Audit

The Internal Revenue Service commemorated Small Business Week this week by calling attention to some recently enacted tax breaks for small businesses.

Three out of four audit committee members say they have increased their hands-on involvement with management, and are reassessing risk management and oversight as a result of the economic crisis, according to a new survey.

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners wants top executives at public companies to open up their finances to scrutiny by auditors and regulators.

Employment search provider Monster Worldwide agreed to pay the SEC $2.5 million in penalties to settle stock option backdating charges.

Among the tragedies inflicted on thousands of victims by Bernard Madoff was that perpetrated on a tiny accounting firm in New City, N.Y., a hamlet some 30 miles north of New York City.

Over the last several years, a substantial number of highly complex professional auditing and accounting standards have been issued by numerous standard-setters.

Customers are best served and protected when they have many competitive alternatives. We are suspicious of self-serving monopolies. Of course, as sellers, we all want to be monopolies, with little competition, and the ability to charge high prices, bar entry to potential competitors, be able to rest on our past successes, and not have to perform the difficult job of constant innovation and experimentation where value is determined by the external customer, not internal industry standards, credentials or ineffective government regulations.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has made changes in two of its standards related to off-balance-sheet items to require companies to make more disclosures of special-purpose entities, and to practically eliminate the exemption for qualifying special-purpose entities.

Over a third of U.S. CPAs said they want to become more familiar with international accounting standards, but most of them don’t know how much the standards will cost their companies to implement.

Five trade groups representing banks, financial service firms and insurance companies sent a joint letter to Congress registering continued displeasure with fair value and mark-to-market accounting and impairment rules, despite recent changes.

Research firm Audit Integrity issued a negative report to investors and auditing firms about Starbucks Corp., warning that the coffee retailer rates poorly on several risk factors, including equity risk, class-action litigation and financial restatements.

BDO Seidman memorialized the passing of former managing partner and FDIC Chairman L. William “Bill” Seidman, a member of the firm’s founding family.

NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer thinks accounting firms are charging small companies too much to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements and suggested the SEC may pressure the firms to reduce their fees.

A report by Fitch Ratings calls into question the cost-effectiveness of the improvements in financial statement presentation proposed by FASB and its international counterpart.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board wants to know more about how government accountants in developing countries are using cash-basis reporting.

New accounting standards effective at the beginning of 2009 will impact the accounting for mergers and acquisitions.

Grant Thornton has sent a letter to federal officials proposing that banking regulators adjust capitalization requirements to take into account the broader economic environment.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board has proposed new guidance to deal with the wave of government takeovers of private businesses.

Two thirds of the 500 largest public companies are prepared to begin using interactive data-tagging technology to file their financial statements, according to a new survey.

The Center for Audit Quality has released a new guidebook to explain to investors, managers and other interested parties the important role played by auditors of public companies.