Let’s Get Ready to Rumble

It’s time for the main event. Following six months of preliminary verbal brawling about auditor independence, the Securities and Exchange Commission will vote this Wednesday on the SEC’s proposed rule on auditor independence, which has undergone tinkering by the commission’s staff since it was in...

By David Katz • Nov. 13, 2000

Mind the Gap

If the stock market is as efficient as it’s supposed to be, then why would CFOs bother to cook up a few pennies of earnings each quarter to meet analysts’ estimates? The answer they frequently give off the record, of course–is that many investors care more about those earnings estimates than abou...

By Ronald Fink • Nov. 10, 2000

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 To Pursue Non Whistle-Blowers

The SEC recently issued a wakeup call to auditors: Report all abuses committed by clients or risk receiving a civil injunction. This action arises from the case involving the SEC vs. Solucorp Industries Ltd. and its auditor, Glenn Ohlauser.Here’s what happened: On December 13, 1999, the SEC filed...

By Michelle Gabrielle • Nov. 9, 2000

Taxes: Caught in the Crossfire

It’s official. Congress just set a record for staying in session the closest ever to an election day. But while lawmakers are putting in overtime on The Hill, little is getting done.Not only has Congress failed to pass a budget that the President will agree to sign, but bickering between both par...

By Joseph McCafferty and Joe McCafferty • Nov. 6, 2000

SEC’s Levitt Speaks on Auditor Independence

On October 24, SEC chairman Arthur Levitt addressed the Fall Council of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, in Las Vegas, about his views on the controversial auditor independence issue.Read the full text of his remarks.

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 2, 2000

IRS Eases Rules on Property Exchanges

A change in Internal Revenue Service procedures has clarified the rules for reverse like-kind exchanges, a move that may encourage corporate expansion.The law governing like-kind ex-changes, Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code, was adopted in 1921 to remove from a profit-and- loss statement...

By John P. Mello Jr. • Nov. 1, 2000

Accountants Head to Washington, D.C.

It’s one of the nastiest political campaigns in recent memory. And we’re not talking about the Presidential election. The bitter conflict between the accounting profession and the Securities and Exchange Commission over new rules on auditor independence has left both sides bruised and battered, b...

By Stephen Barr • Nov. 1, 2000

Tax Break, Trade Battle?

Critics of the World Trade Organization (WTO) don’t always take to the streets, wearing turtle costumes and waving protest banners. Thanks to a long-simmering dispute over export tax breaks, some of the WTO’s biggest detractors can now be found in the executive suites of America’s largest compani...

By Ian Springsteel • Nov. 1, 2000

SEC’s Amazon.com Inquiry Could Get Much Uglier

Amazon.com’s stock has been sinking faster than the price tags on Christmas ornaments after Dec. 25 ever since the e-tailer warned in a regulatory filing that the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an informal inquiry into Amazon’s accounting practices. However, even as investors fre...

By Craig Schneider • Oct. 30, 2000

Corporate Income Tax Study from 1996-1998

If your company is making wads of money, you’re probably seeing more than a third of it go to Uncle Sam, right? Probably not.That’s the overall conclusion from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a tax watchdog research and education organization.ITEP’s report, released Thursday, is an...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 20, 2000

Revenue Recognition: SEC Issues Frequently Asked Questions

Finally! More than 10 months after issuing Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 101 (SAB 101), the Securities and Exchange Commission has trotted out its long-awaited Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and Answers.SAB 101 was issued back on Dec. 3 to address the principles of revenue recognition. At that...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 17, 2000

Feds Flounder in GAO Round-up

In this heady age of budget surpluses, one shouldn’t become too complacent about the government’s capacity to count its own money. In its most recent audit, the General Accounting Office (GAO) gave the Internal Revenue Service one clean opinion, four disclaimers of opinion, and one qualified opin...

By Alix Stuart • Oct. 1, 2000

Not Depreciated Enough

Congress has had a habit of tinkering with real estate depreciation schedules, and it may soon reexamine whether they match reality. A new study by Deloitte & Touche argues that the rate of real estate depreciation allowed under current tax law is too slow. The study concludes that the 39-yea...

