Accounting standards

Securities and Exchange Commission chief accountant Conrad Hewitt said SEC staff members planned to propose a date for mandating the use of International Financial Reporting Standards by public companies, but the date would not be confirmed for two years, giving accountants some extra leeway.

The International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation has released the IFRS Taxonomy 2008, a complete translation of International Financial Reporting Standards into Extensible Business Reporting Language.

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to launch an ambitious project to re-examine how companies and other entities should make financial disclosures to take advantage of the latest technologies.

CCH has enhanced the Audit Public Library in its Accounting Research Manager database with a set of questions and answers about Financial Accounting Standard 157 for fair value measurements.

Japanese electronics giant NEC has settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over charges that it improperly booked revenue from its customer contracts and did not maintain accurate books and records, causing the company to miss filing financial statements two years in a row.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a one-year extension of the compliance date for smaller public companies to meet the Section 404(b) auditor attestation requirement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Financial regulators from around the world are setting up a monitoring group that will work with international accounting standards-setters.

Citigroup settled a longstanding civil complaint from the Securities and Exchange Commission over improper accounting during the economic crisis in Argentina in late 2001.

The SEC is coming under increasing pressure to decide on what date it will start requiring accounting firms to file financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued proposed regulations implementing amendments to the tax return preparer penalties.

All eyes are on the Securities and Exchange Commission as it prepares to issue a detailed roadmap this summer for the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards, but some representatives gave hints about what might be in that roadmap at a conference held by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in New York.

International work assignments — both inbound and outbound, short-term and long-term — have become more common as the world gets “smaller” and “flatter.”While on foreign soil, most employees feel that they deserve additional compensation and that they should be at least somewhat released from the growing number of domestic tax rules that restrict compensation packages. Some of the more irksome rules restricting compensation arrangements lately are contained in the final regs under Code Sec. 409A on nonqualified deferred compensation.

In a long-awaited shift in purview, the Auditing Standards Board has eliminated its standard on the hierarchy of generally accepted auditing standards just as the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued a new standard establishing the same hierarchy.Chuck Landes, the American Institute of CPAs’ director of auditing and attestation, said that the ASB fully approved of the shift in a vote at its quarterly meeting in May.

With all the recent brouhaha over the subprime controversy and claims that mark-to-market accounting contributed to or even caused problems for investors in collateralized debt obligations, lots of people have been commenting on the relative usefulness of original cost and estimated market/fair value.One of the recurring themes raised by the chorus of critics (who shall remain nameless) is that original cost is preferable because it’s more reliable than estimated value.

In 1994, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board established standards for public employee pension plans. Government and public employers have to report and account for pension benefits costs.However, until recent years, there was no such standard in place for other post-employment benefits for state and local government workers.

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards has established a Jan. 1, 2009 enforcement date for its revised "Standards of Professional Conduct," allowing members more leeway before enforcement takes effect.

The American Institute of CPAs has introduced a new service called Financial Reporting Alerts to help financial managers and audit committees identify current accounting and regulatory developments that affect financial reporting.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has voted to propose a series of reforms to credit-rating agencies to curb practices that led to trouble in the credit markets.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has adopted rules requiring public accounting firms to submit reports at least once a year on fees, disciplinary actions and other information that will be posted on the PCAOB Web site.

The timeline for adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards in the United States faces several hurdles, including the long-delayed appointment of several SEC commissioners.