The Latest

All eyes are on the Securities and Exchange Commission as it prepares to issue a detailed roadmap this summer for the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards, but some representatives gave hints about what might be in that roadmap at a conference held by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in New York.

The Internal Revenue Service has recently published an online guide to help its examiners assess the validity of businesses' claims for the research credit.

The Treasury Department's Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession convened an open meeting to hear testimony on its draft report on recommendations for improving the profession, as well as to discuss an addendum with additional recommendations.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a notice providing guidance on the effect of adding liquidity facilities to support auction rate preferred stock on the equity character of the stock.

NetSuite introduced a new suite of business management software specifically aimed at manufacturing companies and rival SAP.

After floating the proposal roughly one year ago, the American Institute of CPAs has approved the creation of the Certified in Financial Forensics credential, a new designation that will include expertise in a range of areas such as bankruptcy and insolvency, computer forensics, economic damages, family law, fraud investigations and litigation support.Approval for the credential — which will be the fourth offered by the institute, joining the Personal Financial Specialist, the Accredited in Business Valuation and the Certified Information Technology Professional — was approved at the annual meeting of Spring Council here.

It’s a good news/bad news/good news story.Demand for the services that CPA firms provide is widely expected to remain strong into the foreseeable future.

A provision in a bill that recently made its way through the House would correct the imbalance between tax payers and preparers that was created by legislation last year.Changes to the Tax Code by the Small Business and Work Opportunity Act of 2007 tightened the disclosure requirements for tax preparers under Code Sec. 6694 by requiring preparers to disclose any tax positions taken by a taxpayers that didn’t meet the code’s “more likely than not” standard.

Richard Vitale, co-founder of CPA firm Vitale Caturano, resigned after allegations arose that he assisted ticket brokers in getting favorable legislation passed in Massachusetts without first registering as a lobbyist.Vitale reportedly resigned under pressure from the other partners in the firm, who threatened to fire him if he did not step down from the firm he co-founded 30 years ago. He is also accused of loaning a Massachusetts politician $250,000 for a mortgage on a condo at below-market rates.

A billing system is not the best or most efficient strategy for managing contacts.Greg Kosinski and Jennifer Loftin of Atlanta-based Bennett Thrasher PC know this because that’s the way they used to coordinate their firm’s contacts and key relationships — that is, until they decided to make the transition to a customer relationship management system, a tool that has effectively improved communications with their people, centralized a once-massive contact list and, in the little time they’ve been using it, already given them a return on their investment.