Audit & Accounting

Chief financial officers' optimism about the economy and their own companies' prospects is the lowest it has been during the past 12 months, according to a survey of Financial Executives International members.

Better than one in every eight U.S. corporations that have undergone the more rigorous audits mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act during the past year have been flagged for ineffective internal controls over their financial reporting, officials at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board disclosed during a recent meeting with the organization's Standing Advisory Group.

Since Sarbanes-Oxley regulations went into effect for large enterprises, holding executives accountable for their company's financial records, the spotlight has been slowly turning towards nonprofits.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has taken a long look at an international standard on accounting changes, found it better than the American standard, and promptly adopted the gist of the international position.

Some taxpayers apparently believe that the ability to claim a charitable deduction for donation of an automobile ended on Dec. 31, 2004. The advertisements on the radio would make one believe that nothing has changed, and that you can still claim a deduction for donated automobiles just as before Jan. 1.

One of contemporary accounting's most persistent issues has taken a turn toward resolution as the American Institute of CPAs and the Financial Accounting Standards Board agreed to consider creating some kind of generally accepted accounting principles for privately held, for-profit companies.

Every so often, people and organizations mistakenly become so self-satisfied that they stumble into assuming their own infallibility, often accompanied by smug statements. Inevitably, events turn these boasts to dust.

An online filing error has revealed that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board authorized a probe into a 2003 audit performed by Big Four accounting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed paperwork last Thursday to again challenge a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule requiring that a mutual fund's chairman and three quarters of its directors be independent of the company.

A top litigation counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission will step down in August to become head of regulatory affairs for Merrill Lynch in New York.