Associations

The call for differential accounting - separate sets of generally accepted accounting principles for public and private companies - has been heard for roughly three decades. Now, at last, something is happening - but just as the United States has decided to go in one direction, the rest of the world may go in another.The underlying problem is that GAAP is designed for public companies, which tend to be large enough to deal with the complexity of the standards.

CPA firms continue to experience strong growth, with 76 percent reporting an increase in firm size last year, according to benchmark data in the 2006 National Management of an Accounting Practice Survey.Despite that growth, the recently-released survey also confirmed that succession planning remains a stumbling block for many firms facing the imminent retirement of the Baby Boomer generation. The survey found that only 24 percent of firms have a succession plan and only 7 percent of firms have partner-in-training programs.

There have been calls by financial statement users for increased transparency with regard to financial statements. It seems the regulators are taking those demands seriously, not just by enacting standards aimed at increasing transparency, but also by ensuring that the standard-setting process is more transparent.

I just returned from Las Vegas where I attended the AICPA personal financial planning conference and where I also made an opening day presentation to a packed house awarding the Institute the Special Award of Excellence from CPA Wealth Provider. In 2006, the AICPA launched a nationwide effort to encourage Americans ages 25 to 34 to “feed the pig” as a key step toward building a solid financial future for themselves and their families.Actually, Feed the Pig is a national multi-media public-service announcement campaign sponsored by the Institute and the Ad Council. Featuring Benjamin Bankes, a smartly dressed, adult-size pig who evokes memories of the piggy bank, the campaign delivers a strong message about the importance and benefits of savings. It is a noteworthy effort and I decided to put it to the test not for 25-to-34-year -olds but rather for the 6-to-11 mob, my grandchildren.

The AmerInst Insurance Group Ltd., a provider of professional liability reinsurance to CPA firms, announced the results of a recent rights offering to shareholders.

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

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.

William Ferrara, professor of accounting emeritus at Stetson and Pennsylvania State Universities, received the 2007 Lifetime Contribution Award from the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association, sponsored by the American Institute of CPAs.

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to address the Sarbanes-Oxley compliance burden by scaling-back testing and documentation requirements for smaller public companies.

In an effort to foster dialogue between auditors and those who govern non-public companies - including not-for-profits and governmental entities - the Auditing Standards Board has issued a standard requiring auditors to communicate certain issues with whomever is charged with corporate governance.The board has also established a formal attestation hierarchy and fine-tuned a few existing standards.

In a city where fantasy and excess often usurp reality, it should have surprised few attendees at the American Institute of CPAs Fall Meeting of Council that critical profession-centric issues such as interstate mobility and peer review were upstaged by the appearance of a costumed pig.As an extension of its ongoing 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy effort, the institute and the nonprofit Ad Council have partnered on a multimedia campaign titled "Feed the Pig," designed to encourage savings among 25-to-34-year-olds - a demographic that encompasses roughly 40 million Americans.

Vice president of taxation for the American Institute of CPAs Tom Ochsenschlager listed the top 10 provisions in recent tax legislation in his keynote speech at the New York State Society of CPAs’ Annual Tax/Plenary Conference on Nov. 16.Provisions folded into the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act Ochsenschlager outlined included:

A report was recently released at an international conference in Paris. The 20-page report is entitled “Global Capital Markets and the Global Economy: A Vision from the CEOs of the International Audit Networks,” and its authors are the heads of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Grant Thornton International, Deloitte, KPMG International, BDO International, and Ernst & Young.The report is intended to promote “a robust dialogue about how global financial reporting and public company auditing procedures must adapt to better serve capital markets around the world.”

CPAs in Congress came to the rescue of their profession with the passage of a bill that eliminated the need to send privacy notices to clients."The Financial Services Relief Act of 2006 is a common-sense bill that will give CPAs more time to serve their clients," said Rep. Colin C. Peterson, D-Minn. "As a CPA myself, I can tell you that it's more important to spend time working with clients than it is to be filling out redundant paperwork."

The American Institute of CPAs has rolled out a new associate membership category for all college and university accounting faculty who are not holding or pursuing the CPA designation.The category will be most similar to the institute’s already existing non-CPA section associates -- instead of working for an accounting firm, applicants have to be teaching accounting at a college or university. Dues are set at $185 a year

With the close of 2006 approaching, we asked industry leaders to share their ideas of what the accounting profession will look like in five years: What will be its major concerns? Its challenges? The hot new service areas? What shape will the firm landscape have taken?Throughout November, WebCPA will post new comment collections each week.

My first visit to Las Vegas 30 years ago, consisted of a two-night stay at a long-since razed flophouse called “The Lone Palm Motel,” and the $1.99 dinner buffet at Circus Circus -- which I’m told still exists in some form.

As a study from the American Institute of CPAs put it, Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 “are caught between a Baby Boomer rock and a fiscal hard place.”The institute recently commissioned the study to examine the spending and saving habits of the so-called Generation Y. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are approximately 40 million Americans in the demographic.

As an extension of its ongoing 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy effort, the American Institute of CPAs and the non-profit Ad Council have partnered on a campaign designed to encourage savings among 25-to-34 year olds -- a demographic, which encompasses roughly 40 million Americans.Titled, “Feed the Pig,” in a reference to the piggy bank, the multi-pronged media effort will include television, radio, print, banner ads and text messaging designed to help emphasize the importance of savings.

The American Institute of CPAs and the National Association of the State Boards of Accountancy have reached compromises that could potentially affect both the peer review process and issue of substantial equivalency/mobility.With regard to the 18-year-old peer review process, the institute -- working with state boards and NASBA -- unveiled a new model for transparency, which contains an “opt out” provision by firms for voluntary state board disclosure of peer review results.