Audit & Accounting

Five Silicon Valley businessmen are suing Ernst & Young, accusing the firm of roping them into an illegitimate tax shelter around the time of the dot-com implosion.

KPMG LLP has named Phil Rohrbaugh to the newly combined position of vice chairman of industries and marketing.In the position, Rohrbaugh, 54, will be responsible for enhancing the skills and knowledge of KPMG’s professionals around key industries. Formerly managing partner for KPMG’s Philadelphia office, Rohrbaugh will also serve as a member of the U.S. firm’s management committee.

The Connecticut Society of CPAs is very, very good at disseminating specific financial planning and tax tips not only to CPAs but also to the general public. Some of those recently caught my eye as being particularly easy to understand and right to the point.The society sent out a notice on its Web site about how the public could get their money matters in order after popping champagne corks, tossing confetti, and making New Year’s resolutions.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a standard providing companies with an option to report selected financial assets and liabilities at fair value.

The Internal Revenue Service announced the selection of 16 new members for its advisory council. The appointees will join 11 returning members who are in the last year of a three-year term.The council members are scheduled to meet in Washington, D.C. several times in 2007, with a public report to be provided during a meeting open to the public on Nov. 15.

Retirement is the No. 1 personal financial planning concern, regardless of age, according to an informal survey at the American Institute of CPAs’ 2007 Personal Financial Planning Conference.The AICPA said that it was a surprised to see that retirement planning is a major concern for career builders -- classified as those between the ages of 25 and 34 -- who also have the seemingly more immediate pressures of education, home buying and debt management following close behind.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will hold a roundtable discussion next month concerning a plan to eventually allow companies based outside the United States to file financial results in the country using international accounting standards.Slated for March 6 in Washington, senior SEC staff members from the Office of the Chief Accountant, the Division of Corporation Finance and the Office of International Affairs will all participate. The roundtable will be open to the public and will focus on the effect such a change would have on U.S. companies and investors, as well as on U.S. capital raising and the capital markets.

Katherine Schipper, a recent member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, has joined the advisory board for BNA’s recently launched Accounting Policy & Practice Series.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is beginning to move to protect accounting firms from investor lawsuits that accuse them of fraud, according to published reports.The New York Times reported that last week, the SEC filed a brief in the Supreme Court asking the justices to consider the adoption of a legal standard to make it harder for shareholders to win judgments in fraud lawsuits against publicly traded companies and their executives.

A Florida auditing firm will pay $500,000 to avoid a lawsuit with officials in Nassau County, located in the northeast corner of the state.