Audit & Accounting

A Senate report estimates that tax cheating now equals about 7 cents out of each dollar paid by honest taxpayers, or as much as $70 billion annually.

It's time for public companies to begin disclosing the reasons behind an auditor change, a new report from Glass Lewis & Co. argues.

The American Institute of CPAs has released two exposure drafts, one tackling standards for attestation engagements, another amendments to auditing standards.

Many times I have told readers of this column and of Practical Accountant of state Web sites that list owners of unclaimed property that was transferred to the state from businesses and entities that were holding the property for years, but who weren't able to communicate with the property owner so the property could be claimed. I figured firms could publicize the sites, and a perusal would result in "found money" for a number of the firm's clients.

Grant Thornton will not be held liable for an unqualified opinion it issued on the 1999 financial statements of Daw Technologies.

Lately, the costs of placing help-wanted ads have waned considerably at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board issued its first-ever audit practice alert, warning auditors to be on the watch for problems in the timing and accounting of stock-option grants."Auditors planning or performing an audit should be alert to the risk that the issuer may not have properly accounted for stock option grants and ... may have materially misstated its financial statements," the alert said, alluding to recent investigations by both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Internal Revenue Service into whether companies routinely backdate, spring load, or otherwise manipulate, stock options grants to top executives.

A federal appeals court upheld the conviction and 25-year prison sentence handed to former WorldCom Inc. chief executive Bernard Ebbers a year ago.

Federal prosecutors received yet another slap on the wrist from Manhattan Judge Lewis Kaplan, as the judge ruled they inappropriately used economic pressure to coerce testimony from two partners at KPMG.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will require public companies to provide more information about the pay given to top executives under rules unanimously adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission.