Until now, individual taxpayers who were unable to meet the April 15 tax return filing deadline could file a Form 4868 and receive an automatic four-month filing extension until August 15. And if August 15 didn't provide enough time to get the tax return completed, taxpayers could provide a good reason for the delay on a Form 2688 and request another extension for two months until October 15.Effective for tax returns due after Jan. 1, 2006, the kinder, gentler, more cost-effective Internal Revenue Service has done away with the second extension request and changed the initial automatic extension period from four months to six. Not only will this action remove the need for taxpayers to come up with a reason for requesting the extra two months to file tax returns, it will cut back on lots of paperwork and processing time.

Public companies, for better or worse, have completed the first year of compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Now is a good time for CPAs in industry and their external auditors to reflect on the Year One experience, identify lessons learned, and change their compliance strategies accordingly.For example, many companies only cleared the Year One Sarbanes-Oxley hurdle via an "all hands on deck" approach. Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, however, is not a one-time event; it is an ongoing requirement. So this tack is too disruptive to be allowed to continue.

One of the many things that make investors sweat is the state of corporate pensions and other post-retirement benefit plans. How well are they funded? Are there enough assets available in the plan, or must the employer satisfy obligations?Investors aren't the only ones who sweat. Employees and retirees are also concerned. Their futures hang on the numbers, and the numbers can get pretty big, especially the red ones - possibly $600 billion in all, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Blaming a computer for accounting errors, mortgage financier Freddie Mac announced that it has cut about $220 million in profits from its statements for the first half of 2005. Freddie said that it earned $1.4 billion in the first six months of 2005, not the $1.6 billion it reported on Aug. 31.The company said that the difference "reflects the correction of interest accruals recorded for certain mortgage-related securities stemming from miscalculations since 2001 in a legacy computer system." The company also pointed out that the amended profit represents less than 1 percent of its core capital as of June 30.

Diane M. Rubin, a partner at San Francisco-based Novogradac & Co. LLP, was recently installed as chairwoman of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy for 2005-06.The election was held on Nov. 1 at NASBA's 98th Annual Meeting in Tucson, Ariz.

A vast majority of American investors are lacking the "investor survival skills" needed to build their savings into a retirement nest egg, according to the Securities Investor Protection Corporation /Investor Protection Trust survey conducted by Opinion Research Corp.

The Securities and Exchange Commission unanimously voted to propose rules to make it easier for foreign companies to stop listing their securities for trading in the country in order to avoid the expense of complying with U.S. securities laws.

Taser International Inc. said that the Securities and Exchange Commission has ended an investigation into the stun gun maker's accounting and recommended that no action be taken against the company.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox delivered an easier-said-than-done speech earlier this month on the need to simplify accounting rules.

An advisory panel to the Securities and Exchange Commission may officially asked the agency to exempt businesses with less than $125 million in revenues from the internal control provisions laid out in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

A new survey says that public companies will not spend nearly as much in 2005 as in 2004 to assess internal controls over financial reports.

ISO 22222, the Standard on Personal Financial Planning, has been approved as an international standard. All ISO members (Standardization Institutes in approximately 150 countries) around the world can now adopt ISO 22222 as a national standard.

Speaking to an American Institute of CPAs conference, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox suggested that accounting rules need to be simplified in order to ensure that financial irregularities aren't hidden.

Foundation Software, a national developer of construction accounting systems, will unveil a new CPA Audit/Review Module at the AICPA Construction Conference next week.

AMR Research estimates that companies will spend $6 billion on complying with Sarbanes-Oxley Act requirements in 2006, close to the $6.1 billion they will spend in 2005.

The U.S. Treasury and Internal Revenue Service have issued guidance relating to provisions of the Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005 that allow Hurricane Katrina victims to access employer-sponsored retirement plans and IRAs.

Former Congressman Bill Gradison has been named acting chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

Ameriprise Financial -- the entity spun off by former parent American Express -- and its broker-dealer arm agreed to pay $57.3 million to settle charges of illegal trading and brokerage misconduct.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board issued a report saying that while the initial implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley and, specifically, Section 404, has not been without its challenges, the board is confident the process will be easier in the future.

Investors punish firms that disclose internal control weakness as required by Sarbanes-Oxley provisions, but having a Big Four auditor mitigates the negative price hit, according to new research out of Indiana University.