Revised Statements on Standards for Tax Services

The AICPA has released revised Statements on Standards for Tax Services (SSTS), effective January 1, 2010. The SSTS are enforceable standards of tax practice issued by the AICPA’s Tax Executive Committee (TEC). The TEC issued an exposure draft in November 2008 proposing a few revisions to the current SSTS. The TEC considered comment letters received on the exposure draft and voted to approve the draft SSTS with minor modifications. An electronic version of the revised SSTS is available on the AICPA Tax Section website; a printed version can be purchased from CPA2BIZ. (For more on the proposed revisions, see Gardner et al., “Preview and Analysis of Proposed Statements on Standards for Tax Services,” 40 The Tax Adviser 314 (May 2009).)

The AICPA Tax Division is grateful to the members who submitted comment letters on the exposure draft, and it is using those letters as a source of issues to be addressed in guidance for members. A task force currently is updating SSTS Interpretations 1-1 and 1-2 and also is developing further guidance that will take the form of practice aids and articles.