Audit & Accounting

A controversial tax return inspection provision contained in a Bush administration budget bill for fiscal 2005 will be removed before the legislation is sent to the White House for the president's signature.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and its overseas counterpart, the International Accounting Standards Board, have formed a new joint international working group on performance reporting.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is angling to improve quality control over corporate audits by encouraging accountants to blow the whistle on financial reporting violations by their audit clients and by their own firms.

Internal Revenue Service enforcement activities brought in a record $43.1 billion in fiscal 2004, up 15 percent, or $5.5 billion, over 2003, the agency reported.

French technology consulting and outsourcing giant Cap Gemini refuted a report that it is mulling the sale of its North American business.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has barred Enron North America's former chief accounting officer from practicing before it for four years.

KPMG LLP has named Timothy R. Pearson, global managing partner and vice chair for marketing and communications, to the additional role of managing partner of the firm's Montvale national services center.

529 college savings plans continue to increase in popularity, as assets in the plans grew to an estimated $45.1 billion at the end of the third quarter, according to data released by the nonprofit College Savings Foundation.

As expected, the Securities and Exchange Commission this week postponed for a year the final phase-in period for rules that would shorten the amount of time that larger companies, known as "accelerated filers," have to file their quarterly and annual reports.

Executive compensation and internal audit compliance issues rank as the top concerns of corporate directors, according to a survey by the Columbia Business School Executive Education Division.