Taking the “Ease” Out of “Lease”?

Accounting-standards setters are under fire, again. The new leasing standard, proposed jointly by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board, has been characterized as naïve, lacking value, and in need of serious reevaluation. The outcry comes not fr...

By Marie Leone • Dec. 1, 2010

Spreadsheets: The Column Name Game

Editor’s Note: To read more about spreadsheets, share a tip with other readers, or suggest a topic for Bill Jelen to cover in an upcoming column, click here to visit CFO.com’s Spreadsheet Tips page.Cindi M wins an autographed copy of Guerilla Data Analysis Using Microsoft Excel for her question: ...

By Bill Jelen • Dec. 1, 2010

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

An Offer That Whistle-blowers Can’t Refuse?

By proposing to offer whistle-blowers big cash rewards if they come straight to the Securities and Exchange Commission with information about potential corporate fraud, the SEC will spur companies to tighten their internal controls, risk-management and internal-audit experts say.The Dodd-Frank fi...

By David Katz • Nov. 29, 2010

Tax Court Disagrees with IRS on Loss Claim

More than a decade ago, the Internal Revenue Service disallowed a loss claim related to the sell-off of a Nortel manufacturing plant. On November 8, the U.S. Tax Court sided with the company that bought the plant, striking down the IRS decision. The case involved a so-called basis bump transactio...

By Robert Willens • Nov. 29, 2010

Tax Court Disagrees with IRS on Loss Claim

More than a decade ago, the Internal Revenue Service disallowed a loss claim related to the sell-off of a Nortel manufacturing plant. On November 8, the U.S. Tax Court sided with the company that bought the plant, striking down the IRS decision. The case involved a so-called basis bump transactio...

By Robert Willens • Nov. 29, 2010

Allocating Legal Fees in an Asset Acquisition

Mr. A entered into an agreement to purchase the assets of CC Corp. (CC). Mr. A assigned the purchase rights to a corporation (WCM) of which he was the sole shareholder. WCM consummated the agreement in November 1999.WCM paid acquisition-related legal fees of $116,293 to CC’s counsel. Most if not ...

By Robert Willens • Nov. 22, 2010

Spreadsheets: Moving Data from PDF to Excel

Editor’s Note: To read more about spreadsheets, share a tip with other readers, or suggest a topic for Bill Jelen to cover in an upcoming column, click here to visit CFO.com’s Spreadsheet Tips page.Reader Ray S. wins a copy of Excel for the CEO for this week’s question: “I am presented with a dow...

By Bill Jelen • Nov. 17, 2010

Quantitative Easing, or Pension Squeezing?

The possibility that their actions could hurt corporate pension-plan sponsors probably wasn’t top of mind for members of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee when they announced last week that the Fed would forge ahead with a second round of quantitative easing by buying $600 billion of lo...

By David Katz • Nov. 17, 2010

Spreadsheets: Moving Data from PDF to Excel

Editor’s Note: To read more about spreadsheets, share a tip with other readers, or suggest a topic for Bill Jelen to cover in an upcoming column, click here to visit CFO.com’s Spreadsheet Tips page.Reader Ray S. wins a copy of Excel for the CEO for this week’s question: “I am presented with a dow...

By Bill Jelen • Nov. 17, 2010

Shorter Agenda for Convergence

Chief financial officers and controllers can breathe a little easier now that accounting rule makers have decided to scale back their aggressive schedule and focus on completing five priority projects by next year. The announcement was made on Monday by Leslie Seidman, acting chairman of the Fina...

By Marie Leone • Nov. 16, 2010

Shorter Agenda for Convergence

Chief financial officers and controllers can breathe a little easier now that accounting rule makers have decided to scale back their aggressive schedule and focus on completing five priority projects by next year. The announcement was made on Monday by Leslie Seidman, acting chairman of the Fina...

By Marie Leone • Nov. 16, 2010

FASB Clarifies Troubled Debt Restructuring

Last month the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued a proposed guidance related to troubled debt restructuring that included several important clarifications for both debtors and creditors. The proposed accounting standards update (ASU), Clarifications to Accounting for Troubled Debt Restr...

By Robert Willens • Nov. 15, 2010

FASB Clarifies Troubled Debt Restructuring

Last month the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued a proposed guidance related to troubled debt restructuring that included several important clarifications for both debtors and creditors. The proposed accounting standards update (ASU), Clarifications to Accounting for Troubled Debt Restr...

