Audit & Accounting

The workload for financial advisors in Seattle and Austin lessened somewhat over the last few years, as big employers such as Microsoft and Dell curtailed their use of stock options.Across the nation, an increasing number of companies have moved toward alternative forms of employee incentive compensation in response to the sweeping changes in accounting rules regarding options expensing dictated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board.

Since Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act went into effect, both external and internal auditors have been unsure exactly how to treat "the work of others," not to mention "each other."The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board have made it clear that public auditors need to scrutinize companies more carefully, including their internal controls over financial reporting, but at a PCAOB roundtable discussion in April, auditors and corporate financial officers complained of the increased cost of these intensified audits.

Weak financial management at the Securities and Exchange Commission has led to budget overruns of nearly $50 million in two years, according to a report issued by the Government Accountability Office.

Clerks at the nation's bankruptcy courts processed a record 205,129 personal bankruptcy filings last week, and a private consulting firm estimates that a backlog of unprocessed filings could push the total to 300,000.

A federal prosecutor asked a Los Angeles judge to deny bail to a former KPMG partner indicted in the government's tax shelter fraud case, calling him a flight risk.

According to a recent study, the value of stock options given to employees at the nation's largest companies dwindled by roughly 60 percent throughout 2001-04.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies has announced plans for a two-day meeting in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 24 and 25.

The government added 10 defendants to its indictment in the KPMG LLP tax shelter investigation, including the Big Four accounting firm's former chief financial officer, bringing the number of people charged in the case to 19.

The Social Security Administration recently announced the highest cost-of-living increase since 1991, setting the adjustment at 4.1 percent for more than 52 million retired and disabled recipients.

PricewaterhouseCoopers announced that Samuel A. DiPiazza, Jr. has been reappointed to a second four-year term as chief executive of PricewaterhouseCoopers' global organization. His new term will begin Jan. 1.