Dutch Regulator to Head IASB

Former Dutch finance minister Hans Hoogervorst has been tapped to succeed Sir David Tweedie as chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board. The appointment was announced Tuesday by the trustees of the IFRS Foundation, the parent organization of the IASB.Tweedie, who will step down at...

By Marie Leone • Oct. 12, 2010

When Is Rental Real Estate an Active Business?

With lease accounting due to go through major changes over the next year, it is a good time to review other real estate rental issues, particularly those having to do with tax-free divestitures. In a private-letter ruling issued by the Internal Revenue Service last year, the agency delineates bet...

By Robert Willens • Oct. 11, 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

When Is Rental Real Estate an Active Business?

With lease accounting due to go through major changes over the next year, it is a good time to review other real estate rental issues, particularly those having to do with tax-free divestitures. In a private-letter ruling issued by the Internal Revenue Service last year, the agency delineates bet...

By Robert Willens • Oct. 11, 2010

One Step Closer to Little GAAP

A blue-ribbon panel has recommended that a new set of accounting standards be drawn up for private companies based on U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. The panel also recommended that a private-company rulemaking board be established, separate from the Financial Accounting Standards ...

By Marie Leone • Oct. 11, 2010

One Step Closer to Little GAAP

A blue-ribbon panel has recommended that a new set of accounting standards be drawn up for private companies based on U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. The panel also recommended that a private-company rulemaking board be established, separate from the Financial Accounting Standards ...

By Marie Leone • Oct. 11, 2010

Panel to Vote on Little GAAP

A vote is expected tomorrow on whether a separate set of accounting rules should be created for private companies doing business in the United States. The new stand-alone rules would be a departure from the generally accepted accounting principles currently used by both public and private compani...

By Marie Leone • Oct. 7, 2010

Panel to Vote on Little GAAP

A vote is expected tomorrow on whether a separate set of accounting rules should be created for private companies doing business in the United States. The new stand-alone rules would be a departure from the generally accepted accounting principles currently used by both public and private compani...

By Marie Leone • Oct. 7, 2010

A Case Against Impairment Testing

CFOs shouldn’t automatically assume that a drop in share price should trigger a goodwill-impairment charge by their company, a new research report suggests.To be sure, bad news from the market is the most common — and attention-getting — reason for an impairment test. But given the overall reboun...

By David Katz • Oct. 7, 2010

Spreadsheets: Problems with Pivot Table Labels

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 Tom O. wins a copy of the book Excel Gurus Gone Wild for his question: “In a pivot table, ho...

By Bill Jelen • Oct. 6, 2010

Capitalization and the Cost of Goods Sold

Last year, the Internal Revenue Service issued an advisory from its Chief Counsel’s office to answer a question related to allocating the cost of goods sold (COGS) that includes post-production costs. The IRS concluded that because the costs are properly capitalized to current year production, th...

By Robert Willens • Oct. 4, 2010

Giant Clients

Which companies paid the most, in absolute dollars, for their audits last year? Not surprisingly, global financial firms — including some giant financial basket cases — topped the list. Altogether, these 10 companies spent a cool $871 million on audits and audit-related fees in 2009. That kind of...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Oct. 1, 2010

One Size Gives Fits to All

What do TV sitcoms, cell phones, and construction sites have in common? At the moment, nothing. But a proposed rule change could create a thorny accounting challenge for companies as diverse as Time Warner, Apple, and Baker Concrete Construction.The pending change to revenue-recognition rules wou...

By Marie Leone • Oct. 1, 2010

What’s on the SEC’s Radar?

Every year the Securities and Exchange Commission releases a number of “Dear CFO” letters — guidance written to the finance chiefs of individual companies, but made public (with the names of the CFOs and companies redacted) because they focus on issues of broad interest. The agency has released f...

By Marie Leone • Sept. 29, 2010

Spreadsheets: Highlighting Largest/Smallest Values

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 Fernando Arellano wins a copy of the book Pivot Table Data Crunching for his question: “How...

By Bill Jelen • Sept. 29, 2010

Treasury Fixed Snag Prior to GM IPO

After months of discussion about an initial public offering, General Motors, which is partly owned by the U.S. Treasury Department, finally made it official in August by filing paperwork indicating it would pursue an IPO. In the transaction, which likely will take place in November, Treasury will...

By Robert Willens • Sept. 27, 2010

IRS Offers Olive Branch to Business

The Internal Revenue Service has taken taxpayers’ comments to heart and revised its proposal on uncertain tax positions in a way that is much more favorable to corporations. The final Form 1120, called Schedule UTP, and its instructions eliminate two draft requirements that companies argued were ...

By Marie Leone • Sept. 24, 2010

Spreadsheets: Stop the Flip-Flopping

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.Question: We use a monolithic workbook with 17 worksheets. As I fill in data on the back worksheets...

By Bill Jelen • Sept. 22, 2010

IRS Ruling Inadmissible as Evidence

This month a federal claims court ruled that private-letter rulings (PLRs) issued by the Internal Revenue Service were inadmissible as evidence in a tax case related to contingent liabilities. The case, decided on September 1 by Judge Lynn Bush, focuses on AmerGen Energy Co., a power-generation c...

By Robert Willens • Sept. 20, 2010

Five for FASB: Golden Appointed to Board

The trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation have appointed Russell Golden to the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Golden, whose five-year term begins on October 1, is currently FASB’s technical director, and will fill the vacancy left by the early retirement of board chairman Robert ...

By Marie Leone • Sept. 17, 2010

IT-Control Weakness Wanes

The number of companies with financially material weaknesses in their internal controls over information technology is steadily decreasing, though not quite as fast as the number of those with other types of internal-control weaknesses.In an analysis of data provided by research firm Audit Analyt...

By David McCann • Sept. 16, 2010

Spreadsheets: No More Mystery Dates

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.Question: We have a database of service contracts. There is a transaction-date column in the data. ...

By Bill Jelen • Sept. 15, 2010

Politics Aside, Tax Breaks Look Juicy

They may seem buried in political wrangling over how to help business cope with the recession. But the two investment incentives President Obama proposed last week — full expensing of capital expenditures through 2011 and locking in the research-and-development tax break — have companies applaudi...

By Roy Harris • Sept. 13, 2010

Excluded Income Can Still Hit Group NOLs

New guidance pertaining to net operating losses was released in August by the chief counsel’s office of the Internal Revenue Service. At issue was whether income recorded from the discharge of debt reduces the NOL for an entire consolidated group (CNOL) or just for the group member associated wit...

By Robert Willens • Sept. 13, 2010

Add a New Month’s Data to Existing Chart

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.Your department probably is responsible for producing a dozen or so monthly trend charts every mont...

By Bill Jelen • Sept. 8, 2010

A Surprising Continuity-of-Interest Ruling

It used to be that only stock counted on the “plus side” of the continuity-of-interest equation, when it came to figuring out whether a transaction could garner tax-free treatment. But a new private-letter ruling by the Internal Revenue Service revisits the concept, with a surprising result. That...

By Robert Willens • Sept. 7, 2010