Accounting standards

Public companies, for better or worse, have completed the first year of compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Now is a good time for CPAs in industry and their external auditors to reflect on the Year One experience, identify lessons learned, and change their compliance strategies accordingly.For example, many companies only cleared the Year One Sarbanes-Oxley hurdle via an "all hands on deck" approach. Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, however, is not a one-time event; it is an ongoing requirement. So this tack is too disruptive to be allowed to continue.

One of the many things that make investors sweat is the state of corporate pensions and other post-retirement benefit plans. How well are they funded? Are there enough assets available in the plan, or must the employer satisfy obligations?Investors aren't the only ones who sweat. Employees and retirees are also concerned. Their futures hang on the numbers, and the numbers can get pretty big, especially the red ones - possibly $600 billion in all, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Blaming a computer for accounting errors, mortgage financier Freddie Mac announced that it has cut about $220 million in profits from its statements for the first half of 2005. Freddie said that it earned $1.4 billion in the first six months of 2005, not the $1.6 billion it reported on Aug. 31.The company said that the difference "reflects the correction of interest accruals recorded for certain mortgage-related securities stemming from miscalculations since 2001 in a legacy computer system." The company also pointed out that the amended profit represents less than 1 percent of its core capital as of June 30.

Diane M. Rubin, a partner at San Francisco-based Novogradac & Co. LLP, was recently installed as chairwoman of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy for 2005-06.The election was held on Nov. 1 at NASBA's 98th Annual Meeting in Tucson, Ariz.

The Securities and Exchange Commission unanimously voted to propose rules to make it easier for foreign companies to stop listing their securities for trading in the country in order to avoid the expense of complying with U.S. securities laws.

Taser International Inc. said that the Securities and Exchange Commission has ended an investigation into the stun gun maker's accounting and recommended that no action be taken against the company.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox delivered an easier-said-than-done speech earlier this month on the need to simplify accounting rules.

An advisory panel to the Securities and Exchange Commission may officially asked the agency to exempt businesses with less than $125 million in revenues from the internal control provisions laid out in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Speaking to an American Institute of CPAs conference, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox suggested that accounting rules need to be simplified in order to ensure that financial irregularities aren't hidden.

Ameriprise Financial -- the entity spun off by former parent American Express -- and its broker-dealer arm agreed to pay $57.3 million to settle charges of illegal trading and brokerage misconduct.

The European Commission said that it might delay accepting U.S. accounting standards as being equivalent to those used in the European Union.

The Securities and Exchange Commission unanimously voted to request public comment on rules that will allow companies to use the Internet to satisfy proxy material delivery requirements.

Diane M. Rubin, a partner at San Francisco-based Novogradac & Co. LLP, was recently installed as chairwoman of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy for 2005-06.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. has again put off filing financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Giovanni Prezioso, general counsel at the Securities and Exchange Commission, said he would leave the regulator to return to a post in the private sector.

After opposition from business and the accounting profession, the International Accounting Standards Board has shelved its plans to fast-track changes to its technical corrections policy.

Yet another piece in the jigsaw of legislation controlling corporate governance, accountancy and auditing, aimed at boosting investor confidence in European Union business, is coming into focus as upgrades are being considered to the 4th and 7th Directives on risk management and internal control for unlisted companies.Those enhancements cover both off-balance-sheet arrangements and company transactions with related parties such as family members.

If the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission has succeeded in doing what it set out to do, small public companies may soon have an easier time of documenting their internal controls.Back in 1992, COSO issued a set of recommendations, "Internal Control - Integrated Framework." Ten years later, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 required companies to certify the adequacy of their internal controls, and the COSO framework became a de facto standard.

Tax practice for CPAs is changing. Recent modifications to Circular 230, the U.S. Treasury Department regulations that govern practice before the Internal Revenue Service, have established several changes that leave CPAs with a new standard for the practice of taxation.The rationale for the revised regulations is part of an IRS effort to promote ethical tax practices and curb abusive tax avoidance programs promoted by some tax professionals. Some CPA and law firms were coming up with tax-motivated transactions for clients and then packaging those transactions to sell to other companies.

Advanced degrees are being obtained by a higher percentage of the middle- and upper-class population than ever before. Many of these students hold full-time jobs. The recent development of online universities has only served to fuel this trend. The ability of working students to take a business expense deduction for tuition expenses likewise has grown in importance.With MBAs being one of the hot degrees to have as of late, because of its apparent ticket to success in many different business settings, it's a small wonder that a recent Tax Court decision has attracted more than its share of attention. That case (Allemeier Jr., T.C. Memo. 2005-207) appears to have opened up the possibility that the expense for obtaining a larger number of MBA degrees can be written off as a trade or business expense.