Tammy Whitehouse

In its Jan. 11 inaugural meeting as an advisory group to the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the Investors Technical Advisory Committee has said new accounting rules should require retrospective application and that private companies with public debt should be required to meet the same effective dates as public companies. ITAC floated the ideas as a […]

The Financial Accounting Standards Board will stand firm on its plans to enforce the effective date of new tax-related reporting rules, although it has promised more guidance on the tricky subject—and stressed that the Board is not looking for exhaustive documentation of the obvious. FASB met last week to answer the 11th hour request for […]

If the proposed changes to Auditing Standard No. 2 take hold, companies and auditors can take those troublesome catch phrases like “more than remote” and “more than inconsequential” and kiss them goodbye. Whether anyone will want to embrace the next generation of terminology, however, is still unclear. Goelzer Under the reforms proposed last month by […]

Now that valuation is playing a more prominent role in financial reporting, accounting rulemakers are wondering if companies need more guidance—or even a new standards-setting body—to steer the valuation process. The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued an invitation to comment on whether and how the market should get new guidance on conducting business valuations. […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission is taking a keen interest in internal control effectiveness letters, improper use of non-GAAP measures, holes in MD&A, and the ways in which revenue is allocated from complex contracts. Those are among 10 hot-button issues that prompted SEC remarks on corporate periodic filings, according to a recent analysis of SEC […]

IMPORTANT UPDATE FASB has unanimously voted not to delay the effective date of FIN 48, a controversial accounting rule that requires companies to assess all uncertain tax positions. The Board will issue new guidance soon to help companies understand their disclosure requirements under the new rule. Compliance Week will cover this issue extensively in its […]

A recent study says companies probably need to increase assumed year-end discount rates as they establish pension-related assumptions that will help calculate pension liabilities—which are making their debut on corporate balance sheets this spring. Waite SEI, an asset-management firm, recently published its 2007 update of annual research that examines key barometers affecting pension-related assumptions. Jon […]

Companies with backdated stock options are scrambling to fix a host of problems before recently issued tax guidance hammers them and their employees with income taxes, penalties, and withholding requirements. Companies like Nvidia Corp. even hurriedly issued tender offers asking employees if they’d like to turn in their improperly granted options for properly dated (and […]