House OKs Bill to Promote Sharing of Hacking Data

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the Protecting Cyber Networks Act, aiming to shield companies sharing hacking data with each other from liability — to the chagrin of privacy advocates.Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said he wrote H.R. 1560 because the threat of cyber attacks has beco...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 23, 2015

U.K. Futures Trader Accused of Helping Spark ‘Flash Crash’

U.S. authorities have charged a British futures trader with making about $40 million in illicit profits and contributing to the May 2010 “flash crash” by manipulating the market for futures contracts based on the S&P 500.Navinder Singh Sarao, 36, was arrested Tuesday in the United Kingdom on ...

By Matthew Heller • April 22, 2015

Explore the Trendline➔

Tax policy shifts: What CFOs need to know to stay ahead

Discover how evolving tax policies are creating new opportunities and challenges for CFOs.

By CFO.com staff

State-Owned Chinese Company Defaults

Easy access to cheap sources of debt funding no matter how a business is faring may be coming to an end for China’s state-owned companies, now that one has defaulted in that country’s bond market.Power equipment manufacturer Baoding Tianwei, which is controlled by one of China’s biggest military ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 22, 2015

Blackberry Adds WatchDox to Mobile Security Services

Smartphone manufacturer Blackberry is acquiring WatchDox Ltd., a file-sync-and-share (EFSS) platform that is popular among banks, government agencies, and Hollywood studios, in a move to strengthen its growing portfolio of mobile security services.Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Israel’s...

By Matthew Heller • April 21, 2015

EY Sees Barriers to Use of Big Data for Audits

“Big data” and analytics promise to transform auditing, but there are still a number of barriers to successfully integrating them into the audit, according to the latest issue of E&Y’s Reporting magazine.The ultimate goal, E&Y says, is to have intelligent audit applications that function ...

By Matthew Heller • April 17, 2015

Coke Expanding in China With $400M Deal

In a bid to inject some fizz into its China sales, Coca-Cola has agreed to buy the beverage business of China Culiangwang Beverages Holdings for $400.5 million including debt.The companies confirmed the deal Friday. It marks Coke’s first acquisition in China since the country’s antitrust regulato...

By Matthew Heller • April 17, 2015

Ten Accused of Elaborate ‘Blank Check’ Company Fraud

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused 10 people of taking part in an elaborate scheme to pass off “blank check” companies as legitimate business enterprises when they actually had no other purpose than to be sold as public vehicles.According to a civil complaint filed by the SEC...

By Matthew Heller • April 17, 2015

CFO Manages Around Commodities Price Volatility

Fifteen months after becoming CFO of the company that’s been his employer for 31 years, Jack Fortnum is well settled into a role that synthesizes his long experience in both finance and operations.The company, Ingredion, is hardly a household name, despite its 2014 revenue of almost $6 billion, p...

By David McCann • April 17, 2015

Answers Needed for Flaws in M&A Accounting Standard

In the second half of 2014, an enigmatic notice appeared on the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) website. It called for tenders to place a value on IFRS’s intellectual property — that is, on the brand. But what’s most interesting is not the reasons behind the effort, but rather ...

By Roger Sinclair and Michael L. Moore • April 17, 2015

EY Agrees to Settlement of Lehman Auditing Suit

After more than four years of litigation, Ernst & Young has agreed to pay $10 million to settle New York State allegations that its auditors helped Lehman Brothers Holdings mislead investors before the investment bank collapsed in 2008.The case was the only one brought by a law enforcement ag...

By Matthew Heller • April 16, 2015

If E-tailers Must Charge Taxes, Their Shares Could Drop

Will out-of-state online retailers lose scads of business if states get the power to force them to collect sales taxes?Jeffrey Hoopes Jeffrey Hoopes, AuditorsWhile it’s not spoken about much in the currently re-energized debate about whether states should be able to gobble up sales taxes from onl...

