Unfriendly Persuasion by CFOs Could Spur Faulty Audits

Always eager to retain their clients’ business, independent auditors have a powerful motive to avoid ruffling the feathers of senior corporate finance and accounting executives.Sanaz Aghazadeh Thus, auditors might fall silent when a client makes an overly bullish statement about next year’s earni...

By David Katz • Feb. 17, 2015

What Does the Cloud Really Cost?

Pretty much everyone manages a budget of some sort. Managing an IT budget, which I have had to do several times in my career, can get complicated — and not just financially. There are all sorts of fixed and variable costs that are more or less under your control, plus “allocations” from your frie...

By John Parkinson • Feb. 13, 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

SEC Probes CVR Energy Bank Fee Disclosures

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether petroleum refiner CVR Energy failed to properly inform shareholders about fees it would have to pay banks for their help in defending it from investor Carl Icahn’s takeover bid.The SEC probe was revealed in court documents filed...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 12, 2015

Pier 1 to Miss Earnings; CFO Replaced

Pier 1 Imports replaced its chief financial officer at same time the company lowered its sales forecast and increased its projected expenses.In a press release Tuesday, the Fort Worth retailer said that it had revised its 2015 outlook to reflect “softer than expected sales in January and February...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Feb. 12, 2015

Apple Powers Up With Solar Energy

Apple has made clean energy history, announcing an $848 million deal to buy solar power that is the largest ever for a company that isn’t a utility.The agreement with First Solar, the biggest U.S. developer of solar farms, will provide Apple with enough electricity from a new plant in Monterey Co...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 11, 2015

Emerging Markets Ripe for Digital Media Investments

The future of digital media is in emerging markets like China and India, according to a report from EY. The number of young, tech-savvy consumers in those countries make them ripe for investment by media and entertainment companies, EY says.Mature markets still lead the way in digital earnings po...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 11, 2015

Leaked Files Show HSBC Helped Clients With Tax Dodges

The Swiss subsidiary of global banking giant HSBC helped wealthy clients hide hundreds of millions of dollars from tax authorities, according to leaked files obtained and analyzed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.Providing what the ICIJ called “a rare glimpse inside th...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 10, 2015

SEC Claws Back $500G from Two Silicon Valley CFOs

The Securities and Exchange Commission  revealed on Tuesday that it will claw back nearly $500,00 in bonuses and stock sale profits two former finance chiefs received while their Silicon Valley software company was committing accounting fraud. According to the SEC’s settled administrative order, ...

By David Katz • Feb. 10, 2015

Anatomy of a Turnaround: YRC Worldwide

This is the first in a series of six articles about the volatile financial misfortunes and turnaround of trucking company YRC Worldwide. See parts two, three, four, five and six.If there were a Comeback Player of the Year award for corporate performance, YRC Worldwide might have taken home the tr...

By David McCann • Feb. 10, 2015

The Refinancing from Hell

This is the second in a series of six articles about the volatile financial misfortunes and turnaround of trucking company YRC Worldwide. See parts one, three, four, five and six.For Stephanie Fisher, the controller at YRC Worldwide, the company’s debt restructuring in 2014 was a walk in the park...

By David McCann • Feb. 10, 2015

NOL Carryforward Nightmare

This is the fourth in a series of six articles about the volatile financial misfortunes and turnaround of trucking company YRC Worldwide. See parts one, two, three, five and six.Terry Gerrond is like all employees of YRC Worldwide: each time the company completed another refinancing, staving off ...