By Robert Willens • Nov. 15, 2010

Goodwill Bounces Back

Goodwill impairments for publicly traded companies in the United States fell by more than 80% from 2008 to 2009, according to a new study by financial advisory firm Duff & Phelps and the Financial Executives Research Foundation.The total amount of goodwill impaired fell to $26 billion from a ...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Nov. 11, 2010

Goodwill Bounces Back

Goodwill impairments for publicly traded companies in the United States fell by more than 80% from 2008 to 2009, according to a new study by financial advisory firm Duff & Phelps and the Financial Executives Research Foundation.The total amount of goodwill impaired fell to $26 billion from a ...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Nov. 11, 2010

Spreadsheets: Why Pivot Tables Won’t Sum

Editor’s Note: To read more about spreadsheets, share a tip with other readers, or suggest a topic for Bill Jelen to cover in an upcoming column, click here to visit CFO.com’s Spreadsheet Tips page.Eric S. wins an autographed copy of Pivot Table Data Crunching from CFO and MrExcel for his questio...

By Bill Jelen • Nov. 10, 2010

Spreadsheets: Why Pivot Tables Won’t Sum

Editor’s Note: To read more about spreadsheets, share a tip with other readers, or suggest a topic for Bill Jelen to cover in an upcoming column, click here to visit CFO.com’s Spreadsheet Tips page.Eric S. wins an autographed copy of Pivot Table Data Crunching from CFO and MrExcel for his questio...

By Bill Jelen • Nov. 10, 2010

Weyerhaeuser’s Tax Windfall

Weyerhaeuser Co. recently reported third-quarter earnings of $1.116 billion. However, substantially all of those earnings can be traced to an “income tax adjustment” in the amount of $1.035 billion. In light of Weyerhaeuser’s conversion from C corporation status to a real estate investment trust ...

By Robert Willens • Nov. 8, 2010

Weyerhaeuser’s Tax Windfall

Weyerhaeuser Co. recently reported third-quarter earnings of $1.116 billion. However, substantially all of those earnings can be traced to an “income tax adjustment” in the amount of $1.035 billion. In light of Weyerhaeuser’s conversion from C corporation status to a real estate investment trust ...

By Robert Willens • Nov. 8, 2010

Spreadsheets: The Social Security Dash

Editor’s Note: To read more about spreadsheets, share a tip with other readers, or suggest a topic for Bill Jelen to cover in an upcoming column, click here to visit CFO.com’s Spreadsheet Tips page.Reader Wayne R. wins an autographed copy of Learn Excel 97 through 2007 from MrExcel from CFO for t...

By Bill Jelen • Nov. 3, 2010

Ready but Not Eager for IFRS

Most companies will be ready to move to international financial reporting standards, but they are not likely to make the switch until they are forced to — even if they are given the option to adopt the rules early, says a new survey of executives responsible for corporate financial reporting. The...

By Marie Leone • Nov. 2, 2010

Ready but Not Eager for IFRS

Most companies will be ready to move to international financial reporting standards, but they are not likely to make the switch until they are forced to — even if they are given the option to adopt the rules early, says a new survey of executives responsible for corporate financial reporting. The...

By Marie Leone • Nov. 2, 2010

Room for Improvement (But Not Much)

As the economy continues to struggle, U.S. companies are still looking for ways to improve their working-capital performance. But a new report from CFO Research Services (in conjunction with The Royal Bank of Scotland) suggests that further gains will, for the most part, be modest, if only becaus...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Nov. 1, 2010

18,000 Errors and Counting

An initial assessment of XBRL-tagged financial statements reveals thousands of errors traceable to multiple causes, yet both the Securities and Exchange Commission and XBRL US (the consortium of accounting firms, software companies, and consultants that develops the taxonomy, or digital dictionar...

By David McCann • Nov. 1, 2010

Technical Difficulties

The Victorian-era Imperial Hotel in Chestertown, Maryland, is partly owned by its de facto finance chief, Judith O’Dell, and her husband. Like many small-business owners, O’Dell uses the off-the-shelf software package QuickBooks to manage the Imperial’s finances.O’Dell, it should be noted, is no ...

By Marie Leone • Nov. 1, 2010