Accounting
Accounting News & Professional Insight
Accounting Today delivers news, rankings, thought leadership, and analysis for accounting professionals so they can navigate change in standards, firm strategy, technology adoption, talent, and the overall business environment.
Accounting professionals are facing rapid transformation, including shifting professional standards, demographic change, technology disruption, practice consolidation, and changing expectations for advisory services. Our coverage surfaces these strategic dynamics and provides insights and analysis for firms, leaders, and the accounting profession.
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A combination of both strong economic growth and low unemployment helped keep state tax rates flat for 2006. Nevertheless, some states are continuing to mine tax-related revenue streams."Currently, there are several states that are looking to improve their tax structure," explained Curtis Dubay, an economist at the Tax Foundation.
April 15 -
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that U.S. rulemakers should consider adopting "principles-based" regulations and accounting standards, in a speech at the Capital Markets Competitiveness Conference.Paulson said that in particular, there should be a focus on three issues in the U.S. - the country's regulatory structure, its accounting industry, and its legal and corporate governance environment.
April 15 -
One of my former employers has been the occasional subject of this column -- particularly when the topic centered on how not to run a business.
April 15 -
Along with making the case to keep executive compensation the way it is, the Financial Executives International recently said that investors are not well served by the complexity of financial reporting and released a four-point plan to address the problem.
April 11 -
The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service issued final regulations on the treatment of nonqualified deferred compensation plans and arrangements under Section 409(a) of the tax code.
April 10 -
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has named Lawrence W. Smith, currently chairman of the standard-setter’s Emerging Issues Task Force, as a member of the board.
April 10 -
There is a greater push for transparency, both in terms of financial reporting and in regard to regulatory actions, but I wonder how successful this push will ultimately be. It is the regulatory bodies that will have to be the driving force, along with institutional investors. A recent action indicated to me that one particular regulatory body seems to have little concern for transparency. It was reported at www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070405/BUSINESS/704050480 that Conseco Life Insurance Co. has been fined $750,000 by Iowa regulators. The article reports that state kept secret exactly what triggered the penalty. This got me curious, as the fine was described as ”one of the Iowa Insurance Division's largest such penalties,” so I tracked down the order.
April 9