Audit

Daniel Goelzer has been a member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board since the board was first established under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and he is completing his second and final term this Friday.

Firm News -- March 2

E&Y TO PAY PCAOB $2M TO SETTLE AUDIT CHARGES

It is well past the time to think of accountants as bean counters. Unfortunately, the recent piece by Professors Miller & Bahnson ("Some evidence that the AICPA's management has lost its focus," December 2011, page 20) places the profession back into the audit closet.

For The Spirit of Accounting's 10th anniversary in 2006, we reminisced about events over that decade, including this synopsis of a misjudgment that may be the worst ever:

The American Institute of CPAs told the Internal Revenue Service Oversight Board at a hearing Tuesday that the IRS needs to improve its correspondence audit program to lessen the burden on taxpayers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed new rules aimed at safeguarding investors from identity theft by requiring broker-dealers, mutual funds and other SEC-regulated entities create programs to detect and respond to “red flags” indicating possible identity theft.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board voted Tuesday to issue for public comment a proposed auditing standard on related-party transactions, and to amend standards on significant unusual transactions and auditors of broker-dealers.

The Big Four global audit firms, which dominate the Chinese market, are negotiating with Beijing to lessen the impact of forced changes that could mean only accountants with Chinese qualifications can be partners in their audit practices.

The International Valuation Standards Council has begun a project with the goal of bringing greater consistency to how financial derivatives should be valued, even as the International Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board continue to tinker with their financial instruments accounting standards project.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board plans to hold an open meeting on Tuesday to consider issuing a proposed auditing standard on related parties and to amend other auditing standards to address significant unusual transactions and broker-dealer auditors.

Firm News -- February 24

What is the meaning of art? The IRS may have the answer.

A senior U.S. regulator was "optimistic" on Monday about finding a framework for the world's top economy to use global book keeping rules for investors to compare cross-border companies.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board are planning to host a series of outreach meetings around the world on their latest proposals for changes in the standards for revenue recognition.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has revoked the registration for a firm for failing to file an annual report or pay its annual fee for 2011 and ordered the firm to pay a $5,000 penalty.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has expanded and updated its guide to understanding local government financial statements, and plans to publish more taxpayer-oriented guides later this year.

A new academic study finds that when public companies give their shareholders a vote on the selection of an external auditing firm, they are less likely to make financial restatements than those that don’t.

The Financial Accounting Foundation intends to conduct post-implementation reviews of several business and government accounting standards pertaining to business combinations, reportable operating segments, deposits, investments, and repurchase agreements, to see how well they have worked in practice.

Members of the Financial Accounting Standards Board held a two-day meeting this week with officials from the Accounting Standards Board of Japan how they could better align accounting rules.