CPAs are normally a staid bunch, but members of the largest accounting group are over the edge about the nation’s fiscal cliff.
A survey of CPAs released Wednesday by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants indicates that CPAs as a group regard the federal budget deficit as the nation’s top economic problem. The AICPA’s online survey of members was conducted Dec. 4-24, 2012, when questions about the fiscal cliff dominated the public debate about the nation’s finances.
The proportion of green-eyeshade wearers citing deficit reduction as the key priority was 54%, more than twice as many as those citing job creation (23%), tax reform (18%) or the stability of Social Security and Medicare (5%).
Asked how failure to address this budget imbalance would affect clients, survey respondents selected hiring freezes (55%), reduced capital spending (53%), reduced benefits (52%) and job layoffs (54%) as the four (out of seven) likeliest options.
Of the 1,700 CPAs responding to AICPA’s survey, 73% made it clear they thought that the victims of fiscal irresponsibility will be individuals and families, with just 14% saying small businesses will bear the brunt of the fiscal cliff’s economic strains.
“CPAs in communities large and small and from coast to coast are increasingly troubled by the government’s inability to come to grips with this economic calamity-in-the-making,” said AICPA President and CEO Barry Melancon, in a news release.