Metric of the Month: Finance Function Cost

The new year is a great time to consider the role your finance organization is playing in creating a successful enterprise. But in a world in which CFOs are increasingly expected to accomplish more with fewer resources, it’s important to track how much it costs to run your finance function....

By Marisa Brown • Jan. 8, 2018

Deutsche Bank Expects $1.8B Tax Act Writedown

Largely because the new tax law will cut the deferred tax assets of its U.S. operations, Deutsche Bank expects to take a non-cash tax charge of 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) for the fourth quarter of 2017.The adjustment, which would be reported under International Financial Reporting Standards...

By David Katz • Jan. 8, 2018

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

Deadlines Loom for Reporting Tax Act’s Impact

Senior finance and accounting executives who thought their companies might be given extra time to report the effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act had better think again. On December 22, the same day that President Trump signed the act into law, the Securities and Exchange Commission published sta...

By David Katz • Jan. 4, 2018

New Tax Law Raises Exec Comp Questions

Among the many aspects of corporate finance affected by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, executive compensation has received relatively little attention from the mainstream media. Yet the new law raises a number of questions with respect to performance-based incentives.Many companies — including a majo...

By David McCann • Jan. 3, 2018

Are Rising Dividend Payouts Backed By Cash?

Do public companies have enough free cash flow to cover the burgeoning dividends they’ve been serving up to shareholders over the last half-decade or so?In general, the answer is yes, according to a recent Georgia Tech study of free-cash-flow coverage of dividends and stock buybacks among the non...

By David Katz • Jan. 3, 2018

Counteracting a ‘Can’t-Do’ Attitude

“I’ll never hit those numbers—I don’t have the ability, and I never will.”“Sure; I earned the promotion one time, but it was pure luck.”“What’s the point in trying? Just face it: I’m cursed.”If this is the kind of “can’t-do” attitude you hear colleagues expressing — not just on a bad day, but eve...

By Keith Button • Jan. 2, 2018

PwC Found Liable for $2B Colonial Bank Fraud

PricewaterhouseCoopers has been found liable in an accounting malpractice case that alleged it failed to detect the $2 billion fraud that led to one of the biggest bank collapses in history.The alleged fraud involved executives at Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, a defunct mortgage firm, and counterp...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 2, 2018

Apple Shares Drop on iPhone X Sales Reports

Apple shares fell more than 2.5% on Tuesday amid concerns that demand for the new iPhone X may not be living up to expectations.The radically redesigned iPhone X’s $1,000 price point has been viewed as possibly deterring consumers from giving Apple the boost it was hoping for after a couple of ye...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 26, 2017

RBS Settles California MBS Case for $125M

Royal Bank of Scotland Group has settled another case arising out of its sale of toxic mortgage-backed securities, agreeing to pay $125 million to two California pension funds.The California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System both lost million...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 26, 2017

Deferred Taxes Could Drive Big Earnings Swing

Companies with large deferred tax liabilities or assets will record big fourth-quarter earnings swings as they adjust to the expected lower future corporate tax rate under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a leading corporate financial reporting expert predicts.Charles Mulford Corporations with sizable ...

By David Katz • Dec. 22, 2017

FedEx Earnings Beat, Package Deliveries up 9%

FedEx reported quarterly earnings that easily beat analysts’ expectations amid increased package delivery volume and  predicted a record holiday-shopping season.For the second quarter, the company earned $775 million, or $2.84 per share, up from $700 million, or $2.59 per share, a year earlier. A...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 20, 2017

How to Avoid Cross-Border M&A Tax Pitfalls

Those handling international M&A tax planning are facing two sets of challenges that require more proactive tax planning across the board.The first is the tightening fiscal net around the structure and financing of cross-border acquisitions. Countries are requiring multinational corporations ...

By Adam Benson, Alan Cathcart, and Nicole Mahoney • Dec. 20, 2017

PCAOB Fines Grant Thornton $1.5 Million

Following what the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is calling its first finding of quality control violations at a domestic, global network accounting firm, the PCAOB and Grant Thornton reached a settlement fining GT $1.5 million and requiring the firm to fix certain auditing problems.I...

