Democrat Proposes Financial Market Trading Fee

As part of an effort to address what he called the “chronic problem” of stagnant middle-class incomes, a top House Democrat has proposed imposing a fee on financial market transactions to fund tax relief for U.S. workers and their families.Rep. Chris Van Hollen Unveiling an “action plan” for the ...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 13, 2015

Saving the Ruble Could Mean Bankrupting Companies

Russia needs to cut interest rates very soon to prevent a flood of bankruptcies, a top Russian banking official Monday told that country’s central bank, according to news reports.A CNN Money story reported that Anatoly Aksakov, president of Russia’s regional banking association and deputy chairma...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Jan. 12, 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

Amazon Nixes Another ‘Click Through’ State

Citing the state’s “click-through” advertising law, Amazon emailed Vermont participants in its Amazon Associates program that their accounts would be closed,  Tax-News.com reported Friday. Passed in 2011 to put pressure on Congress to pass federal legislation that would require online retailers t...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Jan. 9, 2015

Johnson Controls Exercises Its Core

Many companies profiled by CFO have undergone radical transformations, or are start-ups making some noise, or are employing innovative or unusual strategies, or have executed a successful turnaround, or are embroiled in some controversy.Brian Stief None of those scenarios describes Johnson Contro...

By David McCann • Jan. 7, 2015

CIOs See Modest Growth in IT Budgets

Almost two-thirds of chief information officers expect to increase spending on information technology this year by at least 2%, with security the top spending priority, according to a new survey.While the number of CIOs who told Piper Jaffray researchers that they were expecting more than 2% grow...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 7, 2015

Xoom CFO Resigns As Firm Discloses $30M Fraud

Money transfer company Xoom Corp. has disclosed that $30.8 million in corporate cash was fraudulently transferred to overseas accounts and that CFO Matt Hibbard has resigned after only one month on the job.According to a regulatory filing, the company determined last week that it had been the vic...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 7, 2015

Wet Seal Floundering

Teen clothing retailer Wet Seal Inc. said Wednesday that it was closing 338 stores and laying off roughly 3,700 full and part-time employees, after assessing its overall financial condition in light of the company’s “inability to successfully negotiate meaningful concessions from its landlords.”“...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Jan. 7, 2015

Terrorism Risk Insurance Bill Passes House

Although the U.S. House of Representatives voted to reauthorize the federal backstop for terrorism insurance Wednesday, there’s ample reason for skepticism that the program will be enacted in the new Congress.To be sure, the bill was put on a fast track by the House. And senators like New York De...

By David Katz • Jan. 7, 2015

Pension Plans Sink Despite High Investment Gains

Companies that sponsor pension plans were sighing in relief at the end of 2013, when plans’ average funded status climbed to 89%, a 12-point gain from a year earlier and the highest level since 2007. That greatly lowered the sponsors’ future liabilities, allowing them to contribute far less to th...

By David McCann • Jan. 6, 2015

Oilfield Writedowns Predicted Amid Price Plunge

Starting this month, plunging oil prices will trigger a flood of oil industry writedowns as companies, particularly those in exploration and production, shelve risky, high-cost projects, according to an analysis by Citigroup.Crude oil prices have fallen more than 50% from their June 2014 peak, th...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 6, 2015

CFOs Face Liability for Business Taxes

It is hard enough to be a CFO of a company that’s struggling financially; it is worse when that role leaves finance chiefs themselves owing tax that the company should have paid.State and federal tax laws often provide that “responsible persons” are personally liable for unpaid business taxes, pa...

By Matthew C. Boch and Arthur R. Rosen • Jan. 5, 2015

Why Human Capital Reporting Should Matter to CFOs

If you were to overhear someone saying “The SEC, FASB, Bloomberg and the Bank of England,” the last thing you’d expect to discover is that the speaker works in human resources. However, through a confluence of events HR folks are indeed uttering those words, and CFO’s need to know why.Laurie Bass...

