Michael Cohn

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.

LexisNexis has introduced Lexis Advance Tax, a specialized research portal providing news and analysis to accountants, tax and estate attorneys, government tax professionals and other tax practitioners.

Hiring at small professional services firms grew a bit last month, according to the latest figures from CBIZ.

As expatriate taxpayers face increasing difficulties from implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, the Internal Revenue Service is offering YouTube videos and other online resources to assist taxpayers overseas.

The Tax Court has held in favor of a taxpayer who claimed a whistleblower award that the Internal Revenue Service wanted to reject because the whistleblower had brought the information directly to an IRS operating division before filling out paperwork requesting an award from the IRS Whistleblower Office.

A trade association representing the casino industry is sounding the alarm over proposed regulations from the Internal Revenue Service that would lower the threshold for reporting winnings from slot machines, keno and bingo.

Deloitte’s new global CEO Punit Renjen took the reins this week as the new CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, also known as Deloitte Global, and defined the global organization’s priorities.

After serving as managing director of Gumbiner Savett Inc. for nearly a decade, Michael Savoy has decided to step down from his position as the head of the leadership team of the Santa Monica-based firm and will be replaced by Rick Parent.

H&R Block is testing new technology that uses Facebook’s Oculus virtual reality equipment to provide avatars of tax preparers for customers of the future.

The Internal Revenue Service has released new guidance on penalties for failing to file a foreign bank account report, capping the maximum percentage of the penalty and providing new requirements for documentation and approval by IRS examiners.

Employment in the private sector increased by 201,000 jobs last month in another healthy sign of an improving economy, according to figures from payroll giant ADP.

The New York State Society of CPAs has elected Joseph M. Falbo Jr. as its new president.

The Internal Revenue Service discovered last month that criminals accessed around 104,000 tax returns through its Get Transcript application and tried to get hold of approximately 100,000 more.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has voted unanimously to approve two new standards that it believes will significantly improve the accounting and financial reporting by state and local governments for postemployment benefits other than pensions, primarily retiree health insurance.

The pace of small business hiring appears to be leveling off, according to a new report from payroll giant Paychex and the research firm IHS.

The Internal Revenue Service is clarifying some of its procedures for changing a method of accounting.