This episode of the JofA podcast explores Accounting Opportunities Experience month, a growing nationwide program to inspire students to pursue accounting careers.

Liz Burkhalter, the AICPA's vice president–CPA Pipeline, shares how CPAs and volunteers are working to reach 50,000 students through classroom visits and events. She also mentioned resources that can help listeners who want to volunteer.

n Specific CPA Pipeline resources for student outreach

n This Way To CPA home page

n Burkhalter's June appearance on the JofA podcast

n The Next Stop: CPA podcast

Scott Spiegel, CPA/CITP, CGMA, the chief operating officer of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, discusses his return to Rutgers University and why real-world stories can expose students to the diverse opportunities in the profession.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• The history and growth of Accounting Opportunities Experience month.
• Burkhalter's summary of participation numbers last year and goals for this year.
• Resources for accountants interested in speaking to students.
• Spiegel's motivation for making campus visits.
• The common questions and misconceptions he hears when talking to students.
• The importance of in-person outreach and storytelling.

Andrea Millar, CPA/PFS, thought she knew what really mattered. Getting good grades in school and going above and beyond at work were part of her being. But she came to the realization that work was consuming her life, at the expense of other things she cared about.

Millar wrote about that experience, and some of the changes she made to create a more fulfilling life, in a recent JofA article. She also joined the JofA podcast to discuss the topic.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• An explanation of how work can "unconsciously" take over our lives.
• Understanding the "default state" of being and how it can explain why we might overwork.
• How a shift to the "experiencing stage" allows us to align time and energy differently.
• Why Millar stresses self-awareness as an important first step of changing habits.
• The award that Millar's article won in a recent media and publishing competition.

Withum partner Brian Lovett, CPA, CGMA, J.D., is the guest on this week's episode of the Journal of Accountancy podcast. Lovett is scheduled to speak at the AICPA Construction & Real Estate Conference in December on industry-specific impacts of new tax provisions in H.R. 1, P.L. 119-21, commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

He joined the podcast to preview some of those topics and explain the main way he separates fact from fiction when it comes to the details of H.R. 1 provisions.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• What real estate professionals and advisers should know about the expansion of Sec. 179.
• The PDF on Lovett's computer desktop that is "the one that matters."
• The topic that is "one of the things we're waiting on most" related to IRS guidance.
• One real-estate-related provision that could be easily misunderstood.
• The PTET SALT deduction's effect on real estate companies.

Executive coach and author Nick Robinson illuminates the challenging traits of work colleagues and shares strategies from his book — The 9 Types of Difficult People: How to Spot Them and Quickly Improve Working Relationships — that professionals can employ to improve relationships on the job.

Robinson, a speaker at UK & Ireland ENGAGE, explores the interplay between organizational pressures, psychological stressors, power dynamics, and how those factors can influence the development of traits and behaviors that make people difficult to work with.

He also shares strategies managers and professionals can explore to help get to the crux of performance issues, improve communication skills, and gain a deeper understanding of peers.

"When you ask a difficult person why they're doing what they do, they don't think they're difficult," Robinson said. "They're trying to do something that they think is right."

The conversation was first published as an episode of the FM podcast.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Four pressures that can negatively affect our ability to work with others.
• Three common types of difficult people in the workplace.
• Advice for managers and employees to navigate challenging relationships and dynamics.
• Steps for surviving a difficult boss.
• Tips for "unlearning" bad habits that make you appear more difficult to work with.

"You cannot avoid AI" — but you can and should continue to experiment with it.

That's one key message from consultant and keynote speaker Pascal Finette, who returned to the JofA podcast to discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) adoption has grown and how the profession is dealing with rapid changes and uncertainty.

The conversation revisits topics Finette discussed in 2021 and 2022, and it looks ahead to the Digital CPA Conference, Dec. 7–10 in National Harbor, Md.

Resources

• Early 2022 JofA episode (recorded in December 2021).
• Early 2023 JofA episode (recorded in December 2022).
• CPA.com's AI landing page.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• The accelerated pace of AI adoption between December 2023 and December 2024.
• The role of curiosity and experimentation in embracing new technology.
• The best-of-both-worlds approach some companies are taking as it relates to hybrid work.
• An explanation of the World Uncertainty Index and how it is now higher than pandemic-era levels.
• What to expect from the Digital CPA Conference.

This week's podcast guest is Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, CPA/CITP, CGMA, the CEO of KET Solutions and former AICPA and Association of International Certified Professional Accountants chair. Ellison-Taylor joined the show from the National Association of Corporate Directors 2025 Summit earlier this week, where AI was the main topic of conversation.

