Audit

A number of prominent economists and finance experts have lent their names to a call to repeal a stock option-reform measure adopted last year by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A court has said that two documents prepared by KPMG, analyzing the tax consequences of transactions by restaurant company Yum! Brands Inc., are protected from a summons issued by the Internal Revenue Service.

Depending on what report you read, and how the statistics get manipulated, the Internal Revenue Service gets a grade somewhere between tremendous and embarrassing for its work auditing the returns of wealthy taxpayers.

Erik R. Sirri, an economist with expertise in the structure of securities markets, has been named the new director of market regulation at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced plans to create its own Web tools to allow investors and analysts to manipulate interactive data to analyze mutual fund and corporate information.

A Japanese court has given suspended prison sentences to three former ChuoAoyama PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants over an accounting fraud at textile and cosmetics maker Kanebo Ltd.

Ernst & Young has launched two new podcasts, one focusing on international taxes, another focusing on measuring the success of business transactions.

Have you ever monitored the progress of a large municipal construction project and noted how many times the completion deadline is pushed back?

Yep, it's that time of the year again! CPA Wealth Provider is calling for nominations for its Fourth Annual Financial Planning Awards in any of the following categories: CPA/Financial Planning Firms, Broker/Dealers, and Financial Planning Software Vendors.

A trio of professional groups have joined forces to launch a research project to explore user perceptions of financial statement audits and auditor reports.

Nine of the 18 insurance firms that provide variable annuities through financial advisors affiliated with Raymond James Financial Inc. will begin offering new, less expensive investment products this week, meeting a deadline set by the financial services firm.

Pay to corporate directors grew at a slower rate in 2005, compared to the previous year, according to a study by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

As expected, the Securities and Exchange Commission will likely grant smaller public companies and most foreign private issuers an extension on having to comply with the internal controls provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Fannie Mae said that it believes its internal accounting review is finally over, and that its anticipated restatement will be much less than its previous $2.4 billion estimates.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to do a better job on its partnership examinations, according to a new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

While audits of high-income taxpayers have increased, the actual impact on compliance may be limited, according to a new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

The Institute of Internal Auditors has established a Canadian Council, a group of 18 members from throughout the country, to address issues specific to the region's internal auditors.

Agents won't be allowed to challenge whether casino comps to high-rolling patrons qualify for treatment as promotional expenses, according to a memo released by the Large and Mid-Size Business Division of the Internal Revenue Service.

It's summer vacation time, and we're following our tradition of digging into the files and reprinting columns from the past. This one from June 2003 deals mostly with the accounting for stock options.In those days, of course, there was a lot of Chicken Little shouting that the mandatory expensing of stock options would destroy free enterprise and the rest of Western civilization. Everyone jumped on the bandwagon to save options and to keep financial statements from being polluted by bad numbers.

The American Institute of CPAs praised a new law that will prevent states from taxing the retirement income of non-resident partners last week.