Increased federal regulations expanding consultative role
of traditional CPAs
Media Contacts: Barbara Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications, 248.260.8466, barbara@eafocus.com
Rochester Mich. –Nov. 8, 2016– Despite pending lawsuits filed in federal district courts challenging its legality, changes to the “White Collar Exemptions” section of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) issued by the Department of Labor, which will raise the salary level limit for overtime from the current $23,660 annually to $47,476, are slated to become law December 1, 2016. Vince Mattina, Jr., CPA, managing partner of Mattina, Kent & Gibbons, P.C. (MKG), a Mich.-based CPA firm providing audit, accounting, tax and business consulting services to a variety of industries, says his firm is not only working on FLSA compliance solutions for their clients, but their own staff as well.
“Our starting salary for business school graduates who join the firm prior to receiving their CPA license is near, but still under the new salary threshold,” Mattina said. “With a combination of experience and successful passage of the CPA exam, the rate surpasses it, so we will be all set – at least until the new salary cap is set.”
Mattina says the solution for MKG in the interim is to convert those staff members from salary to hourly, monitoring their overtime hours to the extent possible and practical during the notorious tax “busy season.”
“The new overtime rules definitely blur the lines between practice and administrative staff from a pay perspective, but given that the window between hourly and salary will be a relatively brief period of time for this category of professionals, we don’t anticipate too much angst among affected staff members,” Mattina said. “Still, we are going to need to monitor their hours during tax season and perhaps shift some work to part-time tax preparers or salaried staff above the new FLSA salary cap.”
With the new FLSA overtime requirements added to increased compliance required by the Affordable Care Act, Mattina says the role of the CPA is evolving further into being a broad-based business solutions provider.
“Our clients are turning to us with greater frequency on issues such as health care and employment that were rarely ever addressed previously by traditional CPA firms,” Mattina said. “It’s really forced us to become well rounded business consultants in addition to accounting, tax and audit experts to provide clients with continuous high value advisory services.”
About Mattina Kent & Gibbons
MKG is a Michigan-based CPA firm with offices in Rochester and Lapeer providing audit, accounting, tax and business consulting services to a variety of industries including manufacturing, construction, professional services, governmental, agribusiness and non-profits. To learn more, visit http://www.mkgpc.com.
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