The Financial Accounting Standards Board has unanimously voted to move forward in implementing new rules that require public companies to take a more structured approach in reporting uncertain tax positions on their financial statements.

The U.S. Supreme Court will allow a lower court ruling to stand -- finding that International Business Machines Corp. did not commit age discrimination when it changed its pension coverage in the late 1990s.While the ruling paves the final legal road for IBM’s switch to a cash-balance pension plan from a defined-benefit pension, regardless, the company announced a year ago that it would eliminate the cash-balance plan as of Jan. 1, 2008, making enhancements to its 401(k) plan instead.

At times, taxing authorities give out surprising beneficial rulings. The only problem is, you must ask for the ruling. For example, there was my October 24, 2006, WebCPA column about an advisory opinion issued by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.It answered the following question: Are you taxed as a New York resident if you move into a New York nursing home for care because you are incompetent and in need of constant medical supervision? According to the opinion, the individual, lacking intent to move, remained a resident of Florida despite the move to a New York nursing home for care.

Sounding a familiar warning, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board criticized Ernst & Young and KPMG for failing to follow accounting rules or gather sufficient evidence for judgments in a number of audits.

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently settled civil fraud charges against the former general counsel of Comverse Technology Inc.

I just returned from Las Vegas where I attended the AICPA personal financial planning conference and where I also made an opening day presentation to a packed house awarding the Institute the Special Award of Excellence from CPA Wealth Provider. In 2006, the AICPA launched a nationwide effort to encourage Americans ages 25 to 34 to “feed the pig” as a key step toward building a solid financial future for themselves and their families.Actually, Feed the Pig is a national multi-media public-service announcement campaign sponsored by the Institute and the Ad Council. Featuring Benjamin Bankes, a smartly dressed, adult-size pig who evokes memories of the piggy bank, the campaign delivers a strong message about the importance and benefits of savings. It is a noteworthy effort and I decided to put it to the test not for 25-to-34-year -olds but rather for the 6-to-11 mob, my grandchildren.

What kind of company processes payroll and credit card and check payments, and offers banking services and account aggregation? Increasingly, the answer is an accounting software company.

In a brief filed Monday in federal appeals court, 30 states said that a number of investment banks are liable for their alleged role in Enron Corp.’s accounting fraud.

Two major standards setters have announced the 18 members of a new international working group established as part of a joint project to reconsider their standards on lease accounting.

Just when I thought there was nothing new to say about Enron, along comes Malcolm Gladwell.The New Yorker scribe’s latest article, “Open Secrets,” appeared in the Jan. 8 issue of the magazine and has caused a bit of a stir on the Internet. Several tax, accounting and legal blogs that I regularly troll made at least passing reference to the story, and I was surprised to see outgoing links to the commentary scattered among the postings on gossip site Gawker.com and in a column from ESPN’s “Sports Guy,” Bill Simmons.

The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission has commissioned Grant Thornton LLP to develop guidance to help organizations monitor the quality of their internal control systems.

Choosing 529 plans or qualified tuition programs as a savings strategy for the college-bound got more enticing in 2006 as the programs' tax-exempt status gained permanency, and student-owned accounts would no longer need to be reported on financial aid applications."New legislation in 2006 created a significant advantage in 529 plans," said Joe Hurley, CPA and founder of Savingforcollege.com. "Accounts owned by students or custodians by the Uniform Transfer to Minors Act are no longer reported on financial aid applications if the student files as a dependent student. Before, they were reported as student assets and assessed at a very high rate."

PEAPACK-GLADSTONE FINANCIAL DISMISSES KPMGPeapack-Gladstone Financial Corp. has dismissed Big Four firm KPMG as its auditor and named Crowe Chizek as its new independent accountant. In a filing, the Gladstone, N.J., bank holding company said that it had no disagreements with KPMG on any matter of accounting principles or practices.

Two of our prior columns critiqued the Financial Accounting Standards Board's recent preliminary views document on its new Conceptual Framework project, which, like many other FASB efforts, is a joint undertaking with the International Accounting Standards Board.Those columns examined the boards' take on financial reporting objectives and relevance, both of which are basically enhanced versions of FASB's first framework from the 1980s. While we see some improvement, we wish that the boards had pushed the envelope further and set the stage for more reformation in practice.

Like woodworking tools in the hands of a skilled craftsman, the income and market approaches to business valuation are the tools of the trade for the valuation analyst. Similarly, the results that are achieved depend greatly on the manner in which those tools are applied.The focus of this article will be on making the most of the toolbox, particularly with respect to three common threads in both the discounted cash flow method and the guideline public company method: cash flow, growth and the weighted average cost of capital.

FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMAND TOP CONSUMER DOLLARConsumers are willing to pay an average of 5.2 percent more for financial services compared to other industries, according to a retail survey conducted by Kanbay Research Institute. In the poll, financial services topped such other sectors as communications, media content, restaurants and beverages, retail, and travel.

Insurance policies with rising or re-appearing premiums can often cause their owners problems, especially when those owners' financial needs or obligations change.Is it a better investment to continue paying a policy that you have already paid into in hopes of a gain at maturation, or to recoup some of the investment by trading the policy for its cash surrender value? Corporate policyholders often face additional dilemmas when dealing with departing executives with key-man or split-dollar policies, or insurance purchased as part of a buy-sell agreement.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will continue its forums on auditing in the small business environment throughout 2007.

It has been a natural progression for CPAs to gradually evolve their practices to include both tax and financial planning."There's a natural link between tax prep and financial planning," explained Stephen Parezo, media manager for multidisciplinary practice firm Fiducial. "In doing a client's taxes, you get to see their whole financial picture. You can see if they're making contributions to retirement plans, and get to see what kind of stocks and other investments they have."

This year should be one of expansion and progress at the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Though the profession will not see the issuance of many final standards, the year's projects should lead up to a productive 2008.Accountants will be keeping their eyes on several crucial projects - but the most fundamentally important may be that of the Conceptual Framework. This project will set the underlying philosophy of accountancy, the basic concepts on which generally accepted accounting standards are built.