FIN 47: The Future Is Now

Buried within the flurry of earnings releases issued during the past two weeks were reports by a handful of large companies of charges related to FIN 47, an accounting rule that went into effect in December. The immediate result of their applications of the new standard, which governs disclosures...

By Marie Leone • Feb. 6, 2006

Waste Management Exec Found Guilty

A former chief accounting officer of Waste Management Inc., Bruce Snyder Jr., has been found guilty of civil charges of filing false regulatory documents and insider trading, according to the Houston Chronicle.In 2003, two other former Waste Management executives — president and chief operating o...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 6, 2006

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

Government Expands Tax-shelter Inquiries

Last year, KPMG LLP has avoided an indictment over its sale of questionable tax shelters by reaching a deferred-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors. Now the government has widened its investigation into abusive shelters to include law firms, banks, and investment firms that helped acco...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 6, 2006

So Long Footnoted Liabilities

Verizon, Ford, and ExxonMobil, pay attention. It looks as though pensions and other retiree benefits are about to graduate from the footnotes to the balance sheet. And companies that have previously been able to hide underfunded retirement programs may have to count them as liabilities — often mu...

By Rob Garver • Feb. 6, 2006

All Together Now

Nonuniform state tax laws wreak havoc on corporate collection procedures. But relief may be in sight now that the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP) agreement — which promises to standardize sales tax and use regulations — has been enacted.“The project makes sales-tax collection easier for ever...

By Laura DeMars • Feb. 1, 2006

Fraud Charges for Former Health-care CFO

The Securities and Exchange Commission has brought civil fraud charges against Thomas P. Clark, the former chief financial officer of Health Risk Management Inc., which is currently in bankruptcy proceedings.The commission stated that its action stems from Clark’s treatment of a $1.85 million set...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 1, 2006

Boston Scientific Buys ‘Divorce’ Cover

On the surface, the public bidding war between Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson to buy Guidant Inc., was a fairly routine merger story: two industry giants with multi-line businesses slugging it out to win the right to acquire a coveted target company.Boston Scientific emerged as the o...

By Marie Leone • Jan. 31, 2006

Choosing the Fair Value Option

The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s proposal of a fair value option for financial assets and liabilities will have the broadest applicability among financial institutions and companies with financial arms, according to FASB board member Leslie Seidman.Observers agree. “The real advantage i...

By Helen Shaw • Jan. 30, 2006

Cardinal Agrees to $35 Million SEC Pact

Cardinal Health Inc. has agreed to a $35 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would end the commission’s probe of the company’s accounting practices.In September 2004, Cardinal, which supplies products and services to health-care providers and manufacturers, announc...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 27, 2006

United Rentals Disciplines Finance Execs

United Rentals Inc., which is embroiled in a series of accounting controversies, will remove its corporate controller, principal accounting officer, vice president of finance from their positions, although the company did not find intentional wrongdoing on their part.In a statement, the Greenwich...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 26, 2006

FASB Proposes Fair Value Option

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a proposal that would provide companies the option to report financial assets and liabilities at fair value.In a press release, FASB stated that the proposed standard “seeks to reduce both complexity in accounting and volatility in earnings caus...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 25, 2006

FASB on Recalculating Leveraged Leases

At last Wednesday’s meeting, the Financial Accounting Standards Board considered proposed changes to Statement No. 13, Accounting for Leases.An existing provision in FAS 13 requires that a lease should be recalculated when a change in an important assumption affects net income. One such change wo...

By Helen Shaw • Jan. 23, 2006

Chamber of Commerce Seeks Auditor Relief

“Auditing: A Profession at Risk,” a new white paper by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has asserted that the industry faces significant dangers that threaten its existence and could destabilize the U.S. capital markets and the economy as a whole.“The auditing profession sits on the razor’s edge,” s...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 23, 2006

AES Restates by $556 Million; Names CFO

Following by one day the announcement of a restatement of earnings and internal controls, AES Corp. said Friday that Victoria Harker would become its CFO and an executive vice president, effective Monday. Harker will replace Barry Sharp, whose resignation from the company at year-end 2005 was ann...

By Stephen Taub and David Katz • Jan. 20, 2006

Tenet to Restate Four Years of Results

Tenet Healthcare Corp. announced that it will restate its financial results for the four years ended in 2003 and the seven months ended December 31, 2002.The restatements stem from an investigation disclosed last July, regarding contractual allowances for managed-care contracts, commissioned by T...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 19, 2006

Did Scrushy Pay for Positive Press?

During last summer’s trial of former HealthSouth Corp. chief executive officer Richard Scrushy, he received considerable support from many Alabamans, as well as in The Birmingham Times.Now it appears that Scrushy, who was acquitted for his role in HealthSouth’s $2.7 billion accounting scandal, ma...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 19, 2006

Falling Taxes for the FTSE 50

From 2000 to 2004, the 50 largest companies in the United Kingdom paid £20 billion ($36 billion) less than their expected rates would suggest from 2000 to 2004, according to a study primarily researched by Richard Murphy of Tax Research LLP on behalf of The Tax Gap Ltd.Extrapolate this shortfall ...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 16, 2006

That Uncertain Something: FASB and Taxes

Last Wednesday, the Financial Accounting Standards Board continued its deliberations on accounting for uncertain tax positions. This FASB project has received relatively little media coverage so far — but you’re likely to read much more next year, come corporate earnings season.The goal of the pr...

By Lisa Yoon • Jan. 16, 2006

Corporate Tax Payments Set Record

Record corporate tax payments have enabled the federal government to record a budget surplus for December — the first for that month in three years — despite a record level of spending, according to published accounts.December’s surplus of $10.98 billion contrasts dramatically with the $2.85 bill...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 12, 2006

SEC Eyes Home Depot Vendor Charges

The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an informal probe into whether Home Depot Inc. used payments from suppliers to inflate its earnings, reported The New York Post.The world’s largest home-improvement chain allegedly overbilled suppliers for payments earmarked to cover the cost of...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 12, 2006

Herz Calls for Simplified Reporting

Financial Accounting Standards Board chairman Robert Herz recently addressed the complexity of the financial reporting system, calling for a concerted effort to simplify the rules and increased transparency.Herz spoke at the December 2005 conference of the American Institute of Certified Public A...

By Lisa Yoon • Jan. 9, 2006

Crackdown

Since taking the helm at the Internal Revenue Service in 2003, commissioner Mark Everson has been threatening to crack down on tax cheats by aiming the agency’s biggest guns at large corporate taxpayers and rich individuals.Now Everson’s tough stance is beginning to show results.The IRS audited o...

By Kris Frieswick • Jan. 9, 2006

Streamlining Tax Processes in 2006

It’s never too early for corporate tax departments to begin taking steps to increase their efficiency and streamline their processes in 2006, observes KPMG.For example, think e-filing. Companies that have assets of $50 million or more and that file at least 250 returns annually must begin filing ...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 5, 2006

Gift Cards and Revenue Recognition

For gift givers who are overwhelmed with all the possible purchases they might bestow on family and friends, gift cards are a popular choice.An October survey of 17,500 consumers by Deloitte suggested that about two-thirds of these shoppers planned to buy an average of five gift cards each, accor...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 5, 2006

Economists on Parade

As the 18-year reign of Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan comes to an end this month, new chairman Ben Bernanke will inherit a daunting job. Fluctuating oil prices, inflation concerns, and a sagging housing market will surely test the new Fed chairman as he assumes the mantle.For advice on ...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Jan. 1, 2006