Michael Cohn

Leonardo da Vinci’s friend Luca Pacioli is considered to be the father of accounting, but could the old Franciscan friar have left behind some tantalizing clues in his 1494 book that would predict the future of accounting as we now know it more than five centuries later?

Bank of America has fessed up to having shifted billions of dollars in debt off its balance sheet at opportune times in its fiscal calendar over the past three years, showing that the kinds of repurchase transactions that helped sink Lehman Brothers were not altogether uncommon.

Before departing on its holiday break, the Senate left a number of important issues unresolved, including the fate of the unemployment extension and tax extenders legislation, not to mention the financial reform bill.

Even though the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board technically lost a Supreme Court ruling Monday, the board is likely to emerge stronger now that the element of uncertainty has been removed.

Gulf Coast residents contending with the oil washing up on their shores could find that the checks from BP come with a few mucky strings attached.

.A new set of standards will allow accountants to explain exactly why their independence may have been impaired when performing compilation services for clients.

The G-20 group of finance ministers decided last weekend against levying a global bank tax amid fierce opposition from some countries, but that doesn’t mean the idea of taxing banks to pay for future bailouts is gone completely.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., wants to put a stop to U.S. companies that transfer customer service calls halfway around the world.

The health care reform bill included a provision for extra information reporting that could mean many businesses will need to file hundreds more 1099 types of forms to help the government close the tax gap.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has filed a cloture motion on the financial regulatory reform bill as he pushes for the debate to end this week, but with hundreds of amendments still waiting to be decided, he may not get his wish.

Thousands of nonprofit organizations could lose their tax-exempt status if they don’t file a Form 990 with the IRS by May 17.

The Boston Red Sox has to deal with some unusual challenges, including conquering a Green Monster of an accounting system.

While companies are increasingly making use of cloud computing for their accounting software and other applications, they’re not completely ditching their enterprise resource planning software either.

The kickoff meeting of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Standard Setting for Private Companies showed there isn’t a lot of agreement among privately held companies and their accountants on exactly what constitutes generally accepted accounting principles.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun probing Lehman Brothers’ former executives and looking under the rocks at other financial institutions to see if they have been using similar accounting gimmicks.

As many taxpayers continue to struggle with a tough economy, tax season is finding many of them literally unprepared.

The Internal Revenue Service has been making good on its promises to step up its audits of wealthy taxpayers, and sites like Facebook could be a big help.

Amazon.com has cut off its affiliates in Colorado in response to a new law that requires Web retailers to send a statement to their customers every year of how much tax they should be paying on their purchases.

The wrangling over the fate of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency took another turn with the revelation that it may end up within the Federal Reserve.

The Securities and Exchange Commission finally made its long-awaited decision on the IFRS roadmap, or did it?