Audit & Accounting

Rep. Barney Frank said that wage inequality among U.S. workers is his No. 1 priority as he prepares to take over chairmanship of the House Financial Services Committee this week.In a speech at the National Press Club, Frank, D-Mass., said that he will hold hearings about wages over the next two years in an attempt to address the gap between economic growth and workers' wages.

As president and chief executive of the Institute of Management Accountants for the past three years, Paul Sharman has worked to establish a new direction for the association.Sharman’s ultimate goal is to reposition management accountants at the forefront of the accountancy profession, and in recent years the IMA has focused on advancing the management accounting and finance profession through certification, superior professional ethical standards and competence-based continuing education.

It was just this July that I authored a column praising Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox for successfully navigating through a number of potentially sensitive issues during his first year on the job.Among one of the examples I cited was Cox’s handling of a number of investigations involving the practice of stock-options granting to executives. Now, just four months after implementing tough new rules on how companies have to disclose executive compensation, the SEC issued a quiet statement on Dec. 22 saying that it would take another look at those rules.

Baby Boomers are just becoming aware that when they retire and because of greater life expectancies, they will probably need a steady income steam for at least 25 years, maybe for as long as 35 or more.

The International Federation of Accountants is proposing the first major revisions to its code of ethics for accountants since late 2001.

The President's Identity Theft Task Force announced that it is seeking public comment on various recommendations to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the federal government's efforts to reduce identity theft.

To finish off the year, I thought it might be very worthwhile, as we get ready for New Year’s Resolutions, to consider certain ideals, courtesy of my friends at Buckingham Asset Management. They have adopted the following principles to help them serve as a trusted advisor. It bears repeating over and over because Buckingham is right on target:

The American Institute of CPAs has asked the Internal Revenue Service to clarify the deductibility of health insurance premiums covering S corporation shareholders.

Beleaguered health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc. announced that a Securities and Exchange Commission probe of the stock-options practices has been formalized.

Philadelphia, the city in which our Founding Fathers created the words to govern our country, this month housed the fathers of another language -- one they hope businesses in every nation will adopt to turn financial reporting from a tower of babble into a world of ubiquitous fluency. Backers of the Extensible Business Reporting Language expressed excitement over their progress in enticing companies to conduct internal reporting and regulatory filings in this format. Roughly 500 people from 27 countries attended the 14th international conference, which indicates increased interest from last fall’s showing of 300, but not necessarily increased understanding. At least conference organizers foresaw the dilemma and astutely prepared novices, even promising “compelling” demos free of technical jargon to prove that XBRL applications can make life easier for accountants, auditors, and investors looking to do everything from internal budgeting on Excel spreadsheets to quantitative analysis for investment management.