Top Vote-Getters Include Fed Honchos, Private Sector Leaders, and Association Chief Who’s the most important person in Accounting? Is it Leslie Seidman (Chairman of the FASB), Hans Hoogervorst (Chairman of the IASB), or Douglas Shulman (Commissioner, IRS)? Or instead, might it be James Doty (PCAOB Chair), Mary Shapiro (SEC), or even an as-yet-unnamed person—our next president? Or someone else entirely? Find out how respondents voted in an Accounting Today survey.
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Fraud’s History is Impressive: From Over-the-Counter Cure-Alls to Florida Real Estate and Musical Talent Fraud The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners has built up a choice collection of fraud souvenirs under founder and chairman Dr. Joseph T. Wells. Visit the Accounting Today site to see some of the most notable pieces, which include Bernie Madoff’s cigar box, an Enron stock certificate, a Nigerian Fraud letter, actual documents from the 18th Century South Sea Bubble, Orangeine Over-the-Counter Medicine, a Florida Land Warranty Deal, a Swedish Match King [Ivan Kreuger] Debenture Certificate, Musical Frauds [“Your song may have great merit!”], an 1854 Police…
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Roger Russell recaps the decision at Accounting Today. The Tax Court, in a recent summary opinion, ruled that an individual did not have cancellation of debt income in the year that a collection agency issued him a Form 1099-C and stopped its automated collection efforts. The IRS determined a deficiency in David Stewart’s 2008 income tax of $2,138, based on a Form 1099-C issued by the collection agency. The underlying debt was incurred on a credit card obligation in 1994, and was defaulted on in 1996. Maryland Bank National Association (MBNA) charged off the debt that same year. Find out case specifics…
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Ace Accounting Today reporter Danielle Lee may well have feared decadence, aggressive and overly-medicated groupies, atonal experimentation, psychedelics, and really bad rhyme. But she braved the challenges and took on the story in any case, and it turned out to be pretty cool: An all-CPA band rocked tax day, performing a long set of classic rock during their annual End of Season Tax Bash in a Connecticut restaurant. The Connecticut-based Accounting Crows are: vocalist/bassist Reed Risteen, partner with BlumShapiro in West Hartford.; lead guitarist Alan Friedman, partner of Farmington-based Friedman, Kannenberg & Company; drummer Michael Fortunato, vice president of…
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New private company council includes FASB, but in reduced role, The Journal of Accountancy explains. “This announcement is excellent news for small businesses that have been concerned about the future of US GAAP particularly in relation to an international move toward IFRS,” adds Editor Gail Perry at AccountingWeb. Emily Chasan at the Wall Street Journal reports: The Financial Accounting Foundation’s Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to establish a new Private Company Council that will create exceptions and modifications to U.S. accounting rules as they apply to private companies. The board, which oversees the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board, said…
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Far fewer small employers claimed the health insurance tax credit for small businesses in the health care reform law than were eligible, according to a new government report. So reports Michael Cohn at Accounting Today: The Small Employer Health Insurance Tax Credit was included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 as a way to help small businesses pay for the cost of health insurance. But the complexities of claiming the credit contributed to a relatively low popularity for the tax credit among both small businesses and their tax preparers. While 170,300 small employers claimed the…
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Congress Could Pass Online Sales Tax Legislation This Year Are you used to buying stuff on Amazon.com and not paying tax? Lots of business owners are doing it too. And that might change. At Accounting Today, Roger Russell offers an update: The impact of the economic downturn has been felt particularly hard at the state level, with many states operating under a deficit. Since taxes based on income don’t produce as much revenue during a recession as they do during good economic times, transaction taxes, including sales and use tax, become even more important to a state’s ability to fund its…
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Fraud and the Family Business: It’s Not So Unusual The dynamics of a family-owned business are like no other, writes Robert Rothbort at Accounting Today. There’s usually a great atmosphere of trust. But that can leave family businesses uniquely vulnerable to fraud. Here are some common schemes: • “Ghost” employees. The family member overseeing payroll creates “ghost” employees that do not exist and arranges for their paychecks to be direct deposited into their own bank account. • Inventory fraud. Family members with easy access to inventory steal it and then sell it themselves for profit. • Credit card abuse. Family members put…
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FASB Proposes Changes in Investment Accounting Michael Cohen reports at Accounting Today: The Financial Accounting Standards Board has released two proposed accounting standards updates to clarify the criteria for investment company accounting and develop guidance for investment property accounting. The proposed update for investment company accounting stems from the efforts of FASB and the International Accounting Standards Board to develop consistent criteria for determining whether an entity is an investment company. Under U.S. GAAP, investment companies carry all of their investments at fair value, even if they hold a controlling interest in another company. The primary changes proposed by FASB relate to…
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CPA Exam Launched at International Test Sites Michael Cohn at Accounting Today reports: The U.S. CPA Exam was successfully administered at four international test sites: Japan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. The American Institute of CPAs, the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy and Prometric said Monday that candidates took exams at the four locations abroad on August 1, the first time in history that the CPA Exam has been administered outside the U.S. and its territories. During the remainder of August, 1,165 candidates are expected to sit for 2,065 examination sections. Future month-long testing windows…
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Alphabet Soup AccountingToday‘s Danielle Lee writes that “A growing roster of professional designations fosters credential-mania,” among CPAs, and devotes an article to surveying some of the most popular credentials today, including those from NACVA: The CVA. The National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts’ CVA credential does require a CPA license, along with coursework and an exam. Established in 1991, the credential is now held by more than 4,000 designees. The CVA is “extra important because the profession – valuating businesses – is in a constant state of change,” said Mark Morris, chair of NACVA’s valuation credentialing board. “New theories…