Audit & Accounting

Washington, D.C.-In the wake of several high-profile Ponzi schemes - most notably, the $65 billion fraud perpetrated by the now-jailed Bernard Madoff - the Internal Revenue Service has issued new guidance for victims of these types of schemes and their tax preparers.

Among the many changes born of the financial crisis that's sweeping the globe are changes in internal auditing departments.

About a year ago, we began hearing a clamor that accountants exacerbated the financial debacle by reporting market values in financial statements. In turn, accountants ducked the blame by arguing strongly that the Financial Accounting Standards Board was at fault for requiring investment market values to be reported. These complaints have continued to this day.

At least one Chicago-area CPA firm has won braggingrights after it received the highest rating possible on an independent peerreview of its financial statement audit and review services.

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader has written an article for his Web site chastising the CPA profession for standing by while Wall Street firms "used the latest tricks to cook the books."

Technology is supposed to make our lives easier – that is if we know what we’re using. With a variety of free tools on the market, it’s hard to decipher or find the time to investigate the best of the best. Nicholas Gaffney, a partner at Infinite Public Relations in San Francisco, offers a list of his firm’s top choices of collaboration and productivity tools for all generations.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board isconsidering making changes in the standards for audit confirmations after arecent wave of auditing scandals.

As the profession prepares for the transition to adoptingInternational Financial Reporting Standards, the Center for Audit Quality hasfired off a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission offering a seriesof recommendations to improve the regulator's proposed IFRS roadmap.

At least one critic of the proposed changes inmark-to-market and fair value accounting rules is changing his tune and seeingsome positive signs in the final version.

The Texas Society of CPAs warned the Financial AccountingStandards Board that FASB's recently approved changes in fair value accountingstandards could damage the credibility of CPAs in general.