Audit & Accounting

Deloitte & Touche's statements in an audit released last year of Bear Stearns may have given investors an inkling of the trouble to come at the investment firm, which was acquired this week by JPMorgan Chase for $2 a share in a Federal Reserve-backed deal that has averted a likely bankruptcy.

The California Society of CPAs said it would begin an educational initiative to help its 31,000 members cope with International Financial Reporting Standards.

By the time this column appears, CPAs everywhere are going to be tackling stacks of paperwork for income taxes. This will be true whether they are up to their necks in client returns, or struggling in an audit to reconcile book and tax income in Schedule M.With those pains in mind, it only makes sense that accountants would prefer GAAP accounting for income taxes to be relatively simple.

When it comes to financial or retirement planning or wealth management, no two clients are even remotely alike. Each comes with a different level of existing investments or retirement plans; each has different life goals and a different appetite for risk.Sorting out these variables in a basic analysis of the client’s position is the first step toward crafting a cohesive and effective plan. Unfortunately, no single software package or tool kit can easily handle the full range of analysis that may be required, so the planner will generally require several different kinds of tools.

AICPA RELEASES ADVISOR GUIDEThe American Institute of CPAs and Fiduciary360 have published the U.S. edition of a handbook for investment advisors. Prudent Practices for Investment Advisors identifies 23 practices for advisors to follow. The book helps them manage risk by providing a recommended “checklist” for carrying out investment decisions with prudence and due diligence. The book was reviewed and edited by the Fiduciary Task Force of the AICPA Personal Financial Planning Executive Committee.

Thomson Tax & Accounting has introduced an estate-planning notebook organizer that accountants can send to their clients as gifts.

The administration’s budget proposal to conform the penalty standards applicable to preparers and taxpayers has been welcomed by tax professionals concerned about possible conflicts of interest between preparers and their clients.The budget, the administration’s blueprint for legislative proposals, also calls for making permanent the 2001-2003 tax cuts, and offers measures to increase savings and investment and to improve compliance with the tax system. Rather than address Alternative Minimum Tax reform, it proposes a one-year patch to keep the number of taxpayers subject to the tax at around 4 million.

While many Washington observers have called much of the tax revenue side of the Bush administration’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget proposals dead on arrival, this year’s “Blue Book” of Treasury explanations nevertheless remains an important tax-planning tool.It underscores what the Bush administration considers are problems remaining to be solved. As such, they are problems that need to be either addressed or “planned around” in the meantime. Here is our take on some of the highlights in making that determination.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Private Company Financial Reporting Committee has been active for barely a year, but it has already changed the way accounting standards are set.And 2008 may well be the group’s breakout year, according to committee chairperson Judith O’Dell.

XBRL US named Campbell Pryde as vice president, domain and chief standards officer of the nonprofit consortium, which is setting standards for the use of the Extensible Business Reporting Language in the United States.