Audit & Accounting

A group of lawmakers from the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee have written a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew urging the Internal Revenue Service to back off of a proposed rule change modifying the retail inventory method of accounting, which retailers fear could cost them millions of dollars a year.

The Institute of Cost Accountants of India has opened an office in Washington, D.C., its ninth overseas center.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has issued for public comment a proposed concepts statement that would guide GASB when establishing standards regarding the measurement of assets and liabilities for U.S. state and local governments.

The International Accounting Standards Board has issued a revised exposure draft containing proposals for changing the accounting for insurance contracts.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a China-based company and its CEO with fraudulently misleading investors about its financial condition by touting cash balances that were millions of dollars higher than actual amounts.

The House Financial Services Committee has unanimously passed legislation prohibiting the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board from mandating the automatic rotation of a public company’s independent external auditor.

The European Commission has extended its cooperation agreement with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, allowing the PCAOB to continue exchanging confidential information with European audit regulators.

Hiring for accounting graduates is at a record level, according to a new study by the American Institute of CPAs, which also found the number of accounting graduates and enrollments in accounting education programs continuing their upward trend and reaching historic levels.

The accounting profession was slightly more optimistic this month than last, according to the June edition of Accounting Today’s monthly Accountants Confidence Index.

Less than nine months after uncovering the $215 million financial fraud at Peregrine Financial Group, Confirmation.com said that its electronic audit confirmation service was used to uncover another case of financial fraud.