Audit & Accounting

The IRS said that time is running out for many small businesses that wish to take advantage of the tax breaks in the stimulus bill.

The Small Business Administration and the Commerce Department plan to offer more federal contracts to small businesses, but a small business advocacy group is skeptical.

CFOs and senior-level accountants anticipate spending more of their time five years from now on non-accounting functions, according to a new survey.

IMGCAP(1)] I recently read an article challenging the reader to sum up one’s leadership in six words. I decided to apply this same challenge in describing my experience at the AICPA Leadership Academy. My six words: Amazing professionals. Thought provoking. Life changing.

With trillion-dollar deficits, cap-and-trade and nationalized health care on the horizon, the issues involving the possible registering and licensing of tax preparers seem trivial. Yet the ability to fund the deficits and pay for a nationalized health care system ultimately depends on the ability of the federal government to collect tax.

The SEC has approved rules requiring public accounting firms registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to report events such as legal proceedings and changes in a firm’s contact information within 30 days to the PCAOB, as well as file annual reports on disciplinary matters and other issues.

The Government Accounting Standards Board has drafted proposed standards for local government bankruptcies, and is giving interested parties until August 28 to comment.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board may expand the use of mark-to-market accounting to the loans held by banks.

The American Bankers Association has released a letter and white paper raising concerns over the process taken by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board in their financial instruments projects.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has published two lists of accounting firms that have not yet been inspected and jurisdictions in which it has inspected registered non-U.S. firms.