More Accounting Woes Delay Toshiba Results

With its accounting woes still unresolved, Toshiba Corp. on Monday missed another deadline for reporting its annual results, prompting CEO Masashi Muromachi to say he may resign if there is another delay.Toshiba has delayed announcing its results for the fiscal year ended in March by around three...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 31, 2015

Accounting and Finance Articles for CFOs

The advantages of tax reform, finance executives effected by tax break gridlocks and a new CFO for Hershey. These stories and more in the CFO accounting and finance article roundup… How to Take Advantage of State and Local Tax ReformStudy finds that 87% of state tax professionals use manual sprea...

By Kerry Maruna • Aug. 28, 2015

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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

Zero-Based Budgeting: No Longer Just a Crisis Tool

Classics never go out of style. They endure.Consider the sports cars of the 1960s. Many evolved over the years and held their appeal. The sporty MINI — a three-time winner of the Monte Carlo Rally back then, now manufactured by BMW — resembles early models of the car. But under the hood, it is no...

By Kris Timmermans • Aug. 28, 2015

Unions Win Big Victory on ‘Joint-Employer’ Rule

In a major victory for labor unions, the National Labor Relations Board has potentially made it easier for an employer to be held liable for labor violations committed by its subcontractors.Previous case law stated companies were only responsible for employees who were under their “direct and imm...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 28, 2015

Tax Breaks Gridlock Weighs on CFOs

Uncertainty about the U.S. economy is nagging at the nation’s CFOs, reflecting, in part, the gridlock in Congress over tax reform, according to Grant Thornton.The accounting firm reports in its latest CFO Survey that finance chiefs are relatively sanguine about the future, with 48% expecting the ...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 27, 2015

How to Take Advantage of State and Local Tax Reform

Unlike the federal government, which has been unable to enact corporate tax reform, state and local level reform is alive and well. Based on a recent Bloomberg BNA study of 100 tax professionals at U.S. large corporations, governments appear to be shattering their stereotypical image by swiftly e...

By Ken Crutchfield • Aug. 27, 2015

In Search of Finance and Accounting Talent

Whether or not there is an actual “talent shortage” in the labor market, it’s obvious that many CFOs are not ecstatic about the personnel that currently make up their finance and accounting teams.As one analyst told us, “We hear [of the shortage of finance and accounting talent] in every single c...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Aug. 26, 2015

PC Market to Continue Slide for Two More Years

The personal computer market will continue its slide for the next couple of years but begin a modest recovery in 2017,  International Data Corp. predicted Wednesday in a new survey.Worldwide PC shipments are expected to fall by 8.7% in 2015 and not stabilize until 2017, according to IDC. A furthe...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Aug. 26, 2015

Salary Increases Give Way to Variable Pay Hikes

Most people are all too aware that annual salary increases have flattened out since the most recent recession. In fact, following each of the past several recessions, salary hikes normalized at a lower level than they had previously.So it may come as a surprise, to some, that companies’ spending ...

By David McCann • Aug. 26, 2015

Tips for Making a Lump-Sum Pension Payout Offer

In recent years, many defined-benefit plan sponsors have made lump-sum offers to terminated, vested participants as a de-risking initiative, and many others are considering the move. In order to determine whether it’s an appropriate strategy for any particular plan sponsor requires an awareness o...

By Joe Nankof • Aug. 26, 2015

Intuit to Sell Pioneering Quicken Program

Intuit is planning to sell its Quicken personal finance program and other assets to focus on such core strengths as the TurboTax tax preparation platform.Quicken, a pioneer in desktop accounting software that was launched in 19844, was once Intuit’s core product. The financial software company is...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Aug. 21, 2015

‘Boomerang’ Auditors Make Better Fraud Detectives, Experiment Shows

“Boomerang” auditors – auditors who spend time as CFOs or controllers and then return to public accounting – are better at sniffing out when and by how much their clients are cheating on their financial reports, a new study finds.Marietta Peytcheva Further, auditors who are psychologically inclin...

