Audit & Accounting

A new nationwide research study on family businesses commissioned by Seattle-based Laird Norton Co., a diversified financial concern, shows that overwhelming optimism of the owners of family businesses about their future might prove to be premature because of a lack of strategic vision, succession planning and governance policies.The survey showed that nearly 60 percent of majority shareowners in family businesses are 55 or older, while 30 percent are 65 or older. However, less than 30 percent of those respondents even have succession plans in place, and fewer than 40 percent have a successor lined up.

Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers agreed to pay $225 million to settle a securities and accounting fraud class-action lawsuit brought by Tyco shareholders. The accounting giant's payment, combined with Tyco's share, will bring the total amount of the settlement to $3.2 billion including interest, according to the three law firms representing the plaintiffs: Grant & Eisenhofer, Schiffrin Barroway Topaz & Kessler, and Milberg Weiss.

Little Rock, Ark. - Arkansas accounting giant Moore Stephens Frost has acquired a North Carolina firm, Lynch and Howard.

A bill before the Connecticut State Senate would give its state comptroller the legal authority to establish generally accepted accounting principles for the state's financials, thereby sidestepping the Governmental Accounting Standards Board - the standard-setter for governments and municipalities.Proponents said that GASB's accounting rules make it hard to achieve a balanced budget, which Connecticut requires.

Pension fund disclosures will soon look more like those of other post-employment benefits under a new statement issued by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.Statement 50, Pension Disclosures, amends Statement 25, on reporting on defined-benefit pension plans, and Statement 27, on accounting for pensions by governmental employers. The amendments make disclosures under those two statements consistent with the requirements of Statements 43, on reporting OPEB, and 45, on reporting on OPEB by governmental employers.

Think you've come up with a perfect tax strategy for your high-end clients? Before you go ahead with it, you might want to check if it's been patented. You're liable to be sued for patent infringement if someone else thought of it first.It all started in 1998, when a federal appeals court ruled that business methods could be patented. Since then, more than 60 tax-strategy patents have been granted, and 86 more are pending. And the first infringement suit has been filed over the SOGRAT patent.

One way to judge which are the most significant provisions in the Small Business and Work Opportunity Tax Act of 2007 - signed by President Bush on May 25, 2007, as part of a larger bill focused on war funding - is to look at which provisions are projected to cost the most or to raise the most revenue.The tax breaks included in this legislation are fully paid for with revenue increases. The main premise behind the legislation is that small business should receive some tax breaks to help offset the cost of being required to pay workers more due to the minimum wage increase. It would be a rare small business that finds that the cost of increasing the minimum wage for its workers is fully offset by the tax breaks included in the legislation.

Two auditing standards boards and an association of accounting academics are moving forward with a research project that could lead to significant changes in the content and phrasing of audit reports, perhaps even in the procedure of the audit itself.Concerned that investors and others may be misinterpreting the typical three-paragraph audit report, the boards are seeking a better understanding of what people think they're reading. In many cases, according to the American Institute of CPAs' director of auditing and attestation, Chuck Landes, some readers of audit reports are apparently seeing things that aren't there.

Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell vetoed a bill passed by the state legislature that would have allowed Connecticut to set its own accounting standards to balance the budget.

Here’s something that may be of interest to you.As you know, there are all sorts of lists out there ranging from Accounting Today’s most influential people in accounting to Practical Accountant’s regional survey of accounting firms to CPA Wealth Provider’s financial planning annual awards of excellence.