Usually whenever any political body starts tinkering with taxes it is another Right To Work act for accountants. Virtually every “tax simplification” or “tax reduction” act that comes along only serves to make compliance more difficult for the taxpaying public.
Given that tax accountants are arguably the only constituency that will always benefit from any change in the tax structure, it is interesting to note two recent events in the California State Capitol. First, AB 1963 was introduced which will extend the state sales tax to most services effective Jan 1, 2013. This bill has some special interest exceptions (of course) and lowers the overall rate to 4%, but would apply to sales of just about any services or goods as opposed to the current framework of only sales of tangible personal property.
Second, the California CPA Society has come out against this bill. Never mind the huge list of potential new clients who never had to file sales tax returns before, or the expanded list of taxable transactions for existing clients all of which will need to have help complying with the law. CalCPA opposes it.
It’s no wonder why the CPA profession is held in such high regard compared to most others.