Accountants Round Up

"Critics Pan New Financial Statements"

By Tim Reason: It's been called the most dramatic overhaul of financial statements since the cash flow statement was introduced more than two decades ago. But when the comment period closed last week on the ideas for radically changing financial statements, the proposed design from the world's accounting standard setters had been called a few other things too: "poorly defined," "confusing," cluttered, "information overload," "inconsistent with management's internal reporting," and, frequently, "costly."

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Source: CFO, 24 April 2009. © CFO Publishing Corporation 2009. All rights reserved.

"Obama Announces Tougher Corporate Tax Rules"

By Deutsche Presse-Agentur: The new policy would target companies which store revenue in offshore bank accounts to avoid paying taxes, and would also go after wealthy individuals who do the same. Obama said current laws make it too easy for corporations to take advantage of "tax havens" abroad.

"It's a tax code full of corporate loopholes that make it perfectly legal for companies to avoid paying their fair share," Obama said.

Read complete article Obama Announces Tougher Corporate Tax Rules
Source: SmartPros, 4 May 2009. © 2007 SmartPros Ltd. © Copyright 2009 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH © 2007 SmartPros Ltd.

"Future of the Big Four: Three is the Magic Number"

By Dr. Michael Perry and Rute Pinto: Twelve months ago the idea of another Big Four accountancy firm disappearing from the map would have perhaps been far-fetched. The pole-position firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Deloitte and Ernst & Young are, on the face of it, financially sound and with strong regulatory processes to prevent another Andersen from happening.

Together they control just over 70% of a market worth more than £9bn in the UK alone. But factor in the current economic climate, poor strategy and the consequences of ‘The Rule of Three’ (more of that later), and this gloomy proposition becomes all of a sudden very real.

Read complete article Future of the Big Four: Three is the Magic Number
Source: Accountancy Age, 7 May 2009. © Incisive Media Ltd. 2009 Incisive Media Limited.

"The Next Accounting Controversy"

By Marie Leone: Revisions to how companies account for off-balance-sheet items and loan-loss provisions will knock fair-value accounting off the front page with respect to financial reporting, according to James Kroeker, acting chief accountant at Securities and Exchange Commission.

Further, new guidance on these topics set to be released by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board will "change the financial-reporting landscape," he told the audience during an industry conference today.

Read complete article The Next Accounting Controversy
Source: CFO, 30 April 2009. © CFO Publishing Corporation 2009. All rights reserved.

"CPAs Absorb Falling Rates as a New Cost of Business"

By Roberta Holland: Bulked-up staffs and an anemic economy are forcing accounting firms to become ever more competitive on fees as they reallocate resources and scramble for new clients.

Many CPA firms staffed up to deal with the sweeping corporate governance changes ushered in by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

But now, with that groundwork laid and the initial compliance requirements having been met, firms are finding themselves with extra capacity.

Read complete article CPAs Absorb Falling Rates as a New Cost of Business
Source: Boston Business Journal, 1 May 2009. © 2009 American City Business Journals, Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved.

"What Really Triggers a Referral?"

By John Jantsch: Referrals most naturally happen when two people are talking and one of the parties expresses a pain in the neck. If the other party just had her pain in the neck fixed, she may very well say something like, “ooh, you just gotta call Bob, he’s the best pain in the neck fixer on the planet.“

Right? We’ve all done some variation of that exchange in making or receiving a referral.

Read complete article What Really Triggers a Referral?
Source: Duct Tape Marketing, 19 May 2009. Copyright 2003-2009 Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing.

"Accountants Uncertain About IFRS Roadmap"

By Michael Cohn: Accounting firm leaders, standard-setters and industry accountants called for more certainty in the roadmap to International Financial Reporting Standards.

With the comment deadline having now passed for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed roadmap for transitioning to IFRS from U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, accountants and standard-setters are waiting to find out whether the SEC’s new chair, Mary Schapiro, will be willing to adopt the plan pushed by her predecessor, Christopher Cox.

Read complete article Accountants Uncertain About IFRS Roadmap
Source: WebCPA, 4 May 2009. © 2009 Accountants Media Group and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

"Bridging the GAAP: FASB Chairman Digests Possible Changes To Accounting Rules"

By Michelle Cater Rash: A few weeks ago, Federal Accounting Standards Board Chairman Robert Herz spent a few days visiting Wake Forest University. While on campus, he met with students and faculty, but also gave a public lecture on the convergence of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP, with International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS.

The international standards have been adopted by the European Union and more than 100 other countries. The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering requiring publicly traded companies to use them as well.

Read complete article Bridging the GAAP: FASB Chairman Digests Possible Changes To Accounting Rules
Source: The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area, 1 May 2009. © 2009 American City Business Journals, Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved.

"PCAOB Issues Fair Value Audit Practice Alert"

By AccountingWEB: The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has issued a Staff Audit Practice Alert to inform auditors of public companies about potential implications on reviews of interim financial information and annual audits of three recently-issued Financial Accounting Standards Board Staff Positions (FSPs). The recently-issued FSPs that are the subject of this alert are:

Read complete article PCAOB Issues Fair Value Audit Practice Alert
Source: AccountingWEB, 30 April 2009. Copyright © 2009 AccountingWEB, Inc. All rights reserved.

"EU and IASB Ratchet Up Pressure on the U.S. to Abandon GAAP"

By Tom Selling: The European Commission sponsored a two-day conference last week entitled "Financial Reporting in a Changing World." I was not invited to speak (J), but if I had been, this is what I would have said: Let's not use this 'changing world' stuff as an excuse to make more silly rules! Financial reporting is much less than it could be, and will remain so unless we recognize that it can only serve one master, investors. If we cannot come to agreement on that simple proposition, then we are doomed to more decades of posturing and squabbling, and with little to show for our efforts.

Read complete post EU and IASB Ratchet Up Pressure on the U.S. to Abandon GAAP
Source: The Accounting Onion, 13 May 2009.