Michael Cohn

The Institute of Internal Auditors and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at advancing internal auditing and accounting practices globally.

The Internal Revenue Service met Thursday with tax preparation and software companies, payroll and tax financial product processors, and state tax administrators to announce a sweeping new collaborative effort to combat identity theft refund fraud and protect taxpayers.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued two proposed accounting standards updates with the goal of simplifying employee share-based payment accounting and the equity method of accounting for investments.

Business leaders are expanding their companies to foreign countries more out of a “fear of missing out,” rather than a positive desire for growth, according to a new survey by Grant Thornton.

Michael Zovistoski, a partner at UHY LLP, and managing director of UHY Advisors NY, Inc. in Albany, N.Y., has been chosen as president-elect by the New York State Society of CPAs.

McGladrey plans to rebrand itself as RSM on a global basis to reflect the name of the global network of accounting firms in which it belongs.

The Vatican has signed an intergovernmental agreement with the U.S. Treasury Department to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA.

The House introduced legislation that aims to make it easier for individuals, employers, states and the federal government to determine who is eligible for premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act.

The House approved legislation by voice vote permanently banning states from taxing Internet access or placing multiple or discriminatory taxes on e-commerce.

Republican leaders of Congress’s two tax-writing committees are questioning recommendations from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development aimed at stopping multinational corporations from shifting their profits to low-tax countries.

ACCA USA, the U.S. arm of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, is partnering with the CFO Alliance, a global community of senior financial leaders and decision makers, in a campaign assessing the state of the global “talent gap” in accounting and finance.

The Internal Revenue Service did not receive much of the information it needed early this tax season from health insurance exchanges to verify taxpayers’ qualifications to claim tax credits to subsidize buying health coverage, according to a new report.

Lixil Group, the Japanese company that owns the American Standard brand of toilets, sinks and other bathroom fixtures, is seeing its profits go down the drain after the company reported accounting problems last week.

Heads of state meeting at the G7 Summit in Bavaria, Germany committed to promoting automatic exchange of tax information and tax rulings to discourage multinational companies from shifting profits from country to country to avoid taxes.

Trade groups representing the banking, credit union and financial services industry are sounding the alarm over a provision in a bill already passed by the Senate that would require them to report information to the Internal Revenue Service on both interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing accounts.

James Schnurr, chief accountant in charge of the Security and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Chief Accountant, said he disagrees with a former SEC chairman about abandoning convergence with International Financial Reporting Standards.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that total nonfarm employment increased last month by 280,000, with job gains mostly occurring in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and health care. However, employment in accounting and bookkeeping services declined a bit.

Costs associated with the finance and accounting function are increasing for many companies as the talent shortage intensifies, according to a new report.

Pope Francis has appointed Libero Milone, the former chairman and CEO of Deloitte & Touche Italy, as the first auditor general of the Vatican, where he is expected to oversee a clean-up of the scandal-scarred Vatican Bank.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against the government technology contractor Computer Sciences Corporation, its former CEO and several finance executives, accusing them of manipulating financial results and concealing significant problems about the company’s largest and most high-profile contract, as well as ignoring basic accounting standards to increase reported profits.