By David Katz • Aug. 21, 2015

Boston Bruins Launch Tax Fight Over Meal Expenses

In what could be a precedent-setting tax case for professional sports, the Boston Bruins are facing off with the Internal Revenue Service over whether the NHL team can deduct the full amount of what it spends to feed players on road trips.Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs has filed a petition in U.S. Ta...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 20, 2015

Sears’ Property Sales Prevent Q2 Loss

Sears’ property sales propped up its second-quarter earnings amid slumping store revenue.The Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based company on Thursday posted net profit of $208 million, or $1.84 a share, versus a loss of $573 million, or $5.39, a year earlier. Excluding the $508 million gain from the sale ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Aug. 20, 2015

Finance Chief Eyes Steady Shift to the Cloud

Talk about a smooth transition to the CFO role.Ashley Vukovits, CFO, Interactive Intelligence Group During the August 3 earnings call of Interactive Intelligence Group, a software and cloud services provider that has long focused on corporate telephone contact centers, new finance chief Ashley Vu...

By David Katz • Aug. 19, 2015

Companies Purposely Hire Fraudsters: Study

“Psst — hey you. Yeah, you. We’re onto you, you closeted earnings manager. Don’t give us that look. You know what you are.”Three accounting professors from the University of South Carolina have published research that purports to show strong evidence for what accounting academia has long suspecte...

By David McCann • Aug. 19, 2015

Adobe Completes Swift Business-Model Transformation

In the broad business-model shift that has swept through the software industry over the past decade, has any large company in that field — let alone a publicly held one — pulled off the transition as speedily, thoroughly, and successfully as has Adobe Systems?Almost surely not.In November 2011, t...

By David McCann • Aug. 18, 2015

Walmart Cuts Earnings Projections

Walmart posted lower profits for its second quarter and lowered its outlook for the current quarter and all of 2015, due to paying higher wages and investing more in its U.S. locations.The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer said second-quarter profit fell to $3.48 billion, or $1.08 a share, from $4...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Aug. 18, 2015

Tax Inversions: All My Bags Are Packed

When President Barack Obama said last September that he would get tough on companies that avoid tax through “inversions” — merging with or buying foreign firms so as to shift their domicile abroad — some wondered if this would end a wave of corporate emigration. Some high-profile deals were calle...

By Economist Staff • Aug. 17, 2015

Accounting and Finance Articles for CFOs from 8.14.2015

This edition of the CFO Daily Roundup has all CFO articles from August 14, 2015…  Ex-SAP Exec Accused of Panama BriberyThe executive arranged large discounts to a corporate partner ‘in order to generate a cash pot to bribe government officials and win business for SAP.’>> Matthew Heller Stu...

By Kerry Maruna • Aug. 17, 2015

Etsy Avoids Disclosure With Irish Tax Haven

Despite its promise to be a “beacon for transparency,” online crafts marketplace Etsy has created an offshore tax haven that is shielded from public scrutiny, Bloomberg reports.Etsy’s Irish subsidiary is now classified as an unlimited liability company so it no longer has to report publicly how m...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Aug. 14, 2015

StumbleUpon Planning to Lay Off 70% of Workers

Content discovery firm StumbleUpon plans to lay off about 70% of its workforce by the end of this week after failing to secure additional funding, VentureBeat reports.StumbleUpon’s last injection of funds came in 2011, when investors pumped $17 million into the company. It has struggled to compet...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 14, 2015

CRE Market May Be Reaching Bubble Territory

Historically low interest rates and “a flood of cash being pumped into economies” by central banks have made commercial real estate look attractive compared with bonds and other assets — causing prices to soar and the global property market to overheat, the Wall Street Journal said Thursday.For e...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Aug. 13, 2015

Alibaba’s Torrid Sales Growth Slows to 28%

Nearly a year after its record-breaking, $25 billion IPO, Alibaba on Wednesday reported lower-than-expected second-quarter revenues, sparking a 5% decline in its stock price.The China e-commerce giant’s revenue for the quarter ending June 30 rose 28%, to $3.26 billion—its slowest growth in three ...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Aug. 12, 2015

Macy’s Has ‘Tough’ Q2 As Sales Fall 2.6%

Macy’s stock fell more than 5% on Wednesday after the retailer released second-quarter earnings that its CEO described as “disappointing.”Macy’s recorded $6.1 billion in second-quarter revenue, down 2.6% year-over-year and below the $6.2 billion Wall Street consensus. Net income for the quarter d...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 12, 2015