Audit & Accounting

SENIOR CAPITAL DISMISSES KPMG: Senior Capital Living Corp., a Dallas-based operator of senior residential communities, jettisoned its auditor, Big Four firm KPMG, and named Ernst & Young as its new independent accountant.KPMG's audit report for the year ended Dec. 31, 2005, noted ineffective internal controls over financial reporting. The auditor stated that SCLC's policies and procedures, and allocation of resources, did not provide for an effective review of the company's accounting for income taxes, which was prepared by tax consultants and third-party advisors.

High-profile corporate scandals in recent years have seriously eroded public confidence in published financial results.Reliance on the accuracy of financial statements is essential if investors are to own equity or debt instruments of corporations. With the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 leading the way, the governance role and function of boards of directors are evolving and expanding for public and private companies, as well as nonprofit organizations.

The controversy over options backdating just won't go away, and with good reason.According to the latest count, more than 120 companies are under investigation for doing it. In September, the heretofore-worshipped Steve Jobs was in the news with an apology for past backdating misdeeds at Apple. Even though he denied receiving any backdated options, he apparently approved some, but claims he was unaware of any accounting impropriety.

FIDELITY LOWERS MINIMUM GIFT FUND CONTRIBUTION: In an effort to make the benefits of donor-advised funds more accessible, the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund announced that it would lower its initial contribution and grant recommendation minimums.

Last year, Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, and with that legislation came some changes in the way bankruptcy debtors are taxed.New Internal Revenue Service guidelines have been issued to help explain provisions of the act that affect individual taxpayers filing Chapter 11 bankruptcies. The guidelines are issued in IRS Notice 2006-83 and relate to all Chapter 11 bankruptcies filed on or after Oct. 17, 2005.

The American College, a financial services educator based here, has launched an expedited learning program designed to prepare financial advisors for the Certified Financial Planner certification examination in roughly seven months.Developed in conjunction with the JR Financial Group, a financial services trainer, the program, titled Financial Planning Express, combines self-study with a series of live, four-day classroom sessions held every six weeks. The six modules that comprise the Express program conclude three weeks prior to the CFP certification examination with a live, five-day comprehensive review of all 89 CFP topics covered on the test.

Federal prosecutors will not challenge a judge’s ruling that vacates the conviction of Enron founder Ken Lay, who died in July after being found guilty for his role in the massive corporate accounting scandal.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is closing in on an early Christmas present for corporate critics of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act - a new plan that would reduce the compliance problems associated with the legislation's prickly Section 404 auditing requirements.But the expected reforms - which are scheduled for public consideration at an SEC meeting in mid-December - are not likely to quiet the chorus of criticism from Congress and the wider business community that blames SOX for making American capital markets uncompetitive, driving stock listings overseas and creating massive new costs for small companies.

In an effort to improve consistency in the application of standards relating to audits of the fair value of options granted to employees, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board staff has issued a set of guidelines.Presented in a question-and-answer format, the guidelines point out risk factors that auditors should be aware of in their consideration of the process for developing a fair value estimate, significant assumptions used in option-pricing models, and the role of specialists in fair value measurement.

Business tax reform needs a bipartisan, national consensus, but is absolutely necessary for the country to remain competitive in a global economy, according to Senate Finance Committee chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa."I think the consensus is there that the business tax system is in desperate need of reform," he told a recent hearing on the business tax system. "But we need to start building consensus on how to do it."