Regulatory actions and programs

Payroll processor PayCycle said its 1099 MISC E-File service would be open for accounting professionals serving small business clients starting Jan. 1, 2009.

Accounting regulators from more than 15 countries plan to gather at a forum in Boston next week hosted by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy.

Bank of America's audit committee has hired PricewaterhouseCoopers to replace KPMG as the auditor for its recently acquired Countrywide Financial unit.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has voted to propose seven new auditing standards related to risk assessment.

The dispute between the American Bankers Association and the Financial Accounting Standards Board heated up as ABA president Edward Yingling called for a new accounting oversight board that would hold sway over FASB.

More than half of internal auditors say they are not familiar with new technology that provides interactive data tags for financial statements, according to a new survey.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan tried to explain his version of the reasons for the global economic crisis to a congressional panel, while expressing shock and disbelief that the problems had spread so far.

Fifty-five percent of the 688 CFOs and senior controllers surveyed by Grant Thornton said U.S. companies should be permitted to use International Financial Reporting Standards instead of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

The New York State Society of CPAs and its Foundation for Accounting Education plan to hold an auditing conference on Oct. 27.

Barry Melancon, president and chief executive of the American Institute of CPAs, opened his annual remarks regarding the state of the profession at the Fall Meeting of Council and Members by addressing the current economic crisis and the controversy around fair value accounting.

“As the financial crisis on Wall Street unfolds with intense media coverage, we are losing sight of another crisis: more than a million families across the United States will face foreclosure in the next six months as the last of the subprime mortgages contracted in 2006 and early 2007 reset. Accelerating job losses and low wages aggravate the lives of tens of millions of families. In the rush to focus on Wall Street, these are the families whose lives must not be forgotten.”

Nearly half of U.S. companies have made no preparation to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards, according to a new survey.

In what can be termed a shift in placement, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board and the American Institute of CPAs are proposing that certain guidance in the latter's literature belongs in the literature of the former.

One benefit of the academic life is flexibility to spend some time each summer catching up on our reading.

Two recent reports suggest that the movement to register tax return preparers will continue.

Getting a handle on 2008 year-end tax planning is especially challenging this year because of several areas of uncertainty.

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to hold the first of two roundtable discussions on mark-to-market accounting and current market conditions on Wed., Oct. 29, at 9 am ET.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is considering delaying implementation of its controversial standard on accounting for uncertainty in income taxes for private entitiies.

The International Accounting Standards Board and its U.S. counterpart, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, plan to create a global advisory group to review financial reporting issues related to the credit crisis.

The Center for Audit Quality, the CFA Institute, the Council of Institutional Investors and the Consumer Federation of America have written to the Securities and Exchange Commission opposing demands for the SEC to override the Financial Accounting Standards Board's rules on fair value accounting.