Audit

It's not every accounting conference that the attendees have a chance to come away with a bit of horticulture knowledge.

In a move to keep the United States ensconced as the financial capital of the world, a newly formed commission will recommend changes to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other regulatory mandates it judges to encumber domestic capital markets from remaining competitive.

The Employee Benefits Security Administration, part of the Labor Department, is seeking comment on its plans to update guidance on the independence of accountants who audit employee benefit plans.

The estate of Enron Corp's late founder has agreed to pay $12 million to settle claims brought by participants in the failed energy company's pension plans.

Elaborating on his company's plans to enter the banking business, H&R Block chief executive Mark Ernst said that both the rates and fees the company charges customers for its refund-anticipations loans will be dramatically reduced by the time the 2007 tax season arrives.

H&R Block Inc., best known for its tax-preparation services, is expanding into banking.

A federal judge will hear evidence next month to help him decide whether KPMG should be ordered to pick up the legal fees for 16 former employees indicted in connection with the firm's sale of questionably-legal tax shelters.

Larry Swedroe is a first-rate analyst. He is the director of research and a principal of both Buckingham Asset Management and BAM Advisor Services in St. Louis. He is also a prolific writer of many, many books and articles on investment strategies and although he adds a disclaimer to everything he writes that his opinions and comments are his own and not of his two companies, his work is so well received that hardly anybody can find fault with it.

After a five-year effort, the American Society of Appraisers is taking credit for some of the provisions contained in the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

RSM McGladrey Inc. announced a Labor Day deal to acquire Phoenix-based real estate tax firm, Gaughan & Nahom PLC.

The global managing partner of KPMG's Audit & Advisory Services Center has been given the additional role of global chief information officer for KPMG International.

More than 900 companies have used accelerated vesting schedules to avoid an estimated $8 billion in costs, according to a Bear Stearns report issued last week.

FLOTEK INDUSTRIES ENGAGES UHY: Flotek Industries, a Houston-based manufacturer and marketer of innovative specialty chemicals, and downhole drilling and production equipment, dismissed UHY Mann Frankfort Stein & Lipp LLP as its auditor and engaged UHY LLP as its replacement.In a filing, Flotek said that UMFSL resigned as the company's auditors as a result of joining UHY, an accounting firm consolidator with which UMFSL had an affiliation.

On July 6, 2006, SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins spoke at the 11th Annual Conference of the International Corporate Governance Network (see www.sec.gov/news/speech/2006/spch070606psa.htm).The ICGN is a U.K. nonprofit that aims to "develop and encourage adherence to corporate governance standards and guidelines, and to promote good corporate governance worldwide." What a great audience to come before to display how this most powerful regulatory agency is committed to protecting the capital markets!

The Auditing Standards Board recently issued eight new auditing standards, Nos. 104-111, collectively referred to as the risk assessment standards. The new standards will change many of the planning and risk assessment procedures performed during an audit (though most of the steps performed throughout the audit process remain largely the same).Implementation of the new standards should increase the effectiveness of financial statement audits, as auditors will now be required to:

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board recently issued its inaugural audit practice alert, warning auditors to be on the watch for problems with the timing of, and the accounting for, stock-option grants."Auditors planning or performing an audit should be alert to the risk that the issuer may not have properly accounted for stock-option grants and ... may have materially misstated its financial statements," the alert said, alluding to recent investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Internal Revenue Service into whether companies routinely backdate, spring-load or otherwise manipulate stock-options grants to top executives.

"The individual investor should act consistently as an investor and not as a speculator. This means that he should be able to justify every purchase he makes and each price he pays by impersonal, objective reasoning that satisfies him that he is getting more than his money's worth for his purchase."

Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers is being audited by the Internal Revenue Service for possible tax reporting violations, according to a published report.

China's government has told its auditors to maintain a clean image after one of their colleagues reportedly died of alcohol poisoning while on an auditing assignment.

After nine years, a federal report says that college tuition tax credits aren't necessarily providing the boon originally intended for poorer families.