Monday, August 14, 2017

A CAPITOL IDEA – THE 2017 NATP NATIONAL CONFERENCE – PART 1


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
 
 
 
 

No comments: