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Business of Tax: Class Size of 1 Becomes Standard in Tax Education

Posted on May 18, 2020

Opportunities for continuing education for tax professionals have shifted online thanks to the pandemic, but the extra convenience comes with some downsides.

Practitioners say that legal and accounting continuing education providers are releasing virtual content at an unprecedented rate, so there’s no shortage of continuing legal education (CLE) or continuing professional education (CPE) credit opportunities for tax professionals to avail themselves of. And the extra availability of virtual, easily accessible education is especially welcome now.

There’s an “urgent need for advice and continuing education,” Boryana Zamanoff of BNY Mellon Wealth Management told Tax Notes. Tax professionals are grappling with new legislation packed with tax provisions and a steady stream of associated guidance, and for wealth planners like herself, the current low-interest-rate environment and high estate and gift tax exemption create extra imperatives for staying on top of the latest developments, she said.

Nevertheless, the many intangible benefits of in-person events are proving difficult to replicate in an online environment.

“I miss it very much,” Travis W. Thompson of Sideman & Bancroft LLP told Tax Notes. “More than anything, I miss the camaraderie and catching up with old and professional colleagues. I miss the preplanned dinners. I miss the cocktail hours. I miss my friends.”

Cost-Effective — At a Cost

Virtual learning opportunities are undoubtedly more convenient and cost-effective, eliminating the need to book travel or hotels. But much of the value of in-person CLE events, like the American Bar Association Section of Taxation’s annual May meeting, lies in the opportunity to network with other professionals and government officials, observed Adam Sweet of Eide Bailly LLP.

“There is no substitute for discussing issues in a face-to-face setting,” Sweet said.

Zamanoff similarly said the hallmarks of a worthwhile CLE event are strong content and good attendance, which lead to productive networking. “There’s no shortage of timely content now, but we are still finding ways to network via video and audio and to try to replicate the in-person connection,” she said.

The biggest element missing from online events is the overall energy of the experience, both for presenters and the audience, according to Damien Martin of BKD LLP. As a frequent presenter himself, Martin said that speaking to a live audience allows the overall presentation to be more interactive and enables him to be more dynamic and reflect what the audience is responding to on the spot.

With just a webcam as a stand-in for an audience, “it’s very, very different” for a speaker, not to mention much easier for audience members to give in to the temptation to let their attention wander, Martin said.

For many tax professionals, especially interactive learners, being able to chat with other conference attendees between breakout sessions is a critical part of the experience, Martin added. There’s also a mind-set shift involved when attending an online conference, he said, like not being as protective of his schedule as he would be if he were blocking off time to travel somewhere.

“Even the travel time, I would generally use that to get to my stack of articles, slides, or whatever I’m going to read on the way there and on the way back,” Martin explained.

Bread and Butter

As in-person continuing education options dry up, the providers of tax-related CLE and CPE credits are seeing a huge increase in attendance of their virtual offerings, but are still devising ways to help tax professionals connect.

Clar Rosso, executive vice president for engagement and learning innovations at the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, said she has seen a nearly 600 percent increase in webcast registrations and that, recognizing the economic challenges facing many tax professionals, the AICPA has chosen to offer many CPE-eligible webcasts for free. “There’s been tremendous attendance at those webcasts,” she said.

An executive of a tax CLE provider, who wasn’t authorized to speak to Tax Notes, likewise said their organization had experienced a huge surge in attendance in both free and paid events.

But for many providers, the big conferences are their bread and butter, supplying much of their revenue for the year. The tax CLE provider said that while their organization is trying to replicate the panels that would have taken place at their scheduled in-person seminars and conferences in a virtual format, it still has a large gap in revenue needed to get it to the other side of the crisis.

But “to exist in the future, we have to serve our members now,” the CLE provider said.

Both Rosso and the CLE provider noted that they intend to try to replicate the camaraderie of their in-person conference experiences via chat rooms and social videoconferences. While some longtime tax professionals might find it disappointing to have their social options constrained, the limited options for social networking among young professionals and especially recent graduates from law or accounting schools can be enormously consequential.

In-person CLE events can often be a direct path to meaningful employment, Thompson said, noting that that was how he got his own first job after law school. New graduates will now have to be more creative than ever to find ways of networking online, he said.

Screen Time

The shift to virtual settings isn’t all bad. Thompson acknowledged that he can now learn from the comfort of his own home, where he can sit on his couch, “beverage in hand, and complete the CLE in the best environment possible.”

Martin suggested that to get the most out of an online event, “you have to know that it’s different and have that expectation going into it,” or else risk disappointment or distraction. “You have to avoid the temptation of having Outlook open at the same time if you want to get the same takeaways from it,” he added.

And several practitioners noted that the cost savings of getting CLE or CPE online versus in-person can be a big selling point, especially for small firms and solo practitioners.

But two months into the COVID-19 crisis, Larry Pon of Pon and Associates says he’s had enough. “I’m webinared out,” he told Tax Notes, adding that he’s attended at least 20 online courses since the crisis began, some of questionable quality.

Technical issues have plagued many webinars, and it would behoove some presenters to take time to first polish their virtual presentation skills, like positioning themselves in front of the camera properly or not reading off a script, Pon said.

It also helps to be familiar with the webinar-hosting service’s functions, Pon said, recalling that during one recent webinar on coronavirus legislation, a voice from one attendee suddenly blurted out, “Go do your f****** homework!”

“Note to self: If you’re presenting, you’ve got the button to mute all,” Pon advised.

Martin said he found that the quirks of virtual presentations can be humanizing. “You see other people stuck at home too, and realize even the great experts are just like you,” he said.

Follow Jonathan Curry (@jtcurry005) on Twitter for real-time updates.

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