Audit & Accounting

Accountants Mike Karlins and Glea Ramey have purchased the Woodlands, Texas office of UHY Advisors TX and opened an independent firm, Karlins & Ramey LLC, CPAs.

The Internal Revenue Service warned taxpayers to beware of several current e-mail and telephone scams that use the IRS name as a lure.The goal of the scams is to trick people into revealing personal and financial information, such as Social Security, bank account or credit card numbers, which the scammers can use to commit identity theft. Typically, identity thieves use a victim's personal and financial data to empty the victim's financial accounts, run up charges on the victim's existing credit cards, apply for new loans, credit cards, services or benefits in the victim's name, file fraudulent tax returns or even commit crimes. Most of these fraudulent activities can be committed electronically from a remote location, including overseas. Committing these activities in cyberspace allows scammers to act quickly and cover their tracks before the victim becomes aware of the theft. The most recent scams brought to IRS attention are the rebate phone call, in which a bogus IRS employee tells the consumer he is eligible for a sizable rebate for filing his taxes early; a link for a refund that is e-mailed to tax-exempt organizations bearing the supposed signature of the IRS Exempt Organizations business division; and an e-mail inviting recipients to click on a series of links to download information on changes in the tax law, but which downloads malware onto the recipient's computer. A new scam, not seen before by the IRS, notifies the recipient by e-mail that his or her tax return will be audited. The e-mail instructs the recipient to click on links to complete forms with personal and account information that the scammers will use to commit identity theft.

David B. Duncan, former global engagement partner for Enron at the defunct audit firm Arthur Andersen, agreed to an injunction by the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges that he broke securities laws when he signed false and misleading audit reports.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has voted to adopt Auditing Standard No. 6, "Evaluating Consistency of Financial Statements," and an accompanying set of amendments to its interim auditing standards.

Billy Beane, vice president and general manager of the Oakland A’s, the keynote speaker at the recent Winning Is Everything Conference, explained how mathematics is transforming America’s pastime. Yes, I said mathematics.

MIAMI NAMES MCGLADREY

Since 1939, when the Tax Code's treatment of inventory was modified to permit LIFO, managers and accountants have faced a tri-lemma in that they have to choose among FIFO, LIFO and average flow assumptions. The Committee on Accounting Procedure issued Accounting Research Bulletin 29 in 1947 to provide guidance for this choice, but said two things that have hampered financial reporting ever since. (These provisions were subsequently integrated into ARB 43 in 1953, and remain in force 60 years later.)

Small companies have been copying a method to control insurance costs and reduce taxes that used to be the domain of large businesses: setting up their own insurance companies to provide coverage when they think that outside insurers are charging too much.Often, they are starting what is called “a captive insurance company” — an insurer founded to write coverage for the company, companies or people who founded it.

65 RETIRING AS RETIREMENT AGEAmericans age 50 and over are increasingly disregarding age 65 as the time to stop working, according to a poll conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates and commissioned by Experience Wave, a project that advances federal and state policies to keep older adults engaged in work and community life.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it has issued settled administrative orders against eight auditors who improperly issued audit reports on the financial statements of public companies while the audit firms were not registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.