The Alabama Society of Enrolled Agents held it’s Semi-Annual Board Meeting on Sunday May 17th in the Walker Boardroom at the Birmingham Marriott. We discussed all of the routine business that an organization like ours has to deal with, but our focus and much of our time was devoted to our continuing education programs. ALSEA puts on two major 16 Hour Tax CPE learning events each year; our Spring Seminar in May, usually the week before Memorial Day and a Fall Seminar in October, usually the Monday and Tuesday before Halloween.
Our Spring Seminar this year on Monday and Tuesday, May 18th and 19th was held at the Birmingham Marriott and was an exceptional one. Ben Tallman, EA, USTCP from Atlanta, Georgia was our guest speaker. Ben is very knowledgeable and a really good speaker. I have to say that his presentations were all very timely, up to date and packed with good information that EAs need, in order to be a well informed advisor for their clients.
This year we closed the office for the two day learning event as all of the staff are licensed and have the continuing education requirements to meet. This seminar was an opportunity for us to learn all about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) changes that are being phased in this coming filing season. We often assign a tax topic for one staff member to really be our team expert to call on in the event that perhaps it will affect 25 clients out of 2,500, but ACA affects everyone! We all agreed that it was a good experience. Actually, only four hours out of the sixteen total hours were devoted to this subject matter. I initially made the comment that I wondered how Ben would be able to talk for fours on it. It turned out that he had way more information to share with us than I had anticipated.
After more than two years of anticipation, Houston, Texas-based Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen opened its first Alabama location this past October on the site of the former Ralph & Kacoo’s off U.S. 280 in Birmingham. The restaurant is a mere five or six blocks from the Marriott and doesn’t require navigating Highway 280 traffic!
The seafood restaurant chain first announced its plans to open in Birmingham in April 2012, when it won approval for a 2.5 percent sales tax reimbursement from the Birmingham City Council’s economic development committee. The rebate is capped at $785,000 over four years. We thought we would see for ourselves if the establishment was worth the almost million dollar enticement afforded by the City of Birmingham Council.
Parent company Pappas Restaurants Inc. demolished the old Ralph & Kacoo’s and built a new, 13,000-square-foot restaurant in its place. The atmosphere was crowded, noisy and dimly lit (I had to lighten our photo). But the food was excellent and the portion sizes were more than we could handle. If you like seafood, give it a try!
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