Audit & Accounting

Did you ever stop and think why you are now at the ATM machine again taking more money out when you were just there a few days ago? Does it seem like you are constantly replenishing your wallet and can’t understand why? Visa did something about it. They decided to do some research on where money goes, other than, of course, paying for their credit cards or people charging on the Visa card. Actually, in England, they discovered that the Brits spend as much as $160 billion (yes, with a “B”) a year but have no idea where that money went. Actually, Visa surveyed more than 1,000 people and found out that the average adult was spending some $60 every week with no idea of where the money was going. In other words, in answer to the question, “On what did you spend that extra $60?” the response was “I don’t remember.” Now, according to Visa, if you didn’t spend that $60 a week for something you don’t recall, you could have paid for the following: 1) All your electric and water bills for a full year 2) 96 percent of traveling costs for year 3) Your weekly grocery shopping for some nine months of the year 4) Three months’ of mortgage payments. So, to where is this money traveling? Visa says that most people spend more than they would like when grocery shopping (that’s the impulse buying habit) and on entertaining for children or grandchildren, not to mention their own “night out.” Who spends the most? Oddly enough, men do, averaging some $70 a week compared to half that by women. So ends that woman/shopping myth. Also, those 18-24 year olds spend almost a $100 a week. Who spends the least? Besides a five-month old baby, it’s the over 55ers who only use up about $30 a week on items they don’t remember buying. So, what does Visa recommend? They suggest monitoring your money through online banking and by maintaining accurate records every time you go to that ATM machine; in other words, marking down what the money’s for. According to Visa, if you can check your bank balance from home, you will find this is an enormous benefit in indicating what’s happened to your money.

Don Ogilvie, who served as president and chief executive of the American Bankers Association for two decades, has joined Big Four firm Deloitte as senior advisor to the firm’s banking and finance industry group.

In testimony before lawmakers, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox defended the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, but sided with critics of the sweeping reform act who maintain that parts of the mandate need to be changed— in particular Section 404.

Nearly one year after the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 was passed into law, a study by information and research services provider LexisNexis found that Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings were 71 percent lower than over the same period for 2004.

Despite corporations gaining more experience with complying with the mandates of Sarbanes-Oxley, concerns over the burdens of its implementation have grown over the past several years.

In the sideshow to the main event, KPMG landed its own courtroom blow this week -- filing a claim seeking compensation from some of its former employees indicted in connection with the firm's sale of questionably-legal tax shelters.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's top accountant has added his thoughts on how to properly account for stock options in the historical financial statements of public companies.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it has filed and settled financial fraud charges against bank holding company Doral Financial Corp.

A church in Pasadena, Calif., says that the Internal Revenue Service has asked it to turn over all the documents and e-mails it created during the 2004 election year containing any references to political candidates.

A couple of months ago I came across the television and radio commercials of GoodAccountants.com and they got my back up.