Financial reporting

Thomson Tax & Accounting has introduced an estate-planning notebook organizer that accountants can send to their clients as gifts.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Private Company Financial Reporting Committee has been active for barely a year, but it has already changed the way accounting standards are set.And 2008 may well be the group’s breakout year, according to committee chairperson Judith O’Dell.

The 2008 Moss Adams Financial Performance Study of Advisory Firms has just been launched and the company urges advisors to participate. This annual study provides data and insights to help financial advisors across all business models achieve success. The study coverage includes:

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have put aside their regulatory turf wars and entered into a memorandum of understanding that fosters cooperation between the two enforcement bodies in market oversight and regulation. The agreement includes an information-sharing platform along with guidance for new product reviews - particularly if the products can trade as both a security or a commodity. The first order of business under the joint relationship is notices requesting public comment on two new products --the first is an option that would be traded on options exchanges, and the other is a future that would trade on a single stock futures exchange. The requests for comment will be published in the Federal Register.

Nonprofit software provider Serenic Corp., parent to the flagship Navigator product, okayed granting stock options to its directors and senior officers. The company granted 100,000 stock options to Bruce Saville, who joined the Serenic board last week; 85,000 to board members Don Caron, Ron Odynski, and chairman Dwayne Kushniruk; 50,000 to chief executive Randy Keith; 35,000 to corporate secretary David Tam; and 25,000 to CFO Paul Johnston.

The American Institute of CPAs has ramped up its mobility efforts to allow CPAs to practice in other states, with mobility bills enacted now in 12 states and legislation pending in 22 other states.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a report warning public pension funds that they risk violating the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws if they do not have adequate compliance policies in place to prevent wrongdoing.

Australians are considered the world's richest superannuation holders, a report indicates. It says this is because of a very strong domestic currency and the government permitting citizens to drop as much as $1 million tax-free into their retirement savings. Superannuation is a pension scheme in Australia. It has a compulsory element whereby employers are required by law to pay a proportion of an employee's salaries and wages (currently nine percent) into a superannuation fund, which can be accessed when the employee retires After over a decade of compulsory contributions, Australian workers have close to a trillion dollars in superannuation assets with more money invested in managed funds per capita than any other economy. Compulsory superannuation in combination with buoyant economic growth has turned Australia into a 'shareholder society' where most workers are now indirect investors in the stock market. Consequently, a lively personal investment marketplace has developed, and many Australians take an interest in investment topics. According to the AFG Global Fund Management Index, our Aussie friends had an average of $63,794 invested in managed funds at the end of the last financial year. My wife’s cousin read this in the local Sydney paper. In fact, local super funds, on average, outperformed their peers in a top-10 list that included the United States, Canada, and France. To add to this, in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2007, the amount handled by Australian managed funds grew by 32.4 percent. In comparison to our world, the value of American managed funds climbed by only 8.5 percent to $43,458 while those in Britain rose by 23.2 percent to $17,515. Ross Nayler, who is a principal with AFG Financial Planning, says that clearly the stronger Australian dollar, now trading at around 90 U.S. cents, plus specific laws allowing people to put up to $1 million tax free into their super savings helped make Australia the world leader. "One of the key messages is we've been at the top of the table for quite some time and we're getting further ahead.” In fact, for the period of five years to the second quarter of 2007, Australian managed funds posted a per capita growth rate of 97.7 percent. But now comes the clinker. Another survey, the AMP Superannuation Adequacy Index Report, for January to June of last year, found that 30 percent of Australian workers under the age of 40 would not have enough savings to retire comfortably. Moreover, it found that 3.4 million Australians across all working-age groups were falling behind in preparing for their twilight years. Nayler notes that minimum contribution levels are needed. Macquarie Research Economics expects then that Australian superannuation funds will post less spectacular returns in 2008. It points out that after recording huge gains in the past couple of years on the back of double-digit returns, growth in superannuation funds under management is set to be more subdued this year. Of course, I might add, as my cousin stresses, the absence of the $1 million contribution program is expected to slow down super growth rates in 2008. It may be their lead in superannuation will be dwindling.

The House Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures held a hearing to examine whether there is a need for a more uniform treatment of various derivative structures.

Fidelity Investments has released a report estimating that a 65-year-old couple retiring in 2008 would need approximately $225,000 to cover their medical costs in retirement, a 4.7 percent increase over the 2007 estimate of $215,000.

The real value of bank holdings has been generating controversy in the accounting profession as banks find themselves under increasing pressure to be more upfront about the true value of their assets, assuming they can be accurately valued, even with ballpark estimates.

Accounting firms are using Google text ads this tax season and beyond to bring in clients for tax prep and other types of accounting and financial planning services.

Somerset CPAs said it plans to launch a consulting program to help CEOs cope with the economic downturn.

A House subcommittee plans to conduct a hearing into the tax treatment of derivatives next week.

The Financial Accounting Foundation's board of trustees has voted to approve sweeping changes in the oversight, structure and operations of the Financial Accounting Foundation and its two standards-setting boards, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.

A 61 percent majority of chief financial officers at leading U.S. technology companies feel that shareholders should have a say on executive compensation plans, according to a new survey.

I sat in on part of a meeting of the Financial Accounting Foundation and heard that many in Europe are taken aback at the swift pace of convergence in the U.S. with international accounting standards, but they are still waiting for us to set a deadline.

The Internal Revenue Service has introduced an electronic filing system that allows small tax-exempt organizations to file Form 990-N "e-Postcards" to report their annual income.

The International Accounting Standards Board said its Fair Value Measurement project team has begun a standard-by-standard review of existing fair value measurements in International Financial Reporting Standards to assess whether each standard's use of a fair value measurement basis was intended to be an exit price.

For investment property owners, the first and last concern in a Sec. 1031 exchange transaction should be safety. "Will my funds be secure?" is the most important question to ask a qualified intermediary before beginning a Sec. 1031 exchange.Recent events by a handful of disreputable qualified intermediaries have led to speculation on what is the true litmus test for security of funds in a 1031 exchange. In response, a few QIs and pundits have generated a rash of propaganda and half-truths.