By Andrew Lambert, David Creelman, and Laurie Bassi • Dec. 30, 2014

Women CFOs Less Likely to Use Tax Shelters, Study Finds

Women CFOs are significantly less aggressive in tax avoidance than their male counterparts, a new study has found.The probability of companies’ adopting a tax shelter is 17.4% lower for companies with women CFOs than it is for those with male finance chiefs, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic ...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 30, 2014

The Velocity of Value

At more and more companies, innovation and growth top the agenda. How finance functions can support those efforts was a central concern of senior finance executives responding to a recent CFO Research survey, sponsored by SAP. The survey explored ways in which finance functions are adapting to th...

By David W. Owens • Dec. 29, 2014

SEC Fixing Edgar Flaw

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is planning to fix a defect in its Edgar public dissemination system that allows some investors to get an early look at potentially market-moving news, the Wall Street Journal reports.Regulators have been concerned about whether professional traders enj...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 29, 2014

Banking On Service

2014 CFO Commercial Banking SurveyAsk a group of CFOs how their companies selected their commercial banks, and you’re likely to hear a chorus of responses along the lines of “It was complicated.” That’s why when CFO Research recently surveyed 600 senior finance executives for the inaugural CFO Co...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Dec. 29, 2014

Holding Health Care Accountable

Like HMOs and PPOs, the next big thing in corporate health care could be a three-letter acronym: the ACO. Accountable care organizations are regional or local groups of medical providers — doctors, hospitals, clinics — intended to provide coordinated health care with higher quality and lower cost...

By David McCann • Dec. 29, 2014

New Mortality Tables Shine Spotlight on 401(k) Plans

The Society of Actuaries recently updated the mortality tables that pension plans use to project the life expectancy of plan participants and beneficiaries to reflect that people are living longer. For example, average life expectancy for a 45-year-old has increased from 83 to 87[1]. And as peopl...

By Alan Vorchheimer • Dec. 23, 2014

SEC Official Urges Closer Look at Cash Flow Statements

Citing an increase in restatements due to errors in the statement of cash flows, a Securities and Exchange Commission official has suggested that companies take a fresh look at how they prepare and review the statement, Compliance Week reports.In 2009, only 65 restatements (8.7% of the total) cou...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 23, 2014

Multinationals Hit Hard by Currency Volatility in Q3

After a relatively quiet second quarter, currency volatility hit hard in the third quarter, with negative currency impact costing North American and European multinationals a total reported dollar value of $8 billion, according to the latest FiREapps survey.In FiREapps’ latest “Currency Impact Re...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 22, 2014

Did Property Mogul ‘Scapegoat’ Chief Accounting Officer?

In the latest fallout from an accounting scandal at American Realty Capital Properties, the real estate investment trust’s former chief accounting officer has accused her former boss, property mogul Nicholas Schorsch, of falsely portraying her as responsible for improper financial reporting.Nicho...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 19, 2014

Tax Extenders Likely to Get Tiny Reprieve

When Congress passed a bill late Monday to extend bonus depreciation, the research and development credit and a plethora of other extensions of business tax breaks set to expire at year’s end, it didn’t leave much time for businesses to act on them.The bill, which applies just to 2014 and include...

By David Katz • Dec. 18, 2014

GE Sees Price Pressure But Still Likes Oil

General Electric expects a “sluggish” oil and gas sector next year due to falling oil prices but is better positioned than some of its competitors to weather the storm, CEO Jeffrey Immelt told investors.The oil price slump was a recurring theme at GE’s annual outlook investor meeting Tuesday, whe...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 17, 2014

Florida Lender, CEO Found Liable for Misleading Investors

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has prevailed on most of the claims in a lawsuit alleging real estate investment firm BBX Capital and its CEO misled investors about the health of residential development loans during the 2007 financial meltdown.A federal jury found BBX, formerly known ...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 17, 2014

It’s Not too Late to Save Tax via IRS Tangible Property Regs

The IRS issued final tangible property regulations at the end of 2013 that are mandatory and effective for 2014. The regulations affect all businesses regardless of size, industry, or location that acquire, produce or improve property. Put simply, these regulations affect the capitalization and e...

By Nathan P. Clark • Dec. 17, 2014