By Steve Bergsman • Oct. 1, 2000

Feathering the Nest Egg

These sure seem like good times for pension plan assets. Thanks mainly to the long bull market, many corporate plans are brimming with surpluses. Sherwin- Williams Co., for example, has pension plan assets almost three times greater than its pension obligations. General Electric Co.’s pension ass...

By Laurie Kaplan Singh • Oct. 1, 2000

Small Caps Get Squeezed

After a change of heart, the New York Stock Exchange is pushing the Securities and Exchange Commission to include companies with small market capitalizations (under $200 million) in its plans for new independent audit committee rules. Those smaller companies may have to scramble to meet more- str...

By Fritz McCormick • Sept. 28, 2000

Loss-Leader or Client-Feeder?

The margins in auditing are not marginal. Public accounting firms may poor-mouth, but “the audit practice is not a loss- leader,” says Lynn Turner, chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Not only can the accounting profession balance its books when it comes to auditing, he sa...

By Steve Bergsman • Sept. 28, 2000

Good Morning, Volatility

D-Day is here. On June 16, the long-awaited and much-debated new rules on accounting for derivative transactions became part of generally accepted accounting principles in the United States. No more delays for Y2K-stressed treasury departments. No more opportunities to amend the rules. Beginning ...

By Andrew Osterland • Sept. 28, 2000

Hard Lessons

It’s not new GAAP–it just feels like it. When Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 101 was issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s office of the Chief Accountant last December, it came with a disclaimer: “This SAB does not change any of the accounting profession’s existing rules on revenue re...

By Andrew Osterland • Sept. 28, 2000

The Secret Life of the Big Five

Do some of the Big Five have something to hide? Now with the Securities and Exchange Commission engineering a review of the major accounting firms’ independence, we’ll soon find out.Until the review agreement was reached, the Big Five eagerly wanted to look forward, not back. And it seemed to Lyn...

By Stephen Barr • Sept. 28, 2000

E-business Tax Planning: Wag the Dog

When Polo Ralph Lauren’s foray into the mail-order catalog business flopped in 1994, it left Joseph Pascucci with a gold-plated — but apparently worthless — education in mail-order tax issues. “A lot of time was spent setting up the business,” recalls Pascucci, vice president of taxes. “A lot of ...

By Tim Reason • Sept. 15, 2000

States of Confusion: The 2000 State Tax Survey

What qualifies a corporation for a visit from the state tax man? These days, there are almost as many answers as there are states. Part of the problem is the fluid nature of nexus, which in state tax terminology defines the degree of business involvement sufficient to justify levying a tax. A com...

By George Donnelly • Sept. 1, 2000

Ryan’s Hope

Robert Ryan’s eyes are transfixed by the images on the small television in his suburban Minneapolis office. It’s a warm April afternoon, and the CFO of Medtronic Inc., the world’s leading medical-device maker, has proudly popped into the VCR a videotape of a woman undergoing delicate brain surger...

By Stephen Barr • July 1, 2000

In the Penalty Box

It’s not news that the Internal Revenue Service doesn’t like tax shelters. But now the courts have given notice that seeking tax shelter may be more hazardous than braving the storm.Such is the thrust of a controversial decision by the U.S. Tax Court in a case involving Compaq Computer Corp. Not ...

By Russ Banham • July 1, 2000

Good Morning, Volatility

D-Day is here. On June 16, the long-awaited and much-debated new rules on accounting for derivative transactions became part of generally accepted accounting principles in the United States. No more delays for Y2K-stressed treasury departments. No more opportunities to amend the rules. Beginning ...

By Andrew Osterland • July 1, 2000

Helter Shelter

To hear the Treasury Department tell it, some $10 billion in federal revenue is lost each year to abusive corporate tax shelters, with only a portion subsequently recouped through Internal Revenue Service countermeasures. So the Clinton Administration has proposed sweeping changes to the tax laws...

By Ian Springsteel • June 1, 2000