Dispatches from the MNCPA Tax Conference 2023
| December 2023/January 2024 Footnote
November brings with it the beginning of the holiday season, the first hint of cold weather in Minnesota, the emergence of holiday-flavored coffee drinks — and the MNCPA Tax Conference! From Nov. 13-15, nearly 1000 attended the nationally recognized, premier event for CPAs, tax advisers, accounting firm tax teams and corporate tax experts. The first two days of the hybrid conference were in person at the Minneapolis Convention Center, giving attendees the chance to meet face-to-face, as well as speak with exhibitors, participate in a scavenger hunt to win prizes and to mingle at happy hour. Day three of the conference was entirely virtual.
With more than 40 sessions covering a wide array of tax topics from state and local tax, technology, auditing, federal tax updates and more, there was something for everyone at every stage of their career. This year the MNCPA included a new Young Professional’s track, which tailored sessions towards those in the early phase of their careers.
The following is a brief rundown of some conference offerings.
Top 10 Residency Myths and Frequently Asked Questions
Masha Yevzelman, JD
It turns out that concepts like residency and domicile can be pretty complicated when it comes to taxes in Minnesota. In her session, Masha Yevzelman unpacked the nuances of these ideas by presenting session-goers with 10 common residency myths — and busting those myths with facts and case studies.
Some of these myths included broader questions, such as: You can win a residency audit if you “stay off the grid.” Yevzelman explained it is on the taxpayer to show where they spent their time. She followed up by providing attendees with clear guidelines for what pieces of information and recordkeeping are necessary to establish residency. Other myths revolved around misconceptions about Minnesota’s specific residency requirements and auditing procedures, along with myths around other imagined loopholes taxpayers have used to try avoiding the audit in the past.
While providing practical and clear corrections to these 10 myths, Yevzelman stated that it is often easy to get too fixated on the audit years, particularly in gray-area scenarios. Navigating some of these real-world scenarios can initially seem overwhelming and hopelessly unclear. But it takes striking a balance between hard facts and critical thinking.
“It’s important to look at the taxpayer’s entire story,” Yevzelman said. “Broader context is crucial, even if you’re focusing on a specific slice of time for the audit. You need their full story.”
Business and Dining Etiquette: Professionalism in the Workplace
Deena Steinhaus
This year’s conference marked the first time a Young Professional (YP) track has been offered. Those on the YP track spent the first two days of the conference together, attending the same sessions tailor-made for where they are in their careers. One in-person offering was a session delving into the basics of dining etiquette for a business setting.
The YP group was ushered out of their conference room to an open atrium space on the top level of the venue, with a sunny view overlooking Minneapolis. Dining tables were set up, along with two large projector screens that speaker Deena Steinhaus used to walk attendees through
proper dining rules as they sat at their tables.
She began by breaking down the different dining styles — American and Continental — describing the rules for both. Steinhaus also touched on
how to pass food to others at the table, how to arrange utensils on the plate to signal whether you are finished with that course, when to actually begin eating, while also explaining how certain behaviors could be interpreted as rude within a professional context.
As she spoke, attendees were able to practice the rules in real time as she moved from one course to the next giving them a chance to try out some of these new skills — while also getting to eat some great food.
Federal Individual Tax Highlights
J. Patrick Garverick
In a 75-minute session focused on federal individual taxes, J. Patrick Garverick covered a lot.
But he summed it up best with one line: “We’ve seen a lot of changes.”
Among the topics discussed included information regarding clean energy-related credits under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, a summary of Secure Act 2.0, and individual income tax provisions slated to expire between tax years 2025 and 2032.
Form 1099-K changes were also touched on, which sees the previous $20,000 and 200 transactions threshold for good and services payments made with third-party organizations like Venmo and Etsy, move to just a $600 and no transaction requirement for a form to be issue.
And, expected to start in 2025, proposed IRS regulations should see the introduction of Form 1099-DA, which would require brokers to report sales and exchanges of digital assets by customers. Digital assets include items like cryptocurrency and nonfungible tokens.
“They realized not a lot of people are reporting income,” Garverick said of Form 1040 Schedule D.
