Tammy Whitehouse

At a recent conference exploring liability issues, a Public Company Accounting Oversight Board official said companies are predicting a 10 percent decline in auditing fees under proposed new rules for auditing internal controls. Laura Phillips, deputy chief auditor for the PCAOB, said large public companies tell the PCAOB they believe new rules governing the audit […]

The staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission is considering an update to its views on materiality, especially the qualitative factors surrounding large versus small errors and the effect of quarterly materiality considerations. Conrad Hewitt, the Commission’s chief accountant, met last month with the SEC Regulations Committee of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, […]

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has completed its staff position defining what an “ultimate settlement” is when determining whether a tax position is fully settled with tax authorities. Also, FASB issued a separate final staff position updating and tweaking guidance related to derivatives transactions. RELATED RESOURCES Definition Of Settlement In FASB Interpretation No. 48 (May […]

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued proposals that would repair the misuse of a certain exception in derivative accounting rules and make the risk profile of insurance companies more transparent to investors. In derivative accounting rules, FASB has issued proposed implementation guidance related to Financial Accounting Standard No. 133, Accounting for Derivative Instruments and […]

When new accounting and funding rules governing defined-benefit pension plans went into effect last year, many experts predicted the death knell for employer-sponsored pension plans. Instead, it appears a good number of companies are looking not necessarily at how to shut down pension plans, but at how to keep them viable in the new environment. […]

Holding their collective breaths as they prepare to file their first-quarter financial reports, companies are anxious to see how investors and tax authorities will react to their heightened level of disclosure about uncertain tax issues. The market’s largest public companies are fast approaching the filing deadline for the first quarterly period in which they must […]

A speech by a staffer at the Securities and Exchange Commission has set off a cascade of warnings to auditors to watch for “valuation manipulation,” as a new standard allowing more discretionary use of fair value accounting takes effect. Joe Kroeker, deputy chief accountant for the SEC, told a recent New York conference on principles-based […]

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board says audits of internal controls over financial reporting are improving—but they still are not focusing as much on risk and efficiency as regulators would like. In a report issued last week to review second-year compliance with Auditing Standard No. 2, the Board said that in some cases auditors still […]

Compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and the state of auditing internal controls over financial reporting might be top-of-mind for accounting executives across the land these days, but occasionally the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board does tackle other business. Such was the Board’s agenda last week, when it proposed a new auditing standard that would address how auditors […]