COVID-19 news and information for CPAs

TOPICS

June 24, 2020

Amid uncertainty, financial planning clients stick with long-term plans

On average, only 30% of CPA financial planners’ clients have made changes to their financial plans due to the pandemic, according to the latest AICPA Personal Financial Planning Trends survey.

June 23, 2020

SEC staff guidance addresses pandemic-related disclosures

Public companies need to carefully consider their obligations in disclosing the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on their operations, liquidity, and capital resources, according to staff guidance issued by the SEC Division of Corporation Finance.

June 23, 2020

PPP recipients can apply early for loan forgiveness, SBA says

New Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) guidance declares that PPP recipients can apply for loan forgiveness early but that doing so could cost them money.

June 23, 2020

Rollover relief for required minimum distributions

The IRS provides relief for taxpayers who had already taken required minimum distributions (RMDs) in 2020 before the CARES Act suspended the RMD requirement for 2020 in response to the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on taxpayers and the stock market.

June 22, 2020

FASB Q&As address application of taxonomy to pandemic disclosures

FASB staff issued Q&As designed to clarify the application of the US GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy to disclosures related to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and relief efforts.

June 20, 2020

SBA, Treasury to publish names of some PPP loan recipients

The SBA and Treasury announced an agreement with the bipartisan leaders of the Senate Small Business Committee to publish the names and amount ranges for all recipients of Paycheck Protection Program loans of $150,000 or more.

June 19, 2020

SBA launches tool to match underserved borrowers with PPP lenders

The SBA, citing the impending June 30 deadline for Paycheck Protection Program applications, said that it has restarted an online referral program to match small businesses and not-for-profits with a select group of specialized and small lenders.

June 19, 2020

Heading off Paycheck Protection Program fraud

Accountants can play a role in making sure the money set aside to help small business goes to the right places.

June 19, 2020

Guidance on how to take CARES Act distributions from qualified plans

The IRS released guidance on how taxpayers can take coronavirus-related distributions from qualified retirement plans as authorized by the CARES Act.

June 17, 2020

17 strategic questions to answer before reopening

Firms must consider strategic as well as practical issues as they reopen. These questions can help you think through some of these issues and point you toward ways to preserve positive changes made during the lockdowns.

FROM THIS MONTH'S ISSUE

Build reusable Skills in Anthropic’s Claude AI

Instead of rewriting prompts each time, CPAs can turn routine tasks into reusable AI Skills. This Technology Q&A walks through how to build Claude Skills that process files, ask setup questions, and export clean Excel outputs.