The past year has seen an unprecedented amount of new tax legislation and regulations affecting business taxpayers.

At long last, the SEC has published its proposed roadmap for the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards, but the “date certain” is as uncertain as ever.

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox acknowledged that the mortgage meltdown may have started in the United States, but he pointed the finger at other countries for helping create a global economic crisis.

A large majority of CPA firms reported continuing strong growth during the past two years, according to a new survey by the American Institute of CPAs and the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, but the survey was taken before the financial crisis hit home in recent quarters.

Significant opportunities still exist for optimization of Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 programs and reductions in compliance cost, according to a new report.

In an article entitled “Address Going-Concern Issues as Early as Possible,” in Camico’s Impact Fall 2008 newsletter, the professional liability insurer offers the following advice: “Going-concern issues should be addressed as early as possible in an engagement. …. Delay makes the necessary conversations more difficult, may impair your objectivity, and usually exacerbates the problem.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission has published its long-delayed roadmap for the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with insider trading charges stemming from his sale of 600,000 shares of the search engine Mamma.com.

"There have been nine pieces of tax legislation passed this year," he noted. "The primary responsibility for accountants is to adequately and accurately reflect things that happen to the taxpayer in a way that gives the taxpayer the greatest benefit allowed by the legal system. Tax planning helps the preparer to meet this responsibility."

A new career in income tax preparation could be a safety net for some of the thousands of bank and financial services employees who are losing their jobs due to the current economic crisis. Many of those being laid off are older employees who would not be able to find another comparable full-time job, but are not ready to retire.Tax professionals need many of the same qualifications that bankers and financial professionals possess. A tax preparer must be able to conduct a thorough interview to extract financial and personal information from their client and hold that information in complete confidence. Preparing income tax returns requires similar skills as completing banking, mortgage or investment documents.

MCGLADREY TO AUDIT JTAThe Jacksonville, Fla., office of McGladrey & Pullen has been engaged to audit the Jacksonville Transportation Authority. The JTA, in conjunction with the Florida Department of Transportation and the city of Jacksonville, develops and implements construction plans to improve traffic flow in the Jacksonville area.

When was the last time you or your clients took a hard look at your 401(k) plans?If you're like many small and midsized business owners, chances are that you haven't spent much time reviewing the plan since the day it was set up three, five and perhaps even 10 years ago. Most employers implement a plan and simply assume that even years later it will continue to do what is best for themselves, their company and their employees.

Change is scary. There's no doubt about it. I often tell my clients that whenever I am facing a major change, I feel like I am at the edge of a diving board and just can't jump into the water.I guess I'm no different than any of you when it comes to change. Sometimes I have been forced into it, and other times I have led it.

The past year has seen an unprecedented amount of new tax legislation and regulations affecting business taxpayers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission was somewhat ambivalent last August when it approved a "roadmap" towards accepting International Financial Reporting Standards for U.S. publicly held companies.Indeed, several months after agreeing on the framework for its ultimate mandate of IFRS accounting beginning in 2014, the regulator still hadn't published an official document outlining its decision. But that apparently isn't dampening accounting firms' commitment to gearing up for IFRS, or to alerting clients to IFRS's sweeping ramifications.

The Internal Revenue Service has not developed sufficient processes to ensure that more than 61 million tax refunds were directly deposited last tax season to the correct bank account, according to a new report from the Treasury's inspector general.The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said that the IRS places responsibility for compliance with federal direct deposit regulations on the taxpayer, and indicated that it is the taxpayer's responsibility to ensure that their tax refunds are directly deposited only into their accounts. TIGTA and representatives from the Treasury's Financial Management Service, however, believe that the IRS is responsible for enforcing the requirement.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has provided new flexibility to allow banks and other financial institutions to reprice their assets during the credit crisis by amending its standard on fair value measurements.The FASB Staff Position clarifies the application of FASB Statement No. 157 in an inactive market and provides an illustrative example to demonstrate how the fair value of a financial asset is determined when the market for that asset is inactive.

One (and possibly the only) positive result of the financial crisis is that market value accounting has been brought to the public's attention.Unfortunately, most discussions of this issue have generated much more heat than light. For instance, we've noted that many who criticize value-based accounting don't begin to understand its advantages over other asset and liability measures. We want to explain the theory behind it, which is how we came to be convinced that all the trouble of switching to values will be worthwhile. This perspective has helped us see that most criticisms of market value are transparent attempts to deflect blame away from managers who made poor investment decisions.

Accounting schools are scrambling to stay ahead of the IFRS curve.

The Private Company Financial Reporting Committee discussed FIN 48, fair value and other matters at its latest meeting.