Regulatory actions and programs

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a standard providing guidance for using fair value to measure assets and liabilities.

Billionaire tycoon Ricardo Salinas Pliego and the Securities and Exchange Commission reached a settlement last week, marking the end of the first lawsuit against a foreign company under the corporate governance rules of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The newly released 2006-2007 Internal Revenue Service Priority Guidance Plan, designed as the agency's own blueprint for its guidance projects during the coming year, ranges in scope from consolidated returns to tax-exempt bonds.The Guidance Plan contains 10 more projects than last year's plan, and includes projected rulings on corporations and shareholders, employee benefits, executive compensation, excise taxes, exempt organizations, estate and gift taxes, partnerships, S corporations, and international issues.

The man who oversaw Freddie Mac's earnings restatement, as well as its financial reporting improvements, has joined the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

A recently released exposure draft from the American Institute of CPAs contains two different interpretations under the institute's independence rules.

A new accounting bulletin from the Securities and Exchange Commission addresses how prior year misstatements should be considered when quantifying a current year's misstatement.

The AFL-CIO wants to know more about the role that the major accounting firms might have played in the handling of stock options grants the government is now investigating.

It isn't the acts of a single executive, or the misses of a particular audit team, that most concern Public Company Accounting Oversight Board member Charles Niemeier when he reflects back on the corporate scandals that resulted in the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

It's not every accounting conference that the attendees have a chance to come away with a bit of horticulture knowledge.

In a move to keep the United States ensconced as the financial capital of the world, a newly formed commission will recommend changes to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other regulatory mandates it judges to encumber domestic capital markets from remaining competitive.

The Employee Benefits Security Administration, part of the Labor Department, is seeking comment on its plans to update guidance on the independence of accountants who audit employee benefit plans.

The Canadian government has pledged $1 million over the next five years to the International Federation of Accountants' board that governs public company accounting.

The estate of Enron Corp's late founder has agreed to pay $12 million to settle claims brought by participants in the failed energy company's pension plans.

The fact that the Securities and Exchange Commission last week filed a 46-page legal brief supporting the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to me was not as surprising as the fact they had to do it at all.

As previously announced, the Internal Revenue Service will soon begin charging user fees for the residency certification letters commonly used to avoid foreign value added taxes.

After a five-year effort, the American Society of Appraisers is taking credit for some of the provisions contained in the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

The Institute of Management Accountants is again rolling out its "Statements on Management Accounting."

After months of increasing reports of investigations by both the Securities and Exchange Commission and academics, Congress is now examining the sometimes-questionable timing of stock options granted to executives.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice have formally supported the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board with the filing of a 46-page legal brief just before Labor Day.

More than 900 companies have used accelerated vesting schedules to avoid an estimated $8 billion in costs, according to a Bear Stearns report issued last week.