What else are corporate boards discussing? And how is the accounting profession faring on certain aspects of growing the talent pipeline? Ellison-Taylor has answers, along with a look ahead to AICPA events in November and December.

Resources:

Global Women's Leadership Summit (Nov. 10–12, Nashville, Tenn.)

Digital CPA Conference (Dec. 7–10, National Harbor, Md.)

What you'll learn from this episode:

• The priorities and top concerns of corporate boards, starting with AI.
• How the accounting profession and firms in particular are doing when it comes to "looking inward."
• Why Ellison-Taylor says that ambition can be defined different ways by different people.
• More about her comment that "at some point, we all will be digital CPAs."

Melanie Lauridsen, the AICPA's vice president–Tax Policy & Advocacy, joined the JofA podcast on Tuesday to provide context on the government shutdown and its effect on IRS services, along with discussion on other tax advocacy topics. The interview was conducted the day before the IRS announced that most of its operations were closed and that a plan to furlough employees had begun "for everyone except already-identified excepted and exempt employees."

In the Q&A, Lauridsen also provided background on shutdowns and their effect on filing season. She also explained why the IRS announcement in September that it was phasing out paper checks for tax refunds has generated so much buzz among practitioners.

What you'll learn from this episode:

A history lesson on government shutdowns, which previously went by a different name.

Why the IRS definition of "filing season" is different than reality for many tax practitioners.

Why the IRS announcement about ending tax refunds by paper check has been a popular topic among practitioners.

An example of the guidance "trickling in" on new tax provisions.

Estimated cost savings for certain businesses as a result of the preservation of the state and local tax deduction for pass-through entities.

The filing-season concerns that "get ramped up" because of the government shutdown.

Jimmy Robinson, CPA, CGMA, the national chair of the AICPA Dealership Conference, and his co-presenter and co-worker Jesse Stopnitzky joined the JofA podcast to preview discussion points of their conference session later this month.

Their expertise is industry-specific, but some of the topics are applicable to a broader audience. Robinson, a former dealership CFO, shared the key traits of strong finance leadership, and Stopnitzky offered advice for better succession planning.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• The aspect of M&A deals that is, to Stopnitzky, more art than science.
• How merger activity has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Robinson's list of the key traits of strong finance leaders.
• Why succession planning involves far more than naming a successor.
• Disruptive events and key shifts in the automotive industry.

Sarah Ference, CPA, an author of the JofA's Professional Liability Spotlight column, returns to the JofA podcast to discuss recent column topics and the advice CPAs can gain from them. In particular, Ference details some of the risks for CPA firms engaging in mergers and acquisitions, the subject of a recent two-part series.

The articles discussed in this episode are:

n June: "Form 1065: Pay Attention or Pay Up."

n July: "Professional Liability Risk Stemming From CPA Firm Acquisitions: Part 1."

n August: "Professional Liability Risk Stemming From CPA Firm Acquisitions: Part 2."

n September: "Start Risk Management With Employee Onboarding."

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Why CPA firms should pay close attention to recent changes in tax compliance for partnerships.
• A summary of the two-part article on professional liability risk related to CPA firm acquisitions.
• The importance of cultural alignment in firm acquisitions.
• What "tail coverage" is and why it's essential for post-transaction protection.
• How a strong onboarding process can serve to mitigate some risks for firms — and why that topic is timely this month.

In her professional career, Annette Nellen, Esq., CPA, CGMA, cannot recall a time when there was more misinformation in the realm of taxes than today, as practitioners wade through H.R. 1, P.L. 119-21, commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

She believes an overreliance on artificial intelligence tools in analyzing the budget law is one reason.

"You still have to review it," said Nellen, a past chair of the AICPA Tax Executive Committee. "These AI tools — they're tools. We're still the thinkers. We're the responsible party involved here."

In this JofA podcast episode, Nellen mentioned several provisions of note in H.R. 1, including those where guidance is still needed. She also mentioned the value of the National Tax Conference in November — where new tax provisions will be a central topic in sessions and individual conversations.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• · Some previously temporary tax provisions that are now permanent.
• · New tax provisions of note to Nellen.
• · A selection of provisions for which guidance or technical corrections may be needed.
• · IRS rulings and tax-related court cases Nellen has been following.
• · The response of one website creator when Nellen told the creator that some dot-gov sites are not properly updated.