Accounting standards

The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission said that he was not consulted before his agency's enforcement division subpoenaed two writers for Dow Jones & Co.

The California Board of Accountancy has agreed to ease adopted practice privilege requirements in the state that went into effect Jan. 1.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a proposal providing companies with the option to report financial assets and liabilities at fair value.The board said that the change is aimed at simplifying accounting, as well as reducing the earnings volatility caused by differences in existing accounting rules. The new standard would allow companies to measure financial assets and liabilities at fair value selected on a contract-by-contract basis.

A memo out of the Internal Revenue Service's Office of Chief Counsel makes the case that gender reassignment surgery cannot be deducted as a medical expense for tax purposes. The case, involving male-to-female gender reassignment surgery, is currently under consideration by the IRS Office of Appeals.The advice memorandum says that the taxpayer deducted an unspecified amount in expenses - including payments for various doctors, hormone treatments, psychotherapy, health insurance, transportation and lodging in connection with the surgery. Although the taxpayer appears to have offered extensive medical and legal documentation behind the decision to have the procedure, the chief counsel opinion offers legal support for the original IRS revenue agent defining the procedure as cosmetic.

Investors are increasingly seeking creative transaction structures to cash in on the heated real estate market.A strategy that uses preconstruction contracts in Section 1031 like-kind exchanges is one way that is gaining acceptance among investors, especially in areas with heavy condominium development.

Every year, Congress and the Internal Revenue Service help us justify a tax preparer's worth to clients by throwing a few new curves into the tax return preparation process. The 2005 tax return filing season is no exception.This year Congress even threw a few curves at the IRS and commercial tax software creators by passing year-end tax legislation with an impact on 2005 returns after the IRS had already done much of the work on its tax forms for the filing season. Here are some items to watch out for as you work through the 2005 return filing season.

Speaking at a Council on Foreign Relations forum in New York a day after the advisory panel's decision, f our former chairmen of the SEC all argued against exempting any companies from the internal controls provisions, according to reports.

After more than two years of legal maneuvering, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled the last of its charges in its investigation of Xerox Corp.'s alleged earnings manipulation.

A handful of boldface names from the financial world lent their signatures to a letter to federal regulators, asking that no public company be exempted from the internal controls provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

More than three years after it's original passage, but still in the infancy of its implementation, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is facing attacks on a number of fronts.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced it will charge two KPMG auditors for failing to act on a number of red flags that could have caught an estimated $30 billion accounting fraud sooner.

The International Federation of Accountants is seeking nominations for a public member for the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants and for the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board, two independent standard-setting boards within the federation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will sponsor a roundtable on May 10 in Washington to discuss second-year experiences with the internal controls provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

The Financial Accountant Standards Board issued a final standard aimed at improving the financial reporting of certain hybrid financial instruments by requiring more consistent accounting and eliminating exemptions.

China will adopt International Financial Reporting Standards by Jan. 1, 2007, the country's minister of finance announced.

Risk management and compliance software provider Movaris has joined XBRL International -- the nonprofit consortium of roughly 350 companies working toward the development and support of the Extensible Business Reporting Language.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission has approved PCAOB Auditing Standard No. 4 -- "Reporting on Whether a Previously Reported Material Weakness Continues to Exist."

The Securities and Exchange Commission needs to make improvements to its hiring and personnel practices, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has outlined a productive year that includes a host of projects coordinated with the International Accounting Standards Board, an exploration into the fundamental concepts of accounting, four substantive standards projects and a half-dozen implementation documents.Arguably, FASB's most far-reaching project is its work on the Conceptual Framework. Any decisions reached on this project - which is being developed in conjunction with the IASB - would impact virtually every accounting standard that will be set in the United States and around the world.

Practitioners and industry observers concur with the call by Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson for tax simplification.Although legislation calls for the Taxpayer Advocate to list at least 20 of the most serious problems facing taxpayers, Olson went a step further and included a major section on tax simplification.