Several issues ago, I wrote of how the Enron and WorldCom debacles more or less defined my tenure as editor-in-chief at Accounting Today.Much like a stubborn barnacle appended to the bottom of a garbage scow, the serial dramas continued for nearly five years, influencing much of the content within these pages, and no doubt future editorial as well. With the recent appointment of a new chair in Mark Olson at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, I realized that my contact with the PCAOB has lasted nearly as long.

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.

In an effort to increase charitable giving across the U.S., the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, an independent public charity within the donor-advised fund program of financial services conglomerate Fidelity, has rolled out the Charitable Investment Advisor Program.Fidelity's new offering allows independent investment advisors to provide discretionary investment management to the Gift Fund for contributions made by the advisors' clients.

An individual who is an active participant in a qualified retirement plan cannot make deductible contributions to a traditional IRA unless her modified adjusted gross income is below certain specified levels.The level depends on the type of income tax return the individual files. For single taxpayers and heads of household, the otherwise allowable deduction is phased out ratably in 2006 and later years, when the taxpayer's MAGI is between $50,000 and $60,000.

Keeping up with the rules and regulations that govern our professional existence is a challenging endeavor, but, relatively speaking, it could be worse.Consider the environment in other countries. In France, for example, students participating in a graduate-level accounting program in a business school must learn three sets of standards. Yes, three!

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

In a significant move toward unifying a number of related standards and harmonizing them with a new international standard, the Auditing Standards Board has voted out a proposed statement on quality control.It was one of three exposure drafts issued for comment by summer's end.

The Securities and Exchange Commission requested that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board delay issuing guidance related to backdating stock options.According to reports, the PCAOB had planned to issue an alert to accounting firms about the topic, which would have advised auditors about grant issues they should examine in audits. The regulator reportedly asked the board to delay issuing the guidance until the commission completes its own work on a proposed rule to revamp disclosure of executive pay.

New guidance stressing efficient application of effective internal controls over financial reporting was released in mid-July by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.The guidance, titled "Internal Control over Financial Reporting - Guidance for Small Public Companies," was released with a Webcast that was attended by over 1,750 participants.

One of the provisions inserted by the Conference Committee into the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, signed by President Bush on May 17, 2006, was a tax increase on citizens working abroad. The provision was not in either the House or Senate versions of the legislation, although Congress has considered a number of proposals related to the taxation of citizens working abroad over the years, including some Senate bills in the current Congress.It is estimated that over 4 million citizens work abroad. The U.S. Census does not count them, so we have no accurate numbers. The Treasury does try to tax them, but with questionable effectiveness. For the 1999 tax year, out of 127,667,890 returns filed, 1,350,890 had foreign addresses, but this included the APO and FPO addresses of members of the armed forces, as well as some Puerto Rico residents with offshore income. A 2004 Internal Revenue Service study reported that in 2001, fewer than 300,000 tax returns reported foreign-source-earned income.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board named Kyra Armstrong, Ray Hamm and Jerry Decker as deputy directors in the Division of Enforcement and Investigations unit.

Maintaining that there's near-universal agreement that the nation's tax code is too complex, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, officially opened the committee's hearings titled "Kick-off for Tax Reform: Tackling the Tax Code."

The Securities and Exchange Commission will commission a study to compare how the different regulatory systems that apply to broker-dealers and investment advisers affect investors.

From inside the profession, or even working closely besides it, it's sometimes hard to imagine that there's anyone who doesn't have at least a cursory understanding of what Sarbanes-Oxley meant for the profession, or why the debate over Section 404 continues years after its implementation.

A Senate report estimates that tax cheating now equals about 7 cents out of each dollar paid by honest taxpayers, or as much as $70 billion annually.

It's time for public companies to begin disclosing the reasons behind an auditor change, a new report from Glass Lewis & Co. argues.

The American Institute of CPAs has released two exposure drafts, one tackling standards for attestation engagements, another amendments to auditing standards.

Many times I have told readers of this column and of Practical Accountant of state Web sites that list owners of unclaimed property that was transferred to the state from businesses and entities that were holding the property for years, but who weren't able to communicate with the property owner so the property could be claimed. I figured firms could publicize the sites, and a perusal would result in "found money" for a number of the firm's clients.

Grant Thornton will not be held liable for an unqualified opinion it issued on the 1999 financial statements of Daw Technologies.

Lately, the costs of placing help-wanted ads have waned considerably at the Securities and Exchange Commission.