Audit & Accounting

The Small Business Administration has redesigned its website and is providing a new tool to personalize the site’s resources for particular types of businesses.

The past year witnessed plenty of head-spinning developments in the worlds of accounting and taxes, and AccountingToday.com (along with its predecessor site WebCPA) was there to chart the latest developments.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed a permanent rule requiring municipal advisors to register with the agency.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has published an alert warning auditors of the risks involved when auditing loss contingencies from litigation arising from mortgages and other loans, especially in cases where mortgage servicers have been accused of “robosigning” foreclosure notices.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo had one more piece of unfinished business before leaving for the governor’s mansion in Albany: file suit against Ernst & Young for allegedly helping its former client Lehman Brothers engage in accounting fraud.

In a recent speech, a senior European Commission official warned accountants that a drastic tightening of auditing rules in the European Union is under consideration in Brussels, including possible segregation-of-service rules on client auditing and accounting services, and requiring auditors to give "an unencumbered opinion of a situation", as opposed to the current "historical review."

Canada's transition to International Financial Reporting Standards, while improving transparency and comparability of Canadian companies, will likely not affect credit ratings, according to a new report from Moody's Investor Service.

Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, who was appointed only six months ago to oversee the board that sets international accounting standards, died of a heart attack on Saturday night.

Eighty percent of CPA firms reported either a decline in revenue, no growth, or modest growth between May 2008 and June 2010, according to a new survey by the American Institute of CPAs and the Texas Society of CPAs.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has issued revisions to its financial reporting entity standards to better account for business-type activities at government-run institutions such as state universities.