Accounting standards

The International Federation of Accountants is internationalizing its Web site and turning it into a veritable United Nations by translating key parts of it into Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish.

A Securities and Exchange Commission advisory committee began meeting to consider ways to make financial reporting more understandable and relevant to investors.

General Electric vice president and comptroller Phillip Ameen has joined the advisory board of BNA Tax and Accounting's Accounting Policy & Practice Series.

Grant Thornton CEO Edward E. Nusbaum has worked with the firm for 28 years, but since he took over the helm, the Chicago-based firm has more than doubled its revenue in the last four years, reaching $940 million in 2006.

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox says small public companies should start getting ready to comply with the stricter auditing rules of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, but left open the possibility of another deferral of the requirement.

Huron Consulting Group has acquired Callaway Partners for $60 million in cash to add Callaway's finance and accounting project management expertise to Huron's financial and consulting services.

Carol Stacey, former chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporate Finance, has become vice president of The SEC Institute, an organization that holds conferences and workshops around the country to explain SEC and PCAOB rules and regulations.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged the former chairman and CEO of Brooks Automation, Robert J. Therrien, with allegedly receiving over $10.4 million in undisclosed compensation by fraudulently backdating stock options.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's new internal control auditing standard, known as AS5, by a 5-0 vote.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has proposed a new ethics rule on communicating with audit committees concerning independence.

India plans to bring its accounting standards in line with International Financial Reporting Standards by April 1, 2011.

Significant internal control weaknesses remain in the preparation of the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.

In a major step toward an eventual convergence of accounting standards, the Securities and Exchange Commission put out a proposal to allow non-U.S. companies that list on U.S. exchanges to reconcile their financials using International Financial Reporting Standards, instead of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.The measure, according to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, is a movement to have all companies "speak the same language," while serving to attract more international companies to U.S. markets. Business leaders have complained that investors are bypassing the U.S. in favor of London and Hong Kong as a result of over-regulation and the costs of having to file in two sets of accounting rules.

The new discussion draft Form 990, dubbed "the biggest thing the Exempt Organizations Division at the IRS has done in the last quarter century," by division director Lois Lerner, could be both a boon and a burden for preparers.The Internal Revenue Service hopes that the form, already released for comment, will be ready for use for tax year 2008.

Have you heard the joke about the sales tax audit? No one has.There is nothing funny about a sales tax audit.

Summertime brings with it the "high season" for clients who are seriously considering purchasing vacation homes, or switching from one vacation home to another.The majority are looking to take advantage of certain tax breaks to help them carry the property. For others, tax savings are an added bonus to validate their decision. In either case, tax advisors often get a hurried call to explain the options.

At the request of Connecticut State Comptroller Nancy S. Wyman, the state's General Assembly has voted to allow the comptroller to set generally accepted accounting principles for the state, starting in 2009.Wyman, however, said that she has no intention of modifying GAAP, as set by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, for external reporting.

The European reaction as to how a proposed standard on fair value needs to be revised in order to be suitable for International Financial Reporting Standards is starting to emerge as a more of a "back to basics" cry.Among other things, regulatory experts within the EU are requesting a more principles-based approach and shorter documents than the 12 pages on FAS 157 and the 20-plus pages of guidance. They also maintain that any debate on the subject should not begin with the assumption that fair value needs to be reflected on the balance sheet. Others have forwarded suggestions on clarifying the language of the standard.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled charges with four former finance executives of SmartForce related to the software company's overstatement of revenue and income.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday that Chester Spatt, Chief Economist and Director of the Office of Economic Analysis (OEA), will leave the agency to return to academia at the end of July, according to an SEC press release.