Regulatory actions and programs

George Diacont, who has served as director of registration and inspection at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board since the board’s inception in 2003, plans to retire in early March.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales is calling for a “big bang” approach to implementing a series of new International Financial Reporting Standards.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said Thursday that Steven Richards, the former assistant chief accountant in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement, will be joining the board as special adviser to the PCAOB’s new chairman, James R. Doty, at the end of March.

President Obama has launched a new initiative to fund small business entrepreneurs known as Startup America, which sounds like something that might better belong on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley than on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

The Obama administration proposed permanently eliminating capital gains taxes on some types of small business investments held for over five years.

The Obama administration is expected to propose permanently eliminating capital gains taxes on some types of small business investments held for over five years.

Sherron Watkins, the former vice president at Enron who tried to blow the whistle on the accounting violations at the scandal-plagued Houston energy-trading giant, told an audience at a seminar Friday on the new whistleblower provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act that she and other whistleblower employees would probably take their concerns to WikiLeaks rather than the Securities and Exchange Commission now.

The Texas Society of CPAs executive board has adopted a resolution in support of the implementation of a new GAAP model for private companies.

The Small Business Administration announced the first six of a series of grants to Small Business Development Centers around the country to expand access to programs to help entrepreneurs start or grow their businesses and create jobs.

The Small Business Tax Credit Calculator, developed by Tax Credits LLC, is able to complete lines 1 to 14 of Form 8941 for tax preparers in all 50 states.

The European Commission said it would recognize the equivalence of the audit oversight systems of the United States and nine other countries, laying the foundation for greater international cooperation on the supervision of auditors and auditing firms.

The Financial Accounting Foundation has released the 2011 U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy, pending final acceptance by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board has released a set of proposals to address the growing need for robust international standards for services that can be used by entities that are either not required or do not elect to be audited.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has inked a cooperative agreement with the Professional Oversight Board in the United Kingdom to facilitate cooperation in the oversight of auditors and public accounting firms that practice in the two regulators’ respective jurisdictions.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has appointed James R. Doty as chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and Jay D. Hanson and Lewis H. Ferguson as members.

FASB, GASB STANDARDS UNDER REVIEW

The Small Business Administration has redesigned its website and is providing a new tool to personalize the site’s resources for particular types of businesses.

The start of the New Year ushers in a series of new regulatory, compliance and legislative changes that could potentially affect every small business.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has published an alert warning auditors of the risks involved when auditing loss contingencies from litigation arising from mortgages and other loans, especially in cases where mortgage servicers have been accused of “robosigning” foreclosure notices.

Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, who was appointed only six months ago to oversee the board that sets international accounting standards, died of a heart attack on Saturday night.