For the past year, Spoor Bunch Franz partner W.G. Spoor has served as chair of the FICPA, the Florida Institute of CPAs. As his tenure comes to a close this month, it’s a good time to reflect on the organization’s hard work and positive impact over the past year.
The FICPA is the premier membership organization in the state for CPAs. The FICPA protects and develops the CPA license throughout the state and throughout the country (as a partner with AICPA). They look out for all CPAs, including those in nonprofit, education, public accounting, industry, and even those who are retired.
Two areas where the FICPA provides value to members are education and legislation. The FICPA helps members meet continuing education requirements for the CPA license by providing trainings and conferences, seminars, and training discounts. The FICPA also has a government relations arm, advising legislators and CPAs on state bills that may impact the profession.
Over the past year, as the federal and state government made major decisions affecting businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, the FICPA answered its members’ questions, assisted legislators on crafting legislation that would help businesses, and lobbied for necessary changes. “The FICPA team was able to get on the phone with Sen. Rubio and Sen. Scott to answer our questions related to what CPAs were seeing on the ground with clients,” Spoor said.
When the federal government decided that Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans wouldn’t be taxed, for example, the FICPA immediately went to work on determining whether they would be taxed by the state of Florida. “Getting information out there on the relief programs, the PPP and the employee retention credit was a big undertaking,” Spoor said. “Every time there was a package passed there were more questions than answers. The FICPA’s legislative affairs team was able to find out what questions CPAs were asking about how the laws work in actual practice and get answers to them quickly.”
During Spoor’s tenure as the FICPA chair, the organization also completed a search for a new President and CEO. Shelly Weir took office in April 2021. “That was one of our biggest accomplishments, finding and hiring the next CEO,” Spoor said. “That was a big part of what we did this year – find and hire the right person to lead us into the future.”
The FICPA also successfully lobbied for Senate Bill 616, which expands CPE reciprocity, provides specific guidelines for Florida Ethics courses, and prevents any unintended application of licensure-by-endorsement process, as well as a sales tax bill that would lower commercial rent tax once Florida’s pandemic-depleted unemployment fund (which the tax covers) stabilizes.