Accounting standards

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has created a new committee comprised of a dozen individuals from the investment community who regularly focus on accounting and financial reporting matters.

Rep. Barney Frank said that wage inequality among U.S. workers is his No. 1 priority as he prepares to take over chairmanship of the House Financial Services Committee this week.In a speech at the National Press Club, Frank, D-Mass., said that he will hold hearings about wages over the next two years in an attempt to address the gap between economic growth and workers' wages.

As president and chief executive of the Institute of Management Accountants for the past three years, Paul Sharman has worked to establish a new direction for the association.Sharman’s ultimate goal is to reposition management accountants at the forefront of the accountancy profession, and in recent years the IMA has focused on advancing the management accounting and finance profession through certification, superior professional ethical standards and competence-based continuing education.

It was just this July that I authored a column praising Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox for successfully navigating through a number of potentially sensitive issues during his first year on the job.Among one of the examples I cited was Cox’s handling of a number of investigations involving the practice of stock-options granting to executives. Now, just four months after implementing tough new rules on how companies have to disclose executive compensation, the SEC issued a quiet statement on Dec. 22 saying that it would take another look at those rules.

The International Federation of Accountants is proposing the first major revisions to its code of ethics for accountants since late 2001.

The President's Identity Theft Task Force announced that it is seeking public comment on various recommendations to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the federal government's efforts to reduce identity theft.

The American Institute of CPAs has asked the Internal Revenue Service to clarify the deductibility of health insurance premiums covering S corporation shareholders.

Beleaguered health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc. announced that a Securities and Exchange Commission probe of the stock-options practices has been formalized.

Philadelphia, the city in which our Founding Fathers created the words to govern our country, this month housed the fathers of another language -- one they hope businesses in every nation will adopt to turn financial reporting from a tower of babble into a world of ubiquitous fluency. Backers of the Extensible Business Reporting Language expressed excitement over their progress in enticing companies to conduct internal reporting and regulatory filings in this format. Roughly 500 people from 27 countries attended the 14th international conference, which indicates increased interest from last fall’s showing of 300, but not necessarily increased understanding. At least conference organizers foresaw the dilemma and astutely prepared novices, even promising “compelling” demos free of technical jargon to prove that XBRL applications can make life easier for accountants, auditors, and investors looking to do everything from internal budgeting on Excel spreadsheets to quantitative analysis for investment management.

After four months, the Securities and Exchange Commission has already revisited its rule on disclosing executive compensation.In a statement issued Dec. 22, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said that the new requirements will make it easier for companies to prepare statements and for investors to understand the cost of stock options.

A CPA will take over as the Securities and Exchange Commission’s chief financial officer and associate executive director of finance.The appointee, Kristine Chadwick, had most recently served as the chief financial officer for the Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency, Foreign Agricultural Service, and Commodity Credit Corporation. She will replace Margaret Carpenter, who is retiring in January after 32 years in the federal government.

As federal regulators continue tweaking new public accounting rules, opponents of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act will find more fuel for their argument in the news that Hong Kong passed over New York in 2006 to become the world's second most popular place for companies to issue new stock listings.London remained at the top of the list.

For the business community, going public has always been where the real money is.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has revoked the registration of Armando C. Ibarra PC of Chula Vista, Calif., and censured Dallas-based Turner, Stone & Co. LLP, citing violations of PCAOB guidelines and auditing standards uncovered during its inspection process.

The Internal Revenue Service is lifting a moratorium on determination letter applications for conversions from traditional defined benefit pension plans to so-called cash balance plans.

As expected, President Bush signed a massive bill that would extend expiring tax, health and trade legislation.

In a nod to opponents and critics who complained about the costs of internal controls audits, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board voted unanimously to circulate a proposal that would trim down the amount of testing necessary to evaluate internal controls over the financial reporting process.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve Board have jointly released rules to implement “broker” exceptions for banks.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board released an exposure draft on pensions that would bring current disclosure requirements for governments and governmental pension plans into line with those recently issued for other post-employment benefits.

Tax research and products provider RIA, a Thomson business, has upgraded its proprietary Checkpoint service, adding a research tool that can be used for tax and auditing simultaneously.The "bridge" comes in the form of RIA sister company PPC's e-Practice Aids, Microsoft Word and Excel versions of all of the editable practice aids in the related PPC Guide, including those from WG&L, and materials from the Securities and Exchange Commission.PPC's e-Practice Aids work with paperless engagement software or with Word and Excel."One thing we heard from our customers, tax people were saying 'There was a reason we work in taxes, because we didn't want to do auditing'" said Ron Burkett, RIA's director of product management, in response to Sarbanes-Oxley. "It helps them bridge over to something they may not be that familiar with."Checkpoint is featuring a series of other enhancements as well, including a customized home page capability, which allows users to customize their research platform by selecting from a list of predefined views including accounting and auditing; corporate finance; tax; and estate and retirement planning, and decide their significance. In addition, users can create their own home page by selecting the content panes based on content they subscribe to that best fits their research needs. For more information about Checkpoint, visit http://ria.thomson.com or call (800)-950-1216.