Eric P. Wallace is a Partner and member of the Construction & Real Estate Services Team for Carbis Walker LLP.  He provides specialized, professional services to many contractors and construction and real estate related industries in both tax and accounting and auditing.  He has been an expert witness in construction related court cases in venues such as bankruptcy, district, and local courts in various states concerning tax and accounting issues.  He has also represented numerous contractor clients before the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Department of Labor, and state revenue departments of income, employment, and sales tax.  The focus of his practice is on all aspects of CPA services to contractors/developers and the real estate industry.

Eric has testified before Congress, the House of Representatives, the Small Business Committee, and the House Ways and Means Committee in representing contractors in 1999 and the Pennsylvania House in 2007.  In 2003 he also had the opportunity to debate with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in relation to FASB 150 representing the Construction Industry, in an effort to make FASB’s Statement No. 150 non-applicable to non-public entities - which effort was ultimately successful in the delay of this statement in 2005.  In addition, he was one of the Technical Editors of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ (AICPA) Audit Risk Alerts (ARA), “Construction Contractors Industry Developments,” for all years – 1999/2000 through 2005/2006.  He is also a past recipient of the AICPA Discussion Leader of the Year Award. Eric has been quoted by numerous diverse sources from the  ARAs and to Robert Hertz in his presentation to Congress on the private company GAAP issues.

In 2005 Eric was recognized by the Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, regarding his comments and contributions relative to the Industry Issue Resolution (IIR) Program.  As a representative for the Construction Financial Management Association’s (CFMA) national organization, his contribution was included in the 2005 IIR Process which strives to improve tax administration in relation to contractors, homebuilders, and developers.  Eric was the author of the original (PICPA) White Paper calling for a new due process for GAAP for Private Business.  This resulted in the creation of the AICPA’s Private Companies Reporting Committee (www.pcfr.org) in 2006.  This group was established to evaluate potential changes to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in order to improve the usefulness of private company financial reporting. 

Eric obtained his Bachelor of Science in Public Accounting from Mesa State College of Colorado.  He is a member of the AICPA and their Governing Council, the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA), where he served for several years as Chairman of the Accounting and Auditing Committee, and was an elected member of the Governing Council.  Eric is the President of the PICPA for the 2008-2009 term.  He is a member of the National Tax Committees for the CFMA’s Tax and Legislative Affairs Committee, where he served as chairman (2004-2006), and the Associated General Contractors.  In addition, he served for 12 years as an elected member of Carbis Walker’s Operating Committee, which is the Firm’s policy-making body.  Eric is the author and co-author of several tax and accounting articles and is a presenter on the AICPA Construction Contractors: Accounting, Auditing and Tax Video CPE course.  He is also the author of CCH’s two construction books, titled Construction Guide: Accounting and Knowledge-Based Audits and Construction Guide: Tax and Advisory Services. These are extensive treatises of about 2,000 pages each on accounting, auditing, consulting, and tax for contractors, homebuilders, and real estate developers.  Its fifth edition is expected to be released in May of 2008. Eric also wrote CCH’s new audit programs, which were released in early 2008, on the construction industry based upon the new auditing standards.

Additionally, Eric is a co-owner of Ft. Pitt Group, the 26th largest mechanical and 140th largest specialty contractor in the country, according to Engineering News Record (ENR), October 16, 2006. Eric and his wife, Barbara, have seven children, and one grandchild.