Apple BRAND every murmurs approvement and nods as if to say, “That’s a strong brand!” but they’d have a hard time explaining why.