The Latest

President Barack hosted a group of award-winning small business owners from around the country in the White House Rose Garden and used the occasion to prod Congress to pass the administration’s Small Business Jobs Package.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued an eagerly anticipated exposure draft of a proposed accounting standards update for financial instruments, a major sticking point in FASB’s efforts to converge U.S. GAAP with International Financial Reporting Standards.

Barry Melancon has been president and CEO of the American Institute of CPAs since 1995. Under his leadership, the AICPA has spearheaded a number of initiatives to benefit the profession and the general public, including private company reporting standards and 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy. He is a member of the AICPA’s delegation to the International Federation of Accountants, chairman of XBRL-US, vice chairman of the Center for Audit Quality, and a founding board member of the Global Accounting Alliance. He serves on the board of the U. S. Chamber Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a Walt Disney employee and her boyfriend in a scheme to sell confidential information about Disney’s quarterly earnings to hedge funds.

A Florida prison inmate who allegedly ran a scheme to defraud the Internal Revenue Service of approximately $115,000 in tax refunds has pleaded guilty.

Cloud accounting service FinancialForce.com has partnered with Web-based carbon management specialist CloudApps to help the growing number of businesses beyond the manufacturing sector that are being asked to account for their carbon emissions.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said he anticipates an exemption for small and midsized public companies from Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404(b) requirements for independent audits of their internal controls to remain in the final version of the financial regulatory reform bill.

Thirty-seven percent of U.S. CFOs and senior controllers believe that a balance sheet should display both the fair value (exit value) and amortized cost of assets, according to a new survey by Grant Thornton, consistent with a forthcoming proposal from the Financial Accounting Standards Board regarding the presentation of financial instruments.

It’s easy to get carried away on junk food and pizza during tax season, but Bond Beebe has found a way to encourage its employees to stay healthy – by holding a weight loss challenge.

The health care reform bill included a provision for extra information reporting that could mean many businesses will need to file hundreds more 1099 types of forms to help the government close the tax gap.