Japanese accountants are registering to take the U.S. CPA Exam as a way to increase their international employment options, according to a new survey.

Rebranding, CPA Education Day, Awards and more…

President Obama nominated former prosecutor Mary Jo White as the next chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The majority of small businesses want a long-term solution to the debt ceiling so the U.S. can pay its bills and the issue does not repeatedly come up for votes in Congress, according to a new survey.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has released new standards aimed at improving the accounting and reporting of combinations and disposals of government operations for U.S. state and local governments.

Reactions among tax preparers to Friday’s court decision striking down the legality of the IRS RTRP mandate ranged from relief to recognition that the tax prep industry needs standards. But a survey of various tax prep-related groups on LinkedIn shows that the decision mostly raised questions.

The Institute of Management Accountants and the American Accounting Association’s Management Accounting Section have teamed up on an accounting educational framework that they hope will be used to re-orient undergraduate and MBA accounting curricula to match on-the-job demands.

Mary Jo White, the former U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, is under consideration to become the next chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has approved over $561 million in disaster assistance loans for residents and businesses in New York affected by Hurricane Sandy and over $238 million for residents and businesses in New Jersey, and said it is eager to do more.

The Financial Accounting Foundation has completed a post-implementation review of an accounting standard dating back to 1996 that aimed to improve the way public companies report financial information about their business segments, and found that it generally achieved that purpose, although some companies are being less than forthcoming about all of their business segments.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to introduce a simplified way for small business owners and home-based employees to claim the home office tax deduction.

While still predicting contraction in both the short- and the mid-term, the January edition of Accounting Today’s monthly Accountants Confidence Index rose somewhat from the previous month’s reading.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued for public comment a proposal to improve financial reporting about repurchase agreements such as the type used by Lehman Brothers.

Deloitte has set up its own firm in China to replace the joint venture it formerly operated there.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board has issued the first four chapters of its Conceptual Framework for General Purpose Financial Reporting by Public Sector Entities.

International Accounting Standards Board chairman Hans Hoogervorst said the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board is not likely to face obstacles in joining the new multinational Accounting Standards Advisory Forum that is being set up to provide input to the IASB on setting future accounting standards, even though the Securities and Exchange Commission has not formally committed to supporting International Financial Reporting Standards.

The Big Four accounting firms saw solid revenue growth last year following strong performance in 2010 and 2011 after a severe revenue decline in 2009, according to a newly published analysis.

Private company stakeholders have never been in a better position to have their concerns addressed in the standard-setting process, according to Billy Atkinson, the chair of the new Private Company Council: “We have the wind in our sails.”

For accounting professionals and consultants alike, the past year has been filled with talk of the cloud, mobile and compliance and I daresay we're in for more of the same, but with a few additions to our regular vocabulary.

Audit committees are confronting another challenging year, with continued economic uncertainty, globalization, digitization, and increased government regulation and enforcement reshaping the business and risk environment, according to a report from KPMG.