Accounting standards

To help small and midsized accounting firms cope better with implementing international auditing standards, the International Federation of Accountants has published a “Guide to Quality Control for Use by Small- and Medium-sized Practices.”

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants wants world leaders who attend the G20 summit next month to endorse International Financial Reporting Standards, and to leave fair value accounting alone.

Two members of the House Financial Services Committee have introduced a bill that would establish a new Federal Accounting Oversight Board and probably loosen mark-to-market accounting standards.

One third of public companies did not satisfy the minimum requirements of disclosure of their tax reserves last year as required by new rules put in place by the Financial Accounting Standards Board.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has re-proposed for comment a standard for auditing firms to use for reviewing their audit reports internally by a second or concurring partner before they are issued.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro has been under pressure not to appoint a leading critic of International Financial Reporting Standards as a permanent chief accountant, according to a former official who filled that post.

Are you able to get what you need from reviewing financial statements? Do you think there are ways to enhance the usefulness of the presentation of the information?

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board has completed a project aimed at updating and clearing up ambiguities in auditing standards.

The American Institute of CPAs has appointed four new members of the Auditing Standards Board.

Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett said in his annual letter to shareholders that he endorses mark-to-market accounting, even though it helped produce the worst financial results for his company in the 44 years he has been running it.

The next meeting of the Financial Crisis Advisory Group is scheduled for March 5 as accounting leaders and regulators sort out issues related to the recession.

Ric Rosario is stepping into some big shoes at Camico Mutual Insurance Co.

As expected, the Senate approved Mary Schapiro by a unanimous vote as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Schapiro, who has a reputation as a tough-minded regulator, noted during the confirmation process that she planned to ramp up enforcement efforts at the SEC. She also proposed rethinking the current roadmap to U.S. adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards, and expressed concerns about the resources and independence of the International Accounting Standards Board, which sets IFRS.She was formerly chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the securities industry's self-regulating body.

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson urged Congress to simplify the U.S. Tax Code and recommended measures to reduce the burden on taxpayers who are struggling to pay their bills.In the first of this year's two required reports to Congress, she designated the complexity of the Tax Code as the most serious problem facing taxpayers. According to data compiled by her office, U.S. taxpayers and businesses spend about 7.6 billion hours a year complying with tax-filing requirements. "If tax compliance were an industry, it would be one of the largest in the United States," she said in her report. "To consume 7.6 billion hours, the tax industry requires the equivalent of 3.8 million full-time workers."

GUIDANCE ISSUED ON TAX STATSWashington, D.C. - The Internal Revenue Service has issued interim guidance on the ability of a tax return preparer to use statistical compilations of anonymous tax return information to support their business.

From my vantage point on the other side of the Atlantic, I was delighted to see the Securities and Exchange Commission publish its roadmap to adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards. I just hope the U.S. constituents are as pleased as I am and that we can make some real progress towards global accounting standards.With that hope in my heart, I thought it would be worthwhile exploring what the situation might be post-IFRS-adoption for U.S. GAAP, for the Financial Accounting Standards Board and for the International Accounting Standards Board, drawing on my experience of what has happened in the U.K. and Europe.

Page 330 of our 2002 book, Quality Financial Reporting, includes this comment: "No one should accuse accountants of being glacial; after all, glaciers move."Contrary to our jab, the accounting glacier did actually move in May 2008 when FASB issued Staff Position APB 14-1, ponderously titled Accounting for Convertible Debt Instruments That May Be Settled in Cash Upon Conversion (Including Partial Cash Settlement). This FSP is something of a sleeper because no one's said much about it, even though it kicked in for fiscal years and first quarters beginning after Dec. 15, 2008.

As the debate over adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards heats up in the U.S., KPMG has released a survey indicating support for IFRS among investors, analysts and corporate executives who prepare financial statements.

The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy is urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to withdraw its proposed roadmap for transitioning to International Financial Reporting Standards.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has issued guidance on the recent requirement for registration of auditors of privately held broker-dealers.