By David McCann • Feb. 10, 2015

Engelbert Makes Big 4 History With Deloitte Promotion

In what one of her peers called “a momentous occasion for the CPA profession,” Cathy Engelbert has been elected to a four-year term as CEO of Deloitte LLP, becoming the first woman to head a Big 4 consulting-and-accounting firm in the United States.Engelbert, 50, will move up from head of Deloitt...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 9, 2015

Lower Tax Rate Won’t Stop Inversion Deals

Bucking the conventional wisdom, a Reuters analysis has found that the recent surge in corporate inversion deals may not have much to do with the high statutory tax rate in the United States.Most of the six largest companies known to be doing inversions in late 2014 and early 2015 paid taxes at w...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 9, 2015

Regulators Probing Possible Blackberry Stock Manipulation

Regulators in the U.S. and Canada are investigating whether investors sparked a Jan. 14 spike in Blackberry shares by feeding information to Reuters that Samsung Electronics was in talks to buy the Canadian smartphone maker for as much as $7.5 billion.The Wall Street Journal, citing people famili...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 6, 2015

Big Write-Down Tarnishes Good Quarter for Sprint

Sprint’s net operating revenue for its third fiscal quarter fell less than expected due to higher sales, but the company also reported Thursday a $2.1 billion write-down, mostly the result of a reduction in the value of the Sprint trade name.The company said its net operating revenue for the quar...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Feb. 6, 2015

Corporate-tax Reform in America: An Offer They Could Refuse

Imagine $2 trillion in untaxed corporate income. What politician could resist? Not Barack Obama. This week, as part of his latest budget proposal, he suggested both a one-time levy of 14% on the profit hoard American firms keep abroad, and a recurring tax on future foreign profits of 19%.These pr...

By Economist Staff • Feb. 6, 2015

IRS Rehires Problem Employees, Gets Burned Again

The Internal Revenue Service rehired hundreds of problem employees, according to an IRS audit report released Thursday, called “Additional Consideration of Prior Conduct and Performance Issues Is Needed When Hiring Former Employees.”The Office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administrat...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Feb. 6, 2015

Fed Official Speaks Out Against New Audit Bill

A U.S. Federal Reserve official has spoken out against Republican efforts to audit the Fed that could gain traction in the new Congress.Fed Chair Janet Yellen Official portrait of Vice Chair Janet L. Yellen. Dr. Yellen took office as Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Sys...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 5, 2015

SEC Raps Big Four Affiliates in China

The Chinese arms of all of the Big Four accounting firms might collectively pay roughly $2 million to settle a dispute with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, unnamed sources reportedly told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.The SEC is expected to sanction the affiliates of Deloitte ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Feb. 5, 2015

Reporting Blunders Cost Cos. $7B in IRS Fines

U.S. businesses amassed almost $7 billion in Internal Revenue Service civil penalties stemming from inaccurate reporting in 2013, according to Bloomberg BNA Software.“Despite U.S. organizations’ increasing reliance on internal tools and technology, the potential for human error remains,” the busi...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Feb. 5, 2015

SEC Questions PCAOB’s Focus on Disclosure

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has again expressed concern about the performance of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, suggesting the audit regulator is focusing too much on promoting more disclosure to investors.At a budget meeting Wednesday, Commissioner Daniel Gallaghe...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 5, 2015

Activist Investors: More Targets, Lower Returns

Two-thousand fourteen has been dubbed the Year of the Activist Investor, but 2015 could very well wipe out that designation.A Fortune story on Tuesday cited a new study, co-produced by research firm Activist Insight and law firm Schulte Roth & Zabel, that states 344 companies were targeted in...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Feb. 4, 2015

China Stepping Up Scrutiny of Tax Evaders

China is continuing to step up its efforts to curb what it sees as cross-border tax evasion by foreign-owned companies, announcing it will review how companies move money and allocate costs among their Chinese operations and their overseas businesses.While such a review could also be applied to C...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 4, 2015

Finance and Accounting Skills Gap Vexes CFOs

While CFOs generally say on the record that they have no problem finding young accounting and finance talent, research suggests that such assertions are less than candid.Indeed, a shortage of top-quality, entry-level employees in the field is worsening as companies raise the bar for the skills th...

By David McCann • Feb. 4, 2015

Tax Reform Consensus: Lower Rates, Closed ‘Loopholes’

With the Republicans in control of both the Senate and the House and Democrats and the Obama Administration willing to deal for breaks aimed at the middle class, tax reform has become hot again. And the consensus on corporate reform has been that it should be the product of a Grand Bargain: a big...

By David Katz • Feb. 4, 2015