Audit & Accounting

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who dismissed charges against 13 of the defendants in the KPMG tax shelter case earlier this week, has issued a temporary stay on his own decision.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said it plans to hold a meeting to consider a new ethics and independence rule concerning communication with audit committees.

Stephen Cooper, a managing director and head of valuation and accounting research at UBS Investment Bank, has been appointed to the International Accounting Standards Board.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox told a Town Hall Los Angeles meeting that he wants Congress to give more power to the Governmental Accounting Standards Board so GASB can police accounting practices at the state and local government level and better regulate the municipal bond market.He would like the SEC to be able to enforce GASB accounting rules when it sees a violation by a state or local government, similar to the way the SEC can take action against companies that flout Financial Accounting Standards Board rules. Texas and Connecticut have both passed bills recently allowing alternative accounting rules, although Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell has vetoed that state’s bill.

A group of companies and organizations in the United Kingdom has responded to the Financial Reporting Council's report on constraints in the audit market that have forced most large public companies to rely on one of the Big Four accounting firms for audit services.

Louisiana accounting firms LaPorte Sehrt Romig Hand CPAs and the Gautreau Group plan to merge on October 1.

A federal judge has dropped the charges against 13 defendants in the KPMG tax shelter case.Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan blamed prosecutors for forcing the Big Four accounting firm to stop paying the legal fees of the 13 defendants and said their constitutional rights had been violated.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is forging closer ties with Australian regulators.The PCAOB has signed a statement of protocol with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to improve cooperation in their oversight of auditors and public accounting firms that practice in the United States and Australia.

The Internal Revenue Service said it has begun mailing educational letters this month to more than 650,000 small tax-exempt organizations to let them know they need to start submitting a new annual electronic notice known as an e-Postcard.Form 990-N, the electronic notice they have to send, is intended for tax-exempt organizations with gross receipts of $25,000 or less. Until the passage of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, charities of that size weren't required to submit either the Form 990 or 990-EZ.

The European Union has released a report praising the ongoing convergence of accounting standards in Europe, the United States and other parts of the world, but says there's still work to do.EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McGreevy welcomed the progress made so far to bring accounting standards in the U.S., Canada, Japan, China and India more in line with International Financial Reporting Standards. The European Commission report also lauded the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's announcement that it would consider allowing companies to file IFRS financial statements without first reconciling them with GAAP.