Government isn't an enterprise. Though it raises and spends money, owns things, has pension funds, works with budgets, and reports to stakeholders, it is fundamentally different from a business. And so its accounting must take a different form and serve a different purpose.Oddly enough, many accounting professionals in the private sector don't even know there's a difference, or if they do, they don't know why.

The Internal Revenue Service has released updated draft instructions for the new Schedule M-3, filed by large and midsized corporations, and which should be rolled out for the 2006 tax year.

Supermarket chain Ingles Markets Inc. settled charges that it improperly accounted for vendor rebates and allowances with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced an effort to provide broader and more timely public notice of important actions.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox has said that the agency is leaning towards opening another public-comment period on its stalled governance rules for mutual funds.

In an exchange of correspondence, where the irony couldn't have been not lost on any of the authors, the Government Accountability Office offered 14 recommendations to improve the internal controls of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Panel on the Nonprofit Sector, composed of leaders from charitable organizations, has offered additional recommendations to Congress and the nonprofit sector as part of its continuing effort to strengthen the accountability of the nation's 1.3 million charitable organizations.