Audit & Accounting

Nonprofit software provider Serenic Corp., parent to the flagship Navigator product, okayed granting stock options to its directors and senior officers. The company granted 100,000 stock options to Bruce Saville, who joined the Serenic board last week; 85,000 to board members Don Caron, Ron Odynski, and chairman Dwayne Kushniruk; 50,000 to chief executive Randy Keith; 35,000 to corporate secretary David Tam; and 25,000 to CFO Paul Johnston.

Big Four firm KPMG LLP is offering two Webcasts this week, with one on the potential affect of proposed Treasury Department regulations on contract manufacturing arrangements, and another on recent developments for companies doing business in India. "Proposed Regulations May Affect Taxation of Contract Manufacturing Arrangements" will take place on Thurs., March 13, at 2:00 p.m. EST, and will examine the Treasury and Internal Revenue Services' Feb. 27 proposed regulations on the foreign-based company sales income consequences under the Subpart F provisions of U.S. tax law. The proposed regulations are intended to modernize the FBCSI rules to reflect new manufacturing arrangements. Experts from KPMG's national tax, international corporate tax, and global transfer pricing services practices will discuss the proposed regulations and their potential impact on the supply chains of multinational companies. The other Webcast, "2008 India Budget Briefing," will take place on Wed., March 12, at 2:00 p.m. EST, and will discuss the potential implications of the country's recently introduced budget proposal for U.S. multinational companies with investments or operations in India, with a focus on various tax changes, and will include a Q&A session. Continuing professional education credits are available for both Webcasts, for participants who meet the eligibility requirements. To register, go to www.kpmgtaxwatch.com.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance for the proper pooling treatment of automobiles, light-duty trucks, and crossover vehicles that have the characteristics of trucks and cars under the dollar-value, last-in, first-out inventory method. To address the distinctions between cars and light-duty trucks, and in response to an Industry Issue Resolution Program request submitted by Miller Chevalier Chartered and the National Auto Dealership Association, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service issued Revenue Procedure 2008-23. Light-duty trucks are trucks with a gross vehicle weight of 14,000 pounds or less. Effective for tax years ending on or after Dec. 31, 2007, the revenue procedure provides a safe harbor pooling method, the Vehicle-Pool Method, for resellers of cars and light-duty trucks. The Vehicle-Pool Method allows a reseller to establish a new vehicle pool for inventories of new vehicles including new cars, new light-duty trucks, and new crossover vehicles including SUVs, minivans and other similar vehicles and a used vehicle pool for inventories of used vehicles. Revenue Procedure 2008-23 also provides the procedures for a reseller subject to the LIFO pooling requirements to obtain automatic consent to change to the Vehicle-Pool Method.

Governments in large countries seem to be turning away from taxes as a way to force their citizens to follow better environmental practices, according to a report by KPMG.

The American Institute of CPAs has ramped up its mobility efforts to allow CPAs to practice in other states, with mobility bills enacted now in 12 states and legislation pending in 22 other states.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a report warning public pension funds that they risk violating the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws if they do not have adequate compliance policies in place to prevent wrongdoing.

Australians are considered the world's richest superannuation holders, a report indicates. It says this is because of a very strong domestic currency and the government permitting citizens to drop as much as $1 million tax-free into their retirement savings. Superannuation is a pension scheme in Australia. It has a compulsory element whereby employers are required by law to pay a proportion of an employee's salaries and wages (currently nine percent) into a superannuation fund, which can be accessed when the employee retires After over a decade of compulsory contributions, Australian workers have close to a trillion dollars in superannuation assets with more money invested in managed funds per capita than any other economy. Compulsory superannuation in combination with buoyant economic growth has turned Australia into a 'shareholder society' where most workers are now indirect investors in the stock market. Consequently, a lively personal investment marketplace has developed, and many Australians take an interest in investment topics. According to the AFG Global Fund Management Index, our Aussie friends had an average of $63,794 invested in managed funds at the end of the last financial year. My wife’s cousin read this in the local Sydney paper. In fact, local super funds, on average, outperformed their peers in a top-10 list that included the United States, Canada, and France. To add to this, in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2007, the amount handled by Australian managed funds grew by 32.4 percent. In comparison to our world, the value of American managed funds climbed by only 8.5 percent to $43,458 while those in Britain rose by 23.2 percent to $17,515. Ross Nayler, who is a principal with AFG Financial Planning, says that clearly the stronger Australian dollar, now trading at around 90 U.S. cents, plus specific laws allowing people to put up to $1 million tax free into their super savings helped make Australia the world leader. "One of the key messages is we've been at the top of the table for quite some time and we're getting further ahead.” In fact, for the period of five years to the second quarter of 2007, Australian managed funds posted a per capita growth rate of 97.7 percent. But now comes the clinker. Another survey, the AMP Superannuation Adequacy Index Report, for January to June of last year, found that 30 percent of Australian workers under the age of 40 would not have enough savings to retire comfortably. Moreover, it found that 3.4 million Australians across all working-age groups were falling behind in preparing for their twilight years. Nayler notes that minimum contribution levels are needed. Macquarie Research Economics expects then that Australian superannuation funds will post less spectacular returns in 2008. It points out that after recording huge gains in the past couple of years on the back of double-digit returns, growth in superannuation funds under management is set to be more subdued this year. Of course, I might add, as my cousin stresses, the absence of the $1 million contribution program is expected to slow down super growth rates in 2008. It may be their lead in superannuation will be dwindling.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued final regulations for tax deductions on domestic film productions, while revising the definition of the types of films that qualify for the deduction.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of the Chief Accountant chose six professional accounting fellows for two-year terms beginning in 2008.

Senior financial supervisors from five countries - France, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States - have issued a report assessing various risk management practices that banks and other financial services organizations have used that contributed to the recent turmoil in the world markets.