Last
week I attended the 36th annual National Conference of the National Association of Tax Professionals at the Marriott Wardman Park in Washington DC. This was my 19th NATP conference. My first was the 1988 conference in Orlando,
Florida. I had registered for the 2015
conference in New Orleans, which would have made this year my 20th, but
a health emergency kept me from attending.
I now choose which conferences to attend based on (1) the location and (2) the value
of the education provided. While there
are many locations to which I would gladly return, with some one visit was
sufficient – and I really no longer want to fly if I can help it. No fear of flying – it has just become too
much of a PITA.
In
a year when there is a lot of tax law changes and developments there is much
more value. There was no new tax law or
developments this year – but I was intrigued by the titles and descriptions of
some of the new educational sessions.
I
have been going to tax conferences, conventions, forums, and events for 30
years and at this point many of the educational sessions are truly
redundant. Or not relevant.
I
am in a unique situation. I am winding
down my practice and do not accept any new 1040 clients (or any new clients for that matter). So I have no interest in tax law that does
not apply to my current clients, except occasionally as a writer on tax
planning and preparation issues. While
in the few years left before my official retirement clients may have new,
different, or unique situations with which I have no experience and about which
I have minimal if any knowledge. In such
a situation whether or not I would continue to prepare the return depends on
the client – and if I did continue I would research the new issue or seek help
from a colleague when it arose.
The
location this year, unlike past CPE events I have attended in DC, was not in
the downtown area – near the government buildings and monuments and the theatres. It was on the outskirts of the Adams-Morgan
section, and a couple of blocks from the Zoo.
I had never been to this part of DC before, and have no complaints about
the location. I am, however, curious to
learn from my NATP Board friends if the choice was purposeful, or if downtown
hotels like the JW Marriott were much more expensive or not available.
I travelled
to DC via Amtrak, driving to Jersey City from PA and taking the PATH to
Newark. The train going down to DC was “chock-a-block”
and I was actually assigned a specific seat for the trip. When I went to my gate at Washington’s Union
Station for the return trip I found a very long queue. However, I was pleased that, when it came
time to actually board, a conductor came along the line looking for seniors,
which apparently applied to me at age 63, and I was moved to the much shorter “priority”
queue. The train home was less crowded
and seating was not assigned.
As
has been my custom lately, I did not stay at the host hotel. I selected the Windsor Park Hotel, just off
Connecticut Avenue about ¾ of a mile from the Marriott across the bridge over
the Potomac. The room rate was a bit
less than the Marriott and it provided free breakfast (adequate for my diabetic
limitations – cereal but no fruit). So I
figured I saved about $200 in total, plus the side benefit of the exercise
provided by the walk back and forth each day.
My
room was clean and comfortable, if not luxurious. The only issue was that I couldn’t get the tv
to work (confusing directions), but this really wasn’t bad. There was nothing much on tv anyway, and I
watched new episodes of the BBC series VERA on my laptop via Acorn.com in the
evenings, and listened to CNN being streamed live on Tunein.com in the
mornings.
There
were no restaurants either in or near my hotel – but there were several choices
near the Marriott, on Connecticut Avenue and Calvert Street. I had two dinners and a lunch at the Woodley Café,
on Connecticut, and dinner at Sorriso Bistro and a restaurant named for me (not
really – I was told Robert’s Restaurant was named for the son of the hotel’s
owner) at the Omni Shoreham, both on Calvert Street. I had one dinner, at Harry’s Pub, and three
lunches, one at Stone’s Throw the others from The Pantry, in the Marriott.
I
had hoped to be able to see Washington’s resident comedy troupe CAPITOL STEPS
while in DC – I especially wanted to see their take on the current political
situation (in the troupe’s unique “pig latin” Donald Trump is, appropriately,
Tronald Dump) - but they were not performing at their home venue while I was
there. They will be in Red Bank NJ in
the fall, so I will have to wait until then.
I could not find any theatre or entertainment venues in the nearby area,
and there was no evening entertainment at the Marriott. What I miss at high-end chain hotels is a piano
bar – like Bobby Short at Café Carlyle in NYC’s Carlyle Hotel.
On
Wednesday, here at TWTP, I will discuss the content of the various educational
sessions of the NATP National Conference in Washington, and provide some tax
information of interest from the sessions.
TTFN
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