Center for Audit Quality Comments on Treasury Blueprint

This year’s tax return filing season appears to be proceeding smoothly, despite the initial confusion that was generated by the seemingly annual last-minute tax legislation.Included in that flurry of new guidelines were the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2007, which passed in December and included an Alternative Minimum Tax patch for the year that required some fine-tuning of the Internal Revenue Service’s computers to process returns that might be subject to the AMT; and the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, which also passed in December, and excluded mortgage debt forgiveness for homeowners whose home at foreclosure sold for less than the outstanding mortgage, if a portion of the unpaid debt was forgiven. In total, more than 10 forms this season were affected by the AMT patch.

The Financial Accounting Foundation’s board of trustees has voted to approve a range of sweeping changes in the oversight, structure and operations of the FAF and its two standards-setting boards — the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.The FAF plans to expand the number and breadth of investors, accounting, business, financial and government organizations and entities invited to nominate FAF trustees. Final authority for all the appointments will remain at the discretion of the board of trustees, who are responsible for the oversight, administration and finances for both of the standard-setting boards.

Much of the election-year criticism of hedge funds misses the point when it focuses on the claim that hedge fund operators get unfair tax breaks, experts say.There is abuse in the current Tax Code when it comes to hedge funds, but it affects the investors, according to Alan Dlugash, a tax partner at New York-based CPA and business advisory firm Marks Paneth & Shron. They’re often subjected to taxes that wipe out nearly all — or more than all — of the income that they made from the fund, he observed.

Accounting firm BDO Seidman said corporate executives and board members should be prepared to address various questions about the effect of the credit market crisis on their companies at their upcoming annual shareholder meetings.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it has settled with six former executives and employees of Riverstone Networks who had been accused of inflating revenues at the communications router maker after they agreed to pay penalties and fines.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Canadian pharmaceutical company Biovail and its former CEO and CFO and two current senior executives with engaging in fraudulent accounting schemes and making a series of misstatements to analysts and investors.