Audit

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board issued a guidance Thursday to provide clarity about how certain component units incorporated as not-for-profit corporations should be presented in the financial statements of the primary state or local government.

An internal whistleblower could collect up to $24 million of the $80 million penalty imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission against agribusiness giant Monsanto.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday that St. Louis-based agribusiness Monsanto Company has agreed to pay an $80 million penalty and retain an independent compliance consultant to settle charges that it violated accounting rules and misstated company earnings pertaining to its flagship product Roundup.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has issued a proposal to establish a single approach for state and local governments to report leases based on the principle that leases are financings of the right to use an underlying asset.

Brixmor Property Group Inc. shares plunged after Chief Executive Officer Michael Carroll and two other executives resigned following a discovery by the company’s audit committee that employees were “smoothing” income to make quarterly results more consistent.

A group of community bankers from the Independent Community Bankers of America met last week with the Financial Accounting Standards Board to discuss their concerns with FASB’s upcoming impairment standard on credit losses.

The International Federation of Accountants has issued a report calling for governments around the world to stop issuing a patchwork set of regulations that are stifling economic growth.

Internal auditors are increasingly finding themselves tasked with new responsibilities that carry some degree of risk, according to a new report.

A video preview of the February 2016 issue of Accounting Today, with stories about firm mergers, tax extenders and more.

Check out the digital edition of the February 2016 issue of Accounting Today.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board decided Wednesday to add four financial reporting issues and two more projects to its research agenda.

South America’s regional soccer body Conmebol, which has lost its last three presidents under the cloud of a global corruption scandal, is inviting forensic accountants to investigate its business affairs since 2011.

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Institute of Management Accountants to advance the management and disclosure of nonfinancial information in corporate reports.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Emerging Issues Task Force has proposed an accounting standards update for how certain cash receipts and cash payments would be classified on the statement of cash flows.

The Institute of Internal Auditors has proposed changes to its International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing to help internal auditors meet the challenges of today’s business environment.

Accounting firms that prepare the taxes of companies they also audit tend to steer away from dubious tax deductions, according to a new study.

Thirty-eight percent of organizations are turning to outside services to supplement the efforts of their internal audit function, according to a new survey of chief audit executives.

Top 100 Firm Marcum took the top spot among large audit firms in bringing in new Securities and Exchange Commission audit clients in the fourth quarter of 2015, with with 11 new engagements and a net gain of six.

20 years: Looking back, around and forward

The American Institute of CPAs is encouraging firms to modernize the way they conduct audits by using data analytics technology and working to improve the way employee benefit plan audits are conducted in response to a critical Labor Department report.