By David Katz • April 16, 2015

Let’s Give Smaller Banks a Break: FDIC Chair

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Vice Chairman Thomas Hoenig outlined a proposal for most of the country’s banks to get “regulatory relief,” but the country’s largest banks would not meet the criteria.In prepared remarks to the 24th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference in Washington, D.C., Hoen...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 15, 2015

Small Businesses Crave Tax Reform Too

The vast majority of small businesses want tax reform, according to the 2015 Small Business Attitudes on Taxes survey released on Monday by Endurance International Group.The survey of 827 U.S. small business firms (all customers of Endurance, a provider of cloud-based platforms) found that 90% be...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 14, 2015

An Auditor Independence State of Mind

One of my favorite Billy Joel songs is “New York State of Mind.” It’s a staple at every concert he performs.  It popped into my head the other day as I was giving a talk about auditor independence to a group of CFOs and one attendee asked, somewhat rhetorically, “What is independence, anyway?”Bil...

By Jay Bornstein • April 14, 2015

Avon Weighing Sale of North America Unit?

Avon Products may be considering a sale of its ailing North American business as part of a strategic review of its operations.Citing people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that no deal involving the North American unit is imminent, but the strategic review “indi...

By Matthew Heller • April 14, 2015

Brewers Getting Frothy About Beer Tax Cut Proposals

A storm is brewing over competing proposals to reform the beer excise tax that pit small craft producers against “big beer.”According to the Beer Institute, 40% of what consumers pay for beer goes to various federal, state, and local taxes. Congress originally approved the federal tax in the 1860...

By Matthew Heller • April 14, 2015

National Sales Tax Wouldn’t Depress Consumer Spending: Study

In a study that may have implications for the debate over a possible national sales tax, researchers have found that close to one-third of consumers pay little or no attention to sales taxes expressed as a percentage in making spending decisions.Critics of a national sales tax are concerned that ...

By Matthew Heller • April 13, 2015

How to Halve Your Potential State Tax Burdens

Unexpected state tax obligations can wreak havoc on a business’s bottom-line. It is crucial for CFOs to monitor their companies’ physical footprints (employees and property) to ensure compliance as businesses expand and new customers are found.Arthur R. Rosen, partner, McDermott Will & Emery....

By Matthew C. Boch and Arthur R. Rosen • April 13, 2015

Former Controller Admits to SEC’s Fraud Charges

A former controller of a Japanese subsidiary near Chicago  has admitted to and settled charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission that he fraudulently cost his company millions of dollars in trading losses and manipulated accounting records to avoid detection.The SEC said Thursday that Kat...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 10, 2015

Accounting-Driven Class Actions Rising, Study Finds

Now that securities litigation related to the 2008 financial crisis has largely petered out, accounting-driven class-action suits based on regulatory enforcement actions are on the rise, according to PwC’s 2014 Securities Litigation Study released Friday.There were 53 accounting-driven cases file...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 10, 2015

Starting from Zero-Based Budgeting

I’ve spent a lot of time over the years building and managing budgets, and I’ve used a lot of different approaches, usually mandated by the corporate finance management team to do so. I don’t really have a favorite method – whatever gets the job done is usually fine with me – but I have observed ...

By John Parkinson • April 9, 2015

France Steps Up Probe of HSBC in Tax Evasion Case

French authorities appear to have expanded their investigation of whether global banking giant HSBC helped wealthy clients hide hundreds of millions of dollars from tax authorities.The bank’s parent company, HSBC Holdings plc, announced Thursday that it had been placed under formal criminal inves...

By Matthew Heller • April 9, 2015

After Merger, Walgreens Plans $1.5B in Cost Cuts

Now that Walgreens has completed its trans-Atlantic merger with Alliance Boots, the European-led management team is set to close 200 U.S. stores and cut other costs within the U.S. operations, as part of a $1.5 billion cost-cutting initiative.New Walgreens boss Stefano Pessina In its second-quart...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 9, 2015

FASB Revises Rule for Presenting Debt Issuance Costs

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued an updated rule for the presentation of debt issuance costs as part of its effort to reduce complexity in accounting standards.The new rule is FASB’s response to feedback from stakeholders that having different balance sheet presentation require...

By Matthew Heller • April 9, 2015

PCAOB Preparing New Rule for Audits of Accounting Estimates

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is moving closer to proposing a comprehensive new standard for audits of accounting estimates in financial statements.Thomson Reuters reports that according to the standard-setting agenda the board updated on March 31, PCAOB staff is planning to discu...

By Matthew Heller • April 9, 2015