Operation CPA

The Montana Army National Guard is projecting that by November 1, 2004, 1800 of their soldiers will be deployed, or roughly 63% of Montana’s forces.  These are soldiers from all over the state—Kalispell, Billings, Helena, Butte, Bozeman, Great Falls, Missoula-- and every small town in between.

Left behind are the families . . . the wives, the husbands, the children and the mothers and fathers, all of them with questions on how to handle this situation.  Many of their questions deal with taxes and finances:

·         “My husband had to buy new fatigues and boots and it cost $500.  Is that tax-deductible?”

·         “My son bought a PDA to take to Iraq with him to better communicate with us.  Should I save the receipt?”

·         “With my husband gone we’ve had to board our horses because I can’t take care of them by myself.  Is this an expense I can take off my taxes?”

This is just a miniscule sampling of the questions that are floating around for the families of the soldiers fighting for us.  Unlike regular army, navy or other branches of the armed forces, the National Guard doesn’t have an organized base where families have services provided directly to them.  The National Guard families rely heavily on the support of each other and the communities in which they reside.  This presents a unique opportunity for CPAs across Montana and for the CPA Society.

What Can We Do?

The National Guard Family Assistance Center in Helena says that what these families need the most right now is someone to answer their questions, someone to turn to for trusted, reliable advice.  We are organizing a four-prong approach to lend assistance to these families:

1. MSCPA will poll our members and compile a listing of CPAs who specialize in working with military families and/or have strong knowledge in this area.   If firms offered a discount to military families on tax preparation this could be noted on this list.
2. With the help of local chapters we will provide speakers at the Family Assistance meetings.  Currently monthly meetings are held in Helena, Missoula, Great Falls, Billings, Kalispell, Bozeman-Belgrade.  A CPA(s) will be asked to take the lead to address these groups with a general overview and then open it up to questions.  Chapters will provide additional CPAs to answer private one-on-one questions after the meeting.
3. The Society will work with CPAs around the state to provide an informational packet that could be given out at these support meetings.  The MSCPA Federal and State Taxation Committees are working on developing information.  The packets will also be made available at no charge to our members during tax season to give out to clients who need additional information in this area.
4. The Society will compile the questions we hear at the town-hall-styled meetings and create a frequently-asked-questions page on our web site.

What’s In It for Us?

Beyond the obvious reasons for doing this—giving back to those who are sacrificing so much for all of us—there are a lot of good reasons for CPAs to get involved.

1. It will be awesome public relations for the CPA(s) who make the presentations and their firms. 
2. What a great way to recruit new clients!  All MSCPA members will have the opportunity to be on the listing and/or participate in the support group presentations.
3. The National Guard has agreed to issue a joint press release with the Society to announce this service.
4. It will start directing the public to our web site which is critical for the success the CPA referral service currently under construction.
5. This is one of the rare opportunities to do good across the state, not just in our larger cities and towns.  The informational packets will be available to all our member firms.  We will issue generic press releases for any firm to use for a radio or newspaper PSA in their region.

Timeline

We are kicking off this project in Helena with the first meeting on November 30th.  We have spoken to the officers of all the CPA Chapters around the state and most have plans to do a presentation by the end of the year.  However, this isn’t a short-term, one-time project.  The National Guard estimated this type of service will be needed for at least the next two years.