Audit

For most of my life, I have been a fairly liberal, loose-swinging person. I generally went against the mainstream and was comfortable seeking my own level and being relatively nonconformist. It served me quite well career wise.

Raymond James Financial will pay $2.75 million to a brokerage firm regulator for poor supervision of its more than 1,100 branch managers who manage their own offices.

Not even a year after pledging to stand by the side of its Japanese affiliate, PricewaterhouseCoopers announced that the doors to its Misuzu Audit Corp. firm would close, after revelations of the unit’s ties to a second scandal surfaced.

The International Accounting Standards Board has published an exposure draft of a slimmed-down handbook outlining its international financial reporting standard for small and midsized companies.

A federal judge in New York has ruled that the Internal Revenue Service will not have to release documents that defendants in the KPMG tax shelter case claim reveal that some IRS personnel did not believe the Big Four firm was required to register the shelters.

Five Silicon Valley businessmen are suing Ernst & Young, accusing the firm of roping them into an illegitimate tax shelter around the time of the dot-com implosion.

KPMG LLP has named Phil Rohrbaugh to the newly combined position of vice chairman of industries and marketing.In the position, Rohrbaugh, 54, will be responsible for enhancing the skills and knowledge of KPMG’s professionals around key industries. Formerly managing partner for KPMG’s Philadelphia office, Rohrbaugh will also serve as a member of the U.S. firm’s management committee.

The Connecticut Society of CPAs is very, very good at disseminating specific financial planning and tax tips not only to CPAs but also to the general public. Some of those recently caught my eye as being particularly easy to understand and right to the point.The society sent out a notice on its Web site about how the public could get their money matters in order after popping champagne corks, tossing confetti, and making New Year’s resolutions.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a standard providing companies with an option to report selected financial assets and liabilities at fair value.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will hold a roundtable discussion next month concerning a plan to eventually allow companies based outside the United States to file financial results in the country using international accounting standards.Slated for March 6 in Washington, senior SEC staff members from the Office of the Chief Accountant, the Division of Corporation Finance and the Office of International Affairs will all participate. The roundtable will be open to the public and will focus on the effect such a change would have on U.S. companies and investors, as well as on U.S. capital raising and the capital markets.

Katherine Schipper, a recent member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, has joined the advisory board for BNA’s recently launched Accounting Policy & Practice Series.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is beginning to move to protect accounting firms from investor lawsuits that accuse them of fraud, according to published reports.The New York Times reported that last week, the SEC filed a brief in the Supreme Court asking the justices to consider the adoption of a legal standard to make it harder for shareholders to win judgments in fraud lawsuits against publicly traded companies and their executives.

A Florida auditing firm will pay $500,000 to avoid a lawsuit with officials in Nassau County, located in the northeast corner of the state.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has taken over the tax practice unit of an Indian financial services firm to create the largest accounting firm in the country.

Kintera Inc. has unveiled its first software as a service fund accounting system for nonprofits.

A study by audit research firm AuditAnalytics found that the number of restatements filed by large companies -- those with market capitalization of more than $700 million -- fell 20 percent in 2006, the first decline since 2001.

After serving as a regional managing partner with a national firm for several years, in the late 1970s Len Miller decided to find a new home for his technical expertise in accounting and consulting, as well as his firm administration skills. He co-founded his own firm in Phoenix, Miller Wagner & Co. Ltd., and ran the business for more than two decades before consolidating with CBiz Inc. in early 1999. Today, Miller serves as the president of CBiz Accounting, Tax & Advisory Services LLC.With over 40 years of experience, Miller is a recognized expert in the fields of finance, real estate, general business consulting and various litigation support matters -- but he still places an emphasis on the programs his firm has in place to retain and develop its own employees.

The New Year began with a symbolic victory for Big Four firm KPMG, as a federal judge here dismissed a criminal conspiracy charge against the U.S. arm of the Big Four firm for conspiring to sell illegal tax shelters.The charge was dropped after prosecutors said that the firm had met its obligations under a deferred-prosecution agreement struck with the government roughly 18 months ago.

KPMG LLP has announced the establishment of the Tax Governance Institute, an open forum for board members, management, stakeholders and government representatives to debate various aspects of tax oversight and management.Through video and audio Webcasts, roundtables, other events and its Web site, the institute's goal is to regularly bring together interested parties to discuss tax matters of common concern relating to the day-to-day and long-term management of corporate tax risk. The institute will soon announce regularly scheduled events. Other online features will include a library of thought leadership and relevant business news, and interactive polling to help gauge the marketplace's awareness of emerging topics.

Because SFAS 158 has become effective for fiscal years ending after Dec. 15, 2006, it won't be long until annual reports start arriving with re-measured and reclassified defined-benefit pension liabilities or assets on the balance sheet. The revised amounts will generally be much larger, capturing items that were formerly disclosed in the footnotes, but that now must be recognized. Furthermore, the reporting will done in a single net item, and not, as before, in multiple components spread across the balance sheet.Although SFAS 158 will be shining a spotlight on funded status, we think a great many people won't understand what that information means, or doesn't mean. We also think many managers won't know what to do about their situation. To help out, we present five key fundamental - but generally unappreciated - truths about pension funding.