Audit & Accounting

The 2008 Moss Adams Financial Performance Study of Advisory Firms has just been launched and the company urges advisors to participate. This annual study provides data and insights to help financial advisors across all business models achieve success. The study coverage includes:

Don't burn bridges. Don't take any nonsense. Those were some of the curt, but significant nuggets of advice from a keynote by Nichola Holt, a partner within Global Employer Services at Deloitte Tax LLP, during the Association for Accounting Marketing New York Metropolitan Chapter's March meeting. At the session, titled, "Women's Initiatives: The Revolution to Bridge the Gender Divide," Holt shared her experiences of coming to New York City from London and her road to making partner -- first at Arthur Andersen in 1999 and then later at Deloitte --and how she lassoed opportunities, opening up doors for others in the process. "You've got to really ask and articulate the value when the opportunity comes up," she said, "Sometimes you have to focus on what's important rather than what's urgent on your desk." Holt, who has been part of her firms' committees choosing candidates for partnership, said she admitted to being a little embarrassed at times by what some of the women offered up as client presentations. She said men were more prepared than their female counterparts, who lacked punch and enthusiasm. "Their personality wasn't coming out," she recalled, adding that women need to know and then articulate to their firms how to win business and then present themselves in a polished and succinct manner. For personal and professional development, Holt suggested "paying it forward," finding role models, understanding how gender differences impact success, articulating your value, enhancing your personal brand and maintaining self-clarity. She said career planning should be focused and include asking for help, as well as seeking feedback. When considering someone for partner, Holt said that she wants to know how the person will build the business, how they will bring value to their business and how much revenue they are currently managing. While Deloitte has formal programs to enhance women's leadership, work/life balance and diversity issues, she said the firm also encourages informal interactions to keep people connected and inspired. "Dr Pepper breaks" or brief 15-minute meetings in places such as the break room or by the water cooler with mentors or others in the firm can keep people engaged without the commitment of a lunch or dinner meeting to catch up. During tax season, Holt said she offers food-centric breaks such as ice cream in the afternoon or pizza at dinnertime if people are still in the office. She said Deloitte would be relaunching their mentoring program once tax season is over. Holt added that younger women in the firm are asking for male mentors, especially if it's a senior member of the firm to find out their career experiences. Deloitte also introduced a "Junior Win" program with a specific focus on those at the manager level or lower. She said younger staff members are often interested in work life balance and "green" environmental issues, as well as, community-oriented volunteerism. "It's a journey and you have to focus or you won't get there," she said.

The nation's economic policy heads outlined sweeping recommendations to strengthen the nation's credit markets -- calling for stronger licensing standards for mortgage brokers, more duel diligence from credit-rating agencies and stronger trading systems for complex instruments in an effort to avoid another credit meltdown. "Regulation needs to catch up with innovation and help restore investor confidence but not go so far as to create new problems, make our markets less efficient or cut off credit to those who need it," Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said during a speech at the National Press Club. "We are encouraging financial institutions to continue to strengthen balance sheets by raising capital and revisiting dividend policies; we need those institutions to continue to lend and facilitate economic growth." Paulson, who heads the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, said the recommendations emanate from seven months' work by the group, which is comprised of the heads of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York Federal Reserve Board and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Specifically, the PWG recommended strengthening the credit markets in the following areas: transparency and disclosure, risk awareness, risk management, capital management, regulatory policies, and market infrastructure. Paulson stressed that both state and local regulators need to strengthen oversight of mortgage originators, while credit rating agencies, must "perform robust due diligence" of originators of assets that are securitized or used as collateral for structured credit products. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke labeled the recommendations an "appropriate and effective response to deficiencies in our financial framework that contributed to the current turmoil in financial markets," in a release accompanying the working group's policy statement. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said the agency would use its new authority to address rating agency issues to restore investor confidence. "This effort is not about finding excuses and scapegoats. Those who committed fraud or wrongdoing have contributed to the current problems; authorities need to and are prosecuting them. But poor judgment and poor market practices led to mistakes by all participants," Paulson said. Paulson's remarks can be read at: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp872.htm

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a notice with procedures for vehicle manufacturers to certify that a fuel cell vehicle meets the requirements for a tax credit. It also provides guidance to taxpayers who purchase certified vehicles regarding what they must do to use the credit. Under the law, the new qualified fuel cell motor vehicle credit is available to purchasers of qualified vehicles. The amount of the new qualified fuel cell motor vehicle credit is based on the weight of the vehicle and on when the vehicle is placed in service. An additional credit may be available for a fuel cell passenger automobile or light truck based on a comparison of the city fuel economy rating of that vehicle with the 2002 model year city fuel economy of a vehicle in its weight class. For fuel cell vehicles that weigh not more than 8,500 pounds, the base credit amount is $8,000 if the vehicle is placed in service on or before Dec. 31, 2009. The base credit amount is reduced to $4,000 if the vehicle is placed in service after that date. The amount of the credit available for heavy vehicles varies from $10,000 to $40,000, depending on the weight of the vehicle. The purchaser may claim a credit for the certified amount for a fuel cell vehicle if it is placed in service by the taxpayer after Dec. 31, 2005, and is purchased on or before Dec. 31, 2014.

