Audit & Accounting

Assets in Section 529 college savings plans rose to an estimated $55.4 billion at the end of the first quarter, according to data released by the nonprofit College Savings Foundation.

KPMG LLP's board elected Timothy P. Flynn, 48, as chairman and chief executive, replacing Eugene O'Kelly, who will step down from that role to deal with a recent diagnosis of advanced-stage cancer.

Hiring ceilings at the Securities and Exchange Commission have reportedly been cut by 10 percent across the board amid facility cost overruns and an anticipated lower budget for fiscal 2006.

The American Institute of CPAs has named Gary M. Scopes as director of international relations.

Overseas accounting rule makers are kicking off the summer with a series of road shows across Europe to talk with members of the business community there about International Financial Reporting Standards, which are now mandatory for listed companies in all 25 member states of the European Union.

Eisner Retirement Solutions, a unit of regional CPA and business advisory firm Eisner, unveiled a free turnkey product to assist plan sponsors in complying with the Department of Labor's mandatory individual retirement account rollover requirements that were laid out in the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Act of 2001.

The laws that govern estate and retirement planning do not change much from year to year beyond adjustments to the relevant tax tables. In fact, the most recent major changes stem from the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001.

While individuals are allowed to exclude gain of $250,000 ($500,000 by a married couple filing a joint return) on the sale of property owned and used as a principal residence for at least two years in the five-year period ending on the date of the sale, they should still do everything possible to determine their basis in a principal residence.

While many accounting graduates have traditionally gone the Big Four or big corporation route for their first job, finance executives say that they'd advise new grads to start small, according to a recent survey.

Almost overnight, lease accounting has morphed into one of the profession's biggest headaches, as more than 300 companies have had to restate their financials, citing, among other issues, corrections to lease accounting errors.