Tammy Whitehouse

Companies taking an aggressive position on their tax returns will need to be more conservative and more consistent in reporting the benefit on their financial statements if a proposed position by the Financial Accounting Standards Board is finalized as drafted. FASB issued a draft interpretation titled, “Accounting for Uncertain Tax Positions,” which says companies must […]

Despite seemingly similar language, the U.S. system of accounting and capital market regulation is far different from the British model and is sullying systems elsewhere as the global marketplace seeks convergence. At least that’s the view of Tim Bush, a British chartered accountant with Hermes Pensions Management in London, as described in a recent report, […]

THE INSPECTIONS Section 104 of Sarbanes-Oxley requires the PCAOB to conduct a continuing program of inspections of registered public accounting firms. The Board prepares a written report concerning each inspection, a portion of which is available to the public: Ahearn, Jasco + Company, P.A. Anton Collins Mitchell LLP Armando C. Ibarra Battelle & Battelle LLP […]

The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission is targeting Aug. 15 as the release date for its guidance for smaller companies on how to apply the COSO control framework to current regulatory requirements. COSO took up its guidance project—Implementing the COSO Control Framework for Smaller Businesses—early this year at the request of the […]

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board issued the fruits of their most significant convergence effort yet—parallel proposals on new accounting for business combinations that seek to treat all combinations as acquisitions. FASB and IASB jointly issued exposure drafts last week on business combinations that advocate a single accounting method in […]

Bank regulators are mulling a proposal that is touching off a new era of debate over whether there should be liability limits for auditors when an audit fails to turn up flawed or fraudulent accounting. A group of bank regulators have compared notes and discovered audit firms are increasingly seeking provisions via engagement letters that […]

The higher education community is resisting a call from state regulators that license certified public accountants for new educational standards that include mandatory ethics instruction. The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy proposed in February to revise the Uniform Accountancy Rules, which specify educational standards for licensing, to increase the number of semester hours […]

With audit firm inspections well under way for the 2005 inspection season, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has made public only nine reports from the 2004 inspection season and is offering no timeline for when the remainder will be available. The PCAOB faced questions from members of its Standing Advisory Group at their meeting […]

The month of May came and went without the Securities and Exchange Commission’s issuance of its long-anticipated study on off-balance sheet accounting. The newest projection for its release is June, according to a speech given by SEC Chief Accountant Donald Nicolaisen at the SEC Financial Reporting Institute Conference in Pasadena, Calif., last week. Nicolaisen The […]