Turning member insights into policy
From IRS notices to AI attestation, AICPA advocacy relies on member experience to push for practical policy solutions that serve CPAs, taxpayers, and businesses.
Editor’s note: This recurring column looks at the AICPA’s advocacy on behalf of members and the profession. The author is executive vice president–Advocacy for the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, representing AICPA and CIMA.
Effective advocacy is grounded in persistence, credibility, and the ability to build strong relationships with policymakers. The AICPA’s Federal Advocacy and Political Affairs, Tax Policy and Advocacy, and State Advocacy and State Society Relations teams engage daily with volunteers, stakeholders, and government officials to advance policies that reflect the needs of our members and the accounting profession.
Advocacy efforts involving tax policy, regulatory oversight, small business support, economic policy, and workforce and education policy ensure that the profession’s expertise informs policy decisions at every level. Let’s look at some recent examples.
IMPROVING TAXPAYER SERVICE THROUGH CP53E ADVOCACY
This advocacy success illustrated how focused engagement can deliver meaningful improvements for both taxpayers and practitioners.
Taxpayers receiving IRS CP53E notices faced significant confusion and delays. These notices are issued when a taxpayer’s direct deposit refund cannot be processed and the IRS mails a paper check instead. Often, taxpayers received these automatically generated notices for minor issues or small amounts they did not anticipate, leading to uncertainty about their refund status and extended resolution times.
In response to extensive member feedback, the AICPA engaged directly with IRS leadership to address the challenges associated with the CP53E notice and its administration. Through ongoing discussions and recommendations, the AICPA encouraged improvements that would provide taxpayers with clearer information and a more efficient path toward receiving their refunds.
The effort underscores a core advocacy principle: Even narrow administrative issues can have significant consequences for taxpayers. By elevating practitioner experiences and identifying practical solutions, the AICPA helps improve interactions between taxpayers and the IRS and reduces unnecessary burdens on tax professionals.
PROMOTING A ROLE FOR CPAs IN AI ASSURANCE
One of the priorities of the Federal Advocacy and Political Affairs team is to raise awareness that CPAs are key players in artificial intelligence (AI) attestation and governance.
CPAs follow professional standards and ethics that aim to instill trust in the results of assurance engagements. CPAs have decades of experience bringing trust and confidence to IT systems and information used for decision-making. In the AI space, CPAs perform a variety of independent advisory and assurance engagements that address AI governance, security, safety, and reliability.
(See “A New Frontier: CPAs as AI System Evaluators,” JofA, Nov. 1, 2025.)
This is an emerging area, along with AI governance, that could result in a potentially significant new service area for the profession.
ADVANCING TAXPAYER RIGHTS: THE TAS ACT AND SAFE ACT
Improving tax administration remains a central advocacy priority. Two key legislative proposals illustrate the profession’s ongoing commitment to taxpayer rights and fairness.
The Taxpayer Assistance and Service (TAS) Act would strengthen taxpayer protections and improve IRS accountability by addressing persistent administrative challenges taxpayers and practitioners face. The legislation includes provisions designed to enhance transparency, improve dispute resolution processes, strengthen the role of the national taxpayer advocate, and establish minimum professional standards for tax return preparers.
Similarly, the Simplify Automatic Filing Extensions (SAFE) Act seeks to give taxpayers greater certainty by establishing a common-sense safe harbor for individual tax filing extensions. The proposal would help reduce inadvertent penalties and recognize the practical realities taxpayers and preparers face when meeting filing obligations.
The AICPA supports both measures because they align with core tax administration principles of fairness, efficiency, transparency, and taxpayer service.
HOW AICPA ADVOCACY WORKS
The advocacy process begins by identifying critical and emerging issues that impact practitioners, businesses, and taxpayers. This relies on the expertise of staff, insights from members and subject matter experts, and collaboration with partners such as state CPA societies.
Once issues are identified, AICPA volunteer members contribute their expertise to develop technical recommendations for regulatory matters. Federal Advocacy staff engage lawmakers and congressional staff on legislative priorities, ensuring that the profession’s perspective is represented in policy discussions. Additionally, the organization advances these priorities through meetings, comment letters, coalition efforts, congressional testimony, grassroots support, and direct outreach to federal agencies.
The behind-the-scenes work of these teams increases awareness and understanding among lawmakers, regulators, and government officials and drives the development of practical policy solutions.
Many of the profession’s most effective advocacy initiatives begin at the state level, where the AICPA and state CPA societies collaborate to address issues affecting practitioners and the future of the profession.
State societies across the country advance legislation and regulatory changes that support CPA mobility; protect licensure; strengthen the accounting workforce and talent development; and uphold high professional standards. They also play a critical role in educating state lawmakers on complex tax, business, and regulatory issues that impact constituents and local economies.