By David Katz • Dec. 20, 2017

U.S. Government Orders Boost BlackBerry Sales

BlackBerry posted record enterprise software and services revenue for a second straight quarter, benefiting from strong U.S. government orders as it continued to reinvent itself following the collapse of its smartphone business.For the third quarter, the company earned an adjusted $16 million, or...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 20, 2017

Cereals Power General Mills’ 2% Sales Gain

General Mills posted its first increase in quarterly sales since early 2015, with across-the-board growth led by cereals including its new Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios product.The 2% jump in revenue to $4.20 billion for the second quarter reflected a 7% increase for the U.S. cereal operating ...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 20, 2017

What Should CFOs Expect from the New Tax Bill?

With the House’s passage of the final version of the Republican tax bill today and with the Senate’s thumbs-up expected to follow it, the broad outlines and many of the details of the new regime for corporate taxes (as well as taxes for individuals) starting on January 1, 2018, is in focus.Indeed...

By David Katz • Dec. 19, 2017

Investors Speak: Down With GAAP!

Will there come a time when accounting regulators bow to the inevitable and finally acknowledge that generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) have lost a great deal of their relevance?Surely, if accounting were being invented today, it would look a lot different than it does.After the Secu...

By David McCann • Dec. 18, 2017

Companies Can CEOs, CFOs for High Tax Rates

Because CFOs are often held accountable for the corporate tax function, they’re more likely to be fired when the company’s tax rate is significantly higher than those of their peers, according to a new study of the relationship between corporate tax rates and their job risks for chief executive o...

By David Katz • Dec. 18, 2017

Will Tech Preserve the Cheap Cost of Capital?

With each passing day, it seems, technology wields more influence over human activity. Nothing resembling a slowdown of that progression is in sight, and in fact it’s very likely to last indefinitely.Vincent Deluard Those sound like plain facts, don’t they? Yet a new report from Fortune 500 finan...

By David McCann • Dec. 14, 2017

Teva to Cut 14,000 Jobs in ‘Drastic’ Overhaul

Saying it had “no time to waste,” Teva Pharmaceutical on Thursday announced “drastic steps” to restore its financial stability that will result in the loss of 14,000 jobs.Investors reacted positively to news of Teva’s “comprehensive restructuring,” sending its shares up 10.1% to $17.30. As The As...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 14, 2017

New PCAOB Chair Closely Linked to Sen. Shelby

As he was enjoying widespread praise for his opposition to Roy Moore’s candidacy for the U.S. Senate from Alabama, Richard Shelby, the state’s senior senator, issued a statement earlier this week praising the appointment of William D. Duhnke III as chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversi...

By David Katz • Dec. 14, 2017

Investors on Rev Rec Changes: Who Cares?

Amid all the consternation plaguing companies about getting up to speed on the new revenue recognition rules, there’s one thing they don’t have to worry about: investor reaction to any resulting changes in their financials.Sure, there will be some accounting adjustments, especially around when to...

By David McCann • Dec. 13, 2017

CFOs Guarded on Benefits of Lower Tax Rate

While U.S. tax legislation speeds into Congress’s conference reconciliation process, finance chiefs are being very careful about touting any benefits that might accrue to their companies as a result of a corporate rate cut.In earnings calls and investor conferences the past two weeks, CFOs have l...

By Vincent Ryan • Dec. 7, 2017

Lululemon Beats Estimates, Comp Sales up 8%

Yoga-apparel specialist Lululemon Athletica delivered strong quarterly comparable sales growth and, on the heels of record Thanksgiving holiday sales, said it was on track to meet its 2020 revenue target.Despite the challenging environment facing retailers, Lululemon reported Wednesday that comp ...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 7, 2017

Hudson’s Bay Shares Plunge as Q3 Loss Widens

Hudson’s Bay shares fell sharply on Wednesday after the retailer reported a much worse-than-expected quarterly loss, with both overall revenue and comparable store sales declining by more than 3%.The net loss for the third quarter came to C$243 million ($192 million), or C$1.33 per share — up fro...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 6, 2017