The next few months should pump a little excitement into the profession as the Financial Accounting Standards Board moves to issue as many as 20 new documents - most of them exposure drafts - with some proposing significant changes to financial reporting.

In addition to its ongoing work on the implementation of Auditing Standard No. 2, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will focus on rules related to auditor independence and tax services and strengthening its enforcement staff during the second half of the year, according to its chairman.

The Securities and Exchange Commission Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies will hold its second meeting next week in New York to finalize its agenda, to consider suggestions on defining the term "smaller public company" and to hear testimony on methods to scale securities regulations for smaller public companies.

As part of its broader effort toward convergence with international reporting standards, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued Statement No. 154, "Accounting Changes and Error Corrections."

Warning that the corporate system can't work if boards of directors are hamstrung by fear of civil or criminal liability, Treasury Secretary John Snow this week called for balance in the enforcement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The U.S. Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission have published tips to assist fiduciaries of employee benefit plans in reviewing conflicts of interest of pension consultants.

A day after Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson announced that he would step down from his post at the end of the month, President Bush announced his nomination of Republican Congressman Christopher Cox of California as the next head of the SEC.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William H. Donaldson announced that he would step down at the end of the month.

Three years after the guilty verdict that effectively destroyed the firm, the Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of Arthur Andersen for shredding documents related to its audits of energy giant Enron Corp.

The American Institute of CPAs has expanded upon its 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy program with the launch of a financial literacy program targeted at women.

Following the completion of an internal review, insurer American International Group Inc. finally filed its repeatedly delayed 2004 annual report.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which has been after public companies to tighten their internal controls as mandated by Sarbanes-Oxley, needs to do some tightening itself, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The Standing Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will meet next month to discuss topics related to the implementation of PCAOB Auditing Standard No. 2, which deals with internal control audits.

The Institute of Internal Auditors has released a series of free reports for chief internal audit executives and their staffs intended to provide guidance in assessing technology-associated risks and implementing best practices.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board released guidance related to attest engagements regarding Extensible Business Reporting Language data furnished under the Securities and Exchange Commission XBRL Voluntary Financial Reporting Program on the Edgar System.

The chairman of a House appropriations subcommittee with oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has called on the Government Accountability Office to investigate reported SEC budget shortfalls.

While Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley says management is responsible for establishing and reporting on a company's system of internal controls, more than half of 329 companies reporting control deficiency disclosures did so because their external auditors identified and reported those weaknesses, according to a report by the Financial Executives Research Foundation.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board revoked the registration of a New York public accounting firm and disciplined three of its partners for concealing information from the board and submitting false information in connection with a PCAOB inspection.

A bipartisan coalition of members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, including chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa; ranking member Max Baucus, D-Mont.; Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., have introduced legislation to repeal the alternative minimum tax.

The president's panel studying tax overhaul options isn't expected to recommend major changes to the estate tax, according to published reports.