Regulatory actions and programs

The National Small Business Association is warning that some of the tax proposals in President Obama’s business tax reform framework could hurt small businesses.

A senior U.S. regulator was "optimistic" on Monday about finding a framework for the world's top economy to use global book keeping rules for investors to compare cross-border companies.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has revoked the registration for a firm for failing to file an annual report or pay its annual fee for 2011 and ordered the firm to pay a $5,000 penalty.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has expanded and updated its guide to understanding local government financial statements, and plans to publish more taxpayer-oriented guides later this year.

A new academic study finds that when public companies give their shareholders a vote on the selection of an external auditing firm, they are less likely to make financial restatements than those that don’t.

irs, retirement planning, treasury

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has imposed a $2 million civil penalty against Ernst & Young, the largest civil money penalty to date in the PCAOB’s 10-year history, and censured the firm for audit failure, while sanctioning four of E&Y’s current and former partners.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has named Jeanette M. Franzel, a managing director of the Government Accountability Office, as a member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

Financial Accounting Standards Board chair Leslie Seidman provides an update on the progress FASB is making on converging U.S. GAAP with IFRS and the SEC's delayed decision on incorporating IFRS in the U.S. financial reporting system in an interview with Accounting Today editor-in-chief Bill Carlino.

We're drafting this column in January, when many were surely puzzling over Securities and Exchange Commission Chief Accountant Jim Kroeker's December announcement that the commission would not, after all, decide by year end whether the International Accounting Standards Board and International Financial Reporting Standards would replace the Financial Accounting Standards Board and U.S. GAAP.

President Obama encouraged Congress to act on a package of legislative proposals to expand tax breaks and financing for startups and small businesses.

The Blue Ribbon Panel on Private Company Financial Reporting has recognized that there are many issues in the way private companies and small businesses use GAAP.

Auditor reports are oftentimes misinterpreted, misread or not read at all, according to a new study that calls for significant changes in the reports.

International Accounting Standards Board chairman Hans Hoogervorst told attendees at an accounting conference in Moscow on Monday that he believes the U.S. will ultimately decide to support International Financial Reporting Standards.

European Commission plans to bring the European Union into line with the possibly less stringent Sarbanes-Oxley measures to ban audit firms from offering tax and other non-audit services to audit clients are facing controversy as the issue moves to the European Parliament.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is continuing to prod officials in Washington for the power to make public its disciplinary proceedings against auditing firms and auditors.

The National Society of Accountants is providing a free Web tutorial to help tax practitioners get ready for the Internal Revenue Service’s upcoming Registered Tax Return Preparer competency tests.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has made available the 2012 U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy, which can be used to submit XBRL-format financial filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Snack maker Diamond Foods is reportedly being investigated by federal prosecutors who are working with the Securities and Exchange Commission to probe the accounting for the company’s payments to walnut growers.