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There is a famous headline here in the United Kingdom: “House fire in Cumberland; nobody hurt.” At first glance, that same ho-hum sentiment could equally apply to Europe’s shift in 2003 from nation-based generally accepted accounting principles to a single system of International Financial Reporting Standards across the European Union. The headline: “7,500 listed companies […]

As companies prepare detailed analyses of uncertain tax positions to comply with new accounting rules, they can rest easy that the Internal Revenue Service won’t ask for copies—at least for now. The IRS recently issued a brief, three-sentence statement saying it would maintain its current “policy of restraint” with regard to the tax accrual workpapers, […]

On the heels of a Securities and Exchange Commission report on companies’ disclosure of executive compensation details, RiskMetrics (formerly Institutional Shareholder Services) has published its own list of disclosure best practices. The paper, “Proposed Best Practices in Executive Compensation Disclosure,” is an “early attempt to evaluate the 2007 compensation reports,” according to RiskMetrics. A related […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission has finally come forward with recommendations to help companies prepare their executive pay disclosures in next year’s proxy statements. The first tip: Scrap last year’s disclosures. John White, director of the SEC’s division of corporation finance, warned in a speech last week that anyone planning to prepare next year’s proxy […]

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. For trade compliance managers, there’s no such thing as a truly free trade, either. In the case of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the greatest cost comes in maintaining records showing that products qualify for NAFTA’s preferential tariff treatment. Compliance is enforced by the customs services […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposal to accept filings from some foreign companies without reconciliation to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles is drawing mixed reviews from the financial reporting community. Under the current rule proposal, which drew more than 100 comment letters before the deadline last week, the SEC would accept filings from foreign private […]

While the Securities and Exchange Commission’s package of proposals aimed at easing the financial reporting burden for small companies includes some welcome reforms, not all of the changes will be helpful, panelists at an SEC roundtable recently said. Participants at last week’s annual SEC Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation praised some of the […]

The SEC is likely to propose a new rule next year that publicly traded companies file their financial reports using XBRL, the interactive data language SEC Chairman Christopher Cox has long hailed as a powerful tool for investors to study financial results. Speaking at a press conference last week to unveil a new “taxonomy” of […]

The creation of a high-profile committee to examine ways to simplify the rules for financial reporting could breathe new life into a related debate: how to simplify the creation of those rules in the first place. Amid much fanfare, the Securities and Exchange Commission appointed a new Committee to Improve Financial Reporting in June. Its […]

The creation of a high-profile committee to examine ways to simplify the rules for financial reporting could breathe new life into a related debate: how to simplify the creation of those rules in the first place. Amid much fanfare, the Securities and Exchange Commission appointed a new Committee to Improve Financial Reporting in June. Its […]