Accounting standards

Better controls are needed to ensure tax preparers filing electronically are complying with new preparer regulations, according to a report released Thursday by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

IMGCAP(1)][IMGCAP(2)]Valuation, by its very nature, is an exercise in judgment.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has deferred some of the rules it issued earlier this year to make the presentation of other comprehensive income more prominent on financial statements.

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board released a new assurance standard Wednesday on pro forma financial information included in a prospectus.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board issued common disclosure requirements Friday to help investors better understand the impact of offsetting, or netting, on a company’s financial position.

PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation have released a book to help corporate directors address their fiduciary and other responsibilities.

Proposed changes in lease accounting standards could have a broad negative impact on the U.S. economy, triggering a $10 billion reduction in gross domestic product and 60,000 fewer jobs by 2016, according to a new study from the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has proposed that state and local governments should include five-year projections of their cash inflows and outflows, and financial obligations, to supplement their financial statements.

Financial Accounting Standards Board chair Leslie Seidman advocated a cautious transition to International Financial Reporting Standards during a speech Tuesday in which she said the board should retain its control over U.S. GAAP.

IMGCAP(1)]The Financial Accounting Standards Board recently approved a revised accounting standard that requires contributing nongovernmental employers to provide more information about their financial obligations to multiemployer pension plans.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has added a new project to its agenda aimed at reducing or eliminating the need for private companies and not-for-profit organizations to provide as many fair value measurement disclosures as public companies.

The International Accounting Standards Board and the International Federation of Accountants agreed Tuesday to strengthen their cooperation on developing accounting standards for both the private and public sectors.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board published revised proposals Monday for revenue recognition as part of their continuing efforts at convergence.

The International Federation of Accountants’ Small and Medium Practices Committee has released the third edition of its Guide to Using International Standards on Auditing in the Audits of Small- and Medium-Sized Entities.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has added two new projects to its agenda aimed at improving financial reporting by not-for-profit organizations.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is proposing to defer some of the changes it required earlier this year in the presentation of other comprehensive income on financial statements after hearing objections from various quarters.

The American Institute of CPAs’ Financial Reporting Executive Committee has published a working draft of a new AICPA Accounting and Valuation Guide, “Testing Goodwill for Impairment.”

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has proposed a set of improvements in financial reporting on consolidations that would affect all companies required to evaluate whether they should consolidate another entity.

The Financial Accounting Foundation plans to host a series of three public roundtables early next year and a live webcast later this month to give constituents an opportunity to provide their feedback on its recent proposal to create a Private Company Standards Improvement Council.

Candidly, it has taken much longer than it should for us to fully comprehend and explain the gaping distinction between financial accounting and financial reporting. Since we figured it out, though, we've looked at things differently, to the point that we now believe a company's own transactions are not valid sources of useful information.