Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Pre-Conference Workshop

Main Conference Begins

Thursday, December 04, 2008

7:45 AM - 8:45 AM

Registration & Breakfast

8:45 AM - 9:00 AM

Chair's Opening Comments

Sidney Kess, Esq., CPA, JD, LLM

9:00 AM - 10:30 AM

Cutting-Edge Technology for Optimal Practice Productivity (PART I)

We've brought back Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP to share the digital edge of technology within today's CPA firm. Roman will discuss:

• Today's workstation setup, operating systems and key tax production, research, projection and depreciation applications
• Transitioning your firm to a "less paper" environment including best practices in scanning, workflow and client file transfer
• Optimizing your back office processes for billing, collection and firm reporting
• Providing remote access to your tax people from any place and any time, and making sure your data is secured
• Key considerations in business continuity and turning your firm into a learning organization

Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP

President

Infotech Partners North America, Inc.

10:30 AM - 11:00 AM

Refreshment Break

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Cutting-Edge Technology continued with Roman... (PART II)

Continuation of session described above.

Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP

President

Infotech Partners North America, Inc.

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM

Lunch

1:30 PM - 3:00 PM

Estate and Gift Tax Planning for the Closely-Held Business

Estate and gift tax wealth shifting and preservation techniques should be an important companion to the usual income tax planning for the closely-held business, whether a corporation, partnership or LLC. Estate and gift tax savings can be realized only on a multi-generational basis with equity structuring, compensation planning, opportunity shifting to new entities, and effective uses of buy-sell agreements(IRC Sec. 2703), stock redemptions(IRC Secs. 301, 302, and 303), installment sales and proper use of "valuation discounts" in intra-family transactions. In many situations, technology software products can be a key to success, including communication with clients. The uncertain future of the Federal estate tax mandates review now of all closely-held business planning

Owen G. Fiore, JD.

Consultant

Fiore Wealth Planning Consulting

Mary Kay Foss

Director

GREENSTEIN, ROGOFF, OLSEN & CO., LLP

3:00 PM - 3:30 PM

Refreshment Break

3:30 PM - 4:15 PM

Optimizing the Efficiency of a Paperless Tax Process

Moving towards a paperless tax process can streamline the preparation and review of returns. This session will discuss some of the technology and process changes required to maximize the benefits from such a transition.

David Wyle

President and CEO

SurePrep

4:15 PM - 5:15 PM

Vendor Panel: What you Can't Live Without for a Successful Tax Season

Moderator:

Mark Plostock

President

IT Dept.

Panelists:

A. David Bergstein

Business Development Manager

CCH Incorporated

Glen Keenan, CPA

President

XCM Solutions, LLC

Additional panelists to be announced

5:15 PM - 6:00 PM

Back Again! Meet the Editor & Conference Chair

Discussion on staffing and other current issues

Panelists:

Howard Wolosky

PRACTICAL ACCOUNTANT

Sidney Kess, Esq., CPA, JD, LLM

6:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Cocktail Reception in the Exhibit Area

7:30 PM - 9:30 PM

Dinner With Sidney Kess

A limited number of seats are available for the opportunity to meet one-on-one with Conference Chairman, Sidney Kess. Join Mr. Kess and selected members of our speaker faculty for an exclusive dinner Q&A session. This is your opportunity to pick the brains of some of the most accomplished and knowledgeable authorities in the tax field.

Sidney Kess, Esq., CPA, JD, LLM, was included in Accounting Today's "100 Most Influential CPAs in the U.S." for several years, is a nationally renowned tax expert and author/coauthor of hundreds of tax books on financial and estate planning.

Sponsored By

Friday, December 05, 2008

7:00 AM - 8:00 AM

Breakfast

8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

Practitioner Penalties & Sanctions

Become a "prepared preparer" by learning how recently released preparer regulations apply to you! Are you prepared for the new world of sanctions? Congress believes the IRS should collect $80 million in penalties from "return preparers" over the next ten years! Selected discussion topics include:

• Preparer penalties - IRC § 6694 and Cir 230 revisions
• Avoid unauthorized disclosures Under IRC §7216
• IRS Office of Professional Responsibility - sanctions and relief
• Preparers, non-signing preparer vs. advisors
• Reporting to state licensing authorities
• Procedures for abatement

Charles Rettig, Esq.

Partner

Hochman, Salkin, Rettig, Tosher & Perez, P.C.

9:00 AM - 10:30 AM

S Corp Update

Kristin Hill

Director

Deloitte Tax LLP

10:30 AM - 10:45 AM

Refreshment Break

10:45 AM - 12:00 PM

Making Additional Revenue off Tax Preparation

Moderator:

Howard Wolosky

PRACTICAL ACCOUNTANT

Panelists:

Ron Antal, CPA, MST

Managing Director

Research Credit Group, Inc.

Lynne Mabry, CPA/PFS, CFP

Executive Vice President

1st Global

Alan J. Smith

Senior Cost Segregation Manager

Ernst & Morris

12:00 PM

Conference Adjourns