Practitioners' Views of the Common Body of Tax Knowledge for Persons Entering Public Accounting.

This study extends previous research regarding the identification of the common body of tax knowledge (CBTK). It has two specific goals: (1) identification of the items which comprise the CBTK, and (2) determination of the extent to which the respondents' views differ systematically along any demographic dimensions. A questionnaire was used to elicit the perception of a random sample of 864 AICPA partners and sole practitioners concerning the importance of 67 separate tax topics. Analysis of the responses reveals three important findings. First, the assessed importance of the 67 topics varies widely, ranging from highly important "accounting method" and "business transaction" topics to unimportant "specialized industry" topics. Second, the respondents do not view the 67 topics as being unrelated. Instead, they perceive them as being associated with 11 underlying tax factors. Third, absolute and relative systematic differences in the respondents' topic assessments exist along the "firm size" dimension.