CPA Day on Goat Hill

This past Thursday, our ASCPA Board of Directors joined Jeannine, me and the rest of your ASCPA staff for CPA Day at the Alabama State House. The visit served to reinforce the valuable role CPAs play in Alabama’s business ecology. We’ll write more soon about our message to legislators but rest assured that our membership and our profession were well represented. We have a great team.

 

Many of our priority bills moved closer to passage this week, including HB163 and HB379. On our watchlist, we’ve sorted bills by recent movements. It takes a minimum of five session days to introduce and pass a bill. There are five session days left. Clearly, many of our watchlist bills will not move further in this session.

 

Details on the status of our priority bills:

1. Rep. David Faulkner’s HB163 (HB163-int.pdf) –The Finance & Taxation-Education Committee gave this bill a favorable report last week. The Senate could hear and vote on this bill as soon as Tuesday. Due to a technical amendment approved by the Senate Committee, the House would have to concur with the amendment. We continue to advocate for, and remain optimistic about, this bill, which allows immediate expensing of R&D expenditures for state tax purposes.

 

2. Sen. Clyde Chambliss’s SB174 (SB174-int.pdf) – The House has not yet scheduled this bill for a vote, although we remain optimistic. All that’s left is for the House to pass the bill and the Governor to sign.

Currently, unfair business license taxes require taxpayers to appeal to the circuit court in the jurisdiction of the taxing agency. The ability to file these appeals with the Alabama Tax Tribunal saves taxpayers time and money. We are advocating for the passage of this bill.

 

3. Rep. Danny Garrett’s HB379 (HB379-int.pdf) – Creates conditions under which a non-resident employee working temporarily in Alabama can be exempt from withholding and paying Alabama income tax.

The House approved this bill on Thursday and has already had its first reading in the Senate. We are asking the Senate’s Finance & Taxation – Education Committee to consider the bill this week. Along with Manufacture Alabama and BCA, we will continue to work with Senate leadership to get this bill moved in time.

 

4. Rep. Terri Collins’s HB365 (HB365-eng.pdf) – Creates the Alabama STEM Council within the Department of Workforce to advise State Government on ways to improve STEM-related education, awareness and workforce development.

Thanks to Rep. Collins’ help, the bill has been amended to include “accounting” as a STEM-related career. The amended bill has passed the second chamber’s committee and we await the full Senate’s consideration. Once passed, the House would have to concur with that amendment.

 

5. Chairman Garrett’s HB386-389 (HB386-int.pdf, HB387-int.pdf, HB388-int.pdf, HB389-int.pdf) – This series of bills would make permanent tax-reductions to grocery sales taxes, increases the optional standard deduction for income taxes, and increases the tax exemption for taxable retirement income. These bills have passed the House.

 

6. Rep. Mike Shaw’s HB587 (HB587-int.pdf) – This bill would provide qualifications for information technology auditors hired to perform information technology audits on certain state-chartered financial institutions. Rep. Shaw has informed us that he does not intend to advance this legislation prior to the end of this session. We anticipate working with Rep. Shaw on this bill in preparation for the 2026 legislative session.

CLICK HERE FOR THE WATCHLIST

There have been 961 bills filed as of this weekend. The bills in their entirety can be found at https://alison.legislature.state.al.us and if you have any additional questions or comments, please reach out to me at rpearson@alabama.cpa.