AICPA: We Like Uniformity in State Tax Withholding

The American Institute of CPAs has thrown support behind a House bill which would create a nationwide standard for state tax withholding of nonresidents of a given state. Businesses and multistate (or larger) CPA firms would be helped greatly by a single standard for withholding. Among the complexities presently faced in state income tax preparation/compliance are: differing exemptions, reciprocity agreements with neighboring states and presumably, definitions of what constitutes income which vary at least to a small degree.

Except at select tax conferences and large Master of Taxation programs, educational opportunities on state income tax are markedly less than for federal tax law. While I continue to be a fan of the tenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, greater uniformity in state tax law would improve the prospects of getting more educational classes in state tax law, thus hopefully enabling a larger number of tax professionals to be able to be handle tax law for more than one, two or three states.