NYSSCPA Distinguished Service Award

This award salutes CPA members who have distinguished themselves as Society leaders through model service within the NYSSCPA and the profession. The award celebrates those who have demonstrated outstanding dedication to and have made a remarkable impact upon the Society and the profession through endeavors such as inspirational service in leadership positions in the NYSSCPA, the development of future leaders of the Society and the profession, educational or publication efforts, public service and other activities. 

Philip J. London, the winner of the Distinguished Service Award, has served in recent years as an NYSSCPA mainstay in lobbying in Albany for its members and the profession. He has achieved legislative and regulatory victories by building relationships with a succession of New York state taxation commissioners, as well as several members of the New York State Legislature.

London had his first exposure to the accounting profession at the age of 10, working weekends and holidays, operating the wet copier machine in his father’s accounting office for one dollar a day.

That experience left him wanting to avoid accounting “like the plague,” he said.

Years later, however, while pursuing his sociology degree at C.W. Post College, he audited construction claims in his father’s office, conducting site visits and generating change orders. “Let me see what this accounting thing is all about,” he thought, so he started taking accounting courses in his junior year. He found it interesting enough to go on to St. John’s University, where he earned his MBA in accounting.

Now a partner emeritus at Wiss & Company, LLP, where he has spent most of his career, and a past NYSSCPA director-at-large and incoming vice president, London still exudes enthusiasm for his chosen profession.

“Being an accountant [is] a thought process,” he said. “There is a logic and a comfort to that logic, in looking at the language of business. I found it to be very interesting and that I had an affinity for it. It is a sequential thinking process. People don’t realize that. If you can sequence things in your mind, accounting becomes easy.”

As a graduate student, he had a transformative experience while taking a course in corporate taxation. As a component of the course, a client was referred to Freeman & Davis, the firm at which London was working and where his father was a partner. After looking at the client’s finances, young London saved him $3 million.

“That solidified my interest in taxation and research, and how to plan for the best tax savings,” he said. Four decades later, that interest remains, as he cites the “implementation of strategies that enabled clients to receive maximum benefits” as something of which he is professionally proud.

Following graduate school, and after stints at small firms, he returned to Freeman & Davis, where he was approached by a client who expressed an interest in participating in New York state’s Enterprise Zone program. Created by the state Legislature in 1986 and now known as Empire Zones, the program provides tax credits and other incentives to attract and retain jobs in economically underdeveloped regions of the state.

Working closely with people in areas classified as “depressed” in the 1990s and early 2000s, London remains proud of his work. “It solidified neighborhoods,” he said.

Through his work with the Empire State Development Corporation, the state agency responsible for the program, he got to know New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (NYSDTF) administrators of the program’s tax benefits. One such administrator was an auditor named Nonie Manion. She eventually became the NYSDTF’s executive deputy commissioner and, later, its acting commissioner.

The personal relationships that he developed with her and other members of the NYSDTF leadership, including current Acting Commissioner Amanda Hiller, proved to be beneficial for all concerned. It led to his increasing involvement with the Society—which he had joined in 1979. London spoke at conferences, served on numerous committees—including chairing the New York, Multistate and Local Taxation Committee and the Tax Oversight Committee—and established strong working relations with key state legislators. He is also a regular participant in meetings of the Taxation of Individuals Committee, where he provides updates on New York legislative matters.

London was an active member of the team that met with the NYSDTF’s then-Commissioner Michael R. Schmidt in 2020 to secure New York state’s acceptance of electronic signatures. His work facilitated the enactment of legislation allowing e-signatures on tax return authorizations. He has more recently been advocating for legislation to enable e-signatures on powers of attorney.

“Phil has worked miracles in his advocacy work,” said former NYSSCPA President Rumbi Bwerinofa-Petrozzello. “People were in a panic when the pandemic hit. [They asked], ‘How can we serve our clients if we can’t meet with them?’ Phil knew the people to talk to. He developed those relationships, they took his calls, and change happened.” She called him a hero for his efforts.

During the 2021 budget process, London worked closely with state assemblymembers and their respective staffs to write and enact the Pass-Through Entity Tax (PTET). The legislation is, in effect, a workaround to the $10,000 cap on state and local taxes (SALT), imposed by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. London sees the New York legislation, based on New Jersey’s Business Alternative Income Tax (BAIT) law, as a national model. “That was a real win for the taxpayers,” he said. “That got me much more involved in the legislative aspects,” he said, culminating in his appointment to the Society’s Legislative Task Force.

London recently joined several other NYSSCPA members who traveled to Albany in early May for Lobby Day, where they met in small groups with members of the New York State Legislature to advocate for bills on the Society’s Legislative Agenda. High on their agenda was non-CPA firm ownership legislation, which the Legislature later passed on May 30. The bill, which would amend the state’s Education Law to allow non-CPAs to be minority owners of CPA firms, now awaits Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature to become law.

“What I learned about Phil during Lobby Day is that he has worked on a number of bills,” said A’Isha Torrence, the associate vice president of financial planning and analysis for AHRC New York City, and a director on the NYSSCPA Board. “Either he proofreads them or he provided content to include what would be in the public interest.”

“He makes legislators understand that we are partners and that we can assist them [in understanding] how their work will impact constituents and taxpayers,” she continued. “They reach out to him. Phil has been doing this his whole career.”

That generosity of time and spirit extends to colleagues. A regular presenter at various tax conferences, London is renowned for spending time with members to advise and guide them in the intricacies of tax laws and regulations. He also taps his network of contacts to connect practitioners with the right people in the NYSDTF who can help them to resolve whatever problems they may have.

“Phil leads with a yes,” said Bwerinofa-Petrozzello. “When I call him and ask him for a favor or advice or some time, he will always say ‘yes’—unless he truly cannot.”

“Phil is a listener. He is a thinker, and he is so kind and gentle in his thoughts and opinions,” she added. “This is how he is able to build such great such relationships.”

London has also been active in promoting diversity in the profession.

“Phil is very generous in opening the door for other voices and other thoughts,” said Torrence.  “That is something I experienced working with him on the [Society’s] strategic plan refresh.” She said that he actively sought her opinions and made sure that she was credited with her original marketing ideas. “I see him do that with others,” she said.

Bwerinofa-Petrozzello agreed. “Phil has been doing great things for a long time,” she said. “It didn’t matter than no one could see it, but he kept doing it, and we all benefited from it.”

The sentiment is mutual.

“It’s been rewarding in both ways,” London said of his service to the profession. “The Society has given a lot to me, and I like to give back. It’s a blessing.”

ssteinhardt@nysscpa.org