In its effort to better police microcap securities, the Securities and Exchange Commission suspended the trading of 26 companies for "corporate hijacking."Hijacking refers to when someone seizes the identity of a defunct publicly traded corporation. The SEC said that the incident involved certain people incorporating each of the 26 companies using the same name as a then-defunct or inactive publicly traded corporation.Under trading rules, each class of an issuer's publicly-traded securities is assigned a ticker symbol by Nasdaq Reorganization and a CUSIP number by the Standard & Poor's CUSIP Bureau. The commission said the same persons appear to have usurped the CUSIP numbers and ticker symbols assigned to the defunct or inactive corporations' publicly traded securities for use by the newly incorporated entities.The regulator said the suspensions are first actions under the SEC's Enforcement Division's recently formed Microcap Fraud Working Group. The trading suspensions will last until March 27.

The American Institute of CPAs sent a letter to the Senate Finance Committee prior to its March 12 hearing on estate tax reform urging lawmakers to make permanent changes to the estate tax prior to the current law expiring in 2010.In a letter, the institute reiterated a prioritized series of reforms -- a list that the AICPA had previously sent to Congress in 2005 and again in 2006.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Committee on Finance, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member, have written to several religious ministries to urge cooperation with an earlier information request from Grassley. The ministry inquiry that Grassley launched last November is meant to gauge the effectiveness of certain tax-exempt policies. "This ought to clear up any misunderstanding about our interest and the committee's role," Grassley said. "We have an obligation to oversee how the tax laws are working for both tax-exempt organizations and taxpayers. Just like with reviews of other tax-exempt organizations in recent years, I look forward to the cooperation of these ministries in the weeks and months ahead." Grassley wrote to six ministries in November, asking a series of questions on the nonprofit organizations' expenses, treatment of donations and business practices. The questions were based on presentations of material from watchdog groups and whistleblowers and on investigative reports in local media outlets. One of the six ministries, Joyce Meyer Ministries of Fenton, Mo., has cooperated substantially with his request and provided the requested information. Benny Hinn Ministries of Grapevine, Texas, has indicated a willingness to cooperate and provided answers to five of the 28 questions so far. Representatives for Randy and Paula White of Without Walls International Church/Paula White Ministries, Tampa, Fla., have verbally indicated to Finance Committee staff that they would cooperate. The remaining ministries have not cooperated, citing privacy protections or questioning the committee's standing to request the information. Baucus and Grassley wrote to them on March 11 to describe the committee's jurisdiction and role in determining the effectiveness of tax policy developed by the committee, distinct from the Internal Revenue Service's role, which is to enforce existing law. The three ministries are: Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Newark, Texas; Creflo and Taffi Dollar of World Changers Church International/Creflo Dollar Ministries, College Park, Ga.; and Eddie L. Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church/Eddie L. Long Ministries, Lithonia, Ga.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have put aside their regulatory turf wars and entered into a memorandum of understanding that fosters cooperation between the two enforcement bodies in market oversight and regulation. The agreement includes an information-sharing platform along with guidance for new product reviews - particularly if the products can trade as both a security or a commodity. The first order of business under the joint relationship is notices requesting public comment on two new products --the first is an option that would be traded on options exchanges, and the other is a future that would trade on a single stock futures exchange. The requests for comment will be published in the Federal Register.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to improve oversight of its process for interpreting tax laws through its published guidance program, according to a new audit publicly released today by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The audit, "The Public Guidance Program Needs Additional Controls to Minimize Risks and Increase Public Awareness," examined the process by which the IRS Office of Chief Counsel develops tax guidance, including a pilot guidance program to request and evaluate public submissions before considering changes to existing regulations. The chairman and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee requested the review after news articles questioned whether the pilot program was putting special interest before the public's interests when developing tax guidance. "We believe the pilot program does not present an increased risk of influence by special interest groups in the selection of guidance projects," TIGTA Inspector General J. Russell George said. "The pilot program did not directly create tax guidance or circumvent existing internal controls." "Although Counsel considers ideas from a wide variety of sources when selecting guidance projects for its annual business plan, it does not track all open projects on the business plan, which could lead to an increased risk of untimely actions, less management oversight, and less public awareness," George added. The audit makes seven recommendations to IRS, including expanding written procedures for developing and monitoring the guidance business plan, issuing more frequent updates to and establishing a reasonable expectation in the Priority Guidance Plan, and improving recordkeeping.

The Center for Audit Quality has weighed in on the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposal to delay certain internal control reporting requirements for smaller companies, in a letter suggesting that the commission use the postponement to better assess the costs and benefits of implementing new standards and guidance. The SEC has proposed pushing back by one year the Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 deadline for non-accelerated filers to provide auditors' attestation reports on internal controls over financial reporting in annual reports, to fiscal years ending on or after Dec. 15, 2009. While stating that, "The benefits of complete 404 reporting ... should be available to investors in smaller companies," the comment letter from CAQ executive director Cindy Fornelli acknowledged the potential benefits of the delay in allowing the integration of forthcoming guidance from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations into auditor assessments. The letter also urged the SEC to broaden its effort to evaluate the cost effectiveness of new regulations and guidance, particularly the PCAOB's Auditing Standard No. 5, by including input not only from reporting companies, but from investors, audit committee members, auditors and others. An affiliate of the American Institute of CPAs, the CAQ is dedicated to fostering investor and market confidence in the audit process.