Auditing

Practice Management

Governance & Accounting Still Concern Investors

Things have improved but there is still cause for concern. That is the message investors and creditors seem to be sending in a special report published Monday by Standard and Poor’s.“Governance and accounting remain heightened areas of concern for investors and creditors, and it remains critically important for them to assess the often qualitative, intangible, and principle-based dimensions of governance and accounting,” said George Dallas, managing director and global practice leader, corporate governance, Standard and Poor’s in a prepared statement.
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Education & Careers

CISA and CISM Are Strong Certifications

A study has found that the Certified Information Systems Auditor® (CISA®) and Certified Information Systems Manager® (CISM®) are notable certifications sought out by companies and hiring individuals.
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A&A

2005 Sees Increases in IRS Audits

More than 10,000 more audits of small businesses organized as corporations were conducted during fiscal year 2005 than in the previous year according to enforcement data released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Wednesday. The number of large corporations and wealthy individuals audited also increased during the fiscal year ending September 30. These are just a few of the highlights were in remarks from IRS Commissioner Mark J.
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Internal Audit Departments Seeking New Balance

For two years, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) has been the central, and some would say only, focus of internal audit departments at public companies throughout the U.S.. A new survey by Protiviti Inc. shows that focus may be shifting as three out of four participating companies see the need or are already taking steps to balance SOX compliance with other risk management priorities.
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Community News

San Diego Officials Struggle with Throwing More Money at Accounting Problems

San Diego’s City Attorney, Michael Aguirre, on Friday asked the City Council to reject additional funding for the independent risk firm, Kroll, Inc. and law firm Wilkie, Farr & Gallagher, who are investigating the City’s finances, including disclosure practices relating to the $1.4 billion shortfall in the City’s pension fund. The two firms have said they will be unable to conclude their work by December as scheduled, because the City’s data search has not produced all of the records they need, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
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A&A

It Pays to Take Another Look at Ocean Freight Charges

Retailers and importers importing goods via ocean freight may have a sum of $50,000,000 in erroneous freight rate charges waiting to be claimed according to Ocean Freight Refunds. Ocean Freight Refunds closely examines ocean freight charges for importers to determine if any errors have been made.
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A CONVERSATION WITH...Arthur Korbin

Donor fatigue is a phrase not-for-profits are painfully aware of, especially in light of an overly active hurricane season that produced the Katrina disaster.With roughly $1.7 billion already given to hurricane relief efforts, scavenging for remaining donor dollars has been a difficult task for many organizations.Particularly hard hit are smaller, local charities that rely more heavily on donations from individuals than their national counterparts.
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Community News

PCAOB Finds Failures in Deloitte's Audit Work

The Public Accounting Standards Board (PCAOB) issued its report on Thursday on its inspections from May to November 2004 of past audits performed by Deloitte & Touche. The report cited “audit deficiencies” including failure to identify or address accounting errors, according to Reuters.
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SEC Looking to Streamline Auditor-Independence Rules

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is looking into simplifying its auditor-independence rules without weakening them.Advertisement
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Community News

Report Exposes Errors Found in KPMG Audits

An annual report released by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) highlights errors found in a sampling of KPMG’s nearly 1,900 public audits performed between June and October 2004.
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New Accounting Problems at Fannie Mae

Citing anonymous sources “close to” or “who have been involved” in the accounting investigation at Fannie Mae, the Dow Jones Newswires said late Wednesday that the company had “overvalued its assets, underreported credit losses, and misused tax credits,” the Washington Post reported.
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Tax

CCH Capital Helps IRS Accurately Verify Investment Income

Have you ever wondered how the Internal Revenues Service (IRS) verifies the investment income reported by taxpayers on their returns? As of last week, the IRS will use the CCH® Capital Changes online database to conduct research, verify taxpayer returns or pursue audits of returns.CCH Capital Changes database contains information on more than 100,000 companies spanning more than 100 years and is considered the tax authority for accurate basis tracking and related tax issues involving equities in the U.S. and world capital market.
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Education & Careers

UTPA Accounting Team Brings Home National Audit Case Title

Making the case for how auditors should handle renewable gambling licenses, the five-woman University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) accounting team brought home the national title for the second straight year in the ALPHA/KPMG Audit Case Study competition.
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Community News

Indian Trust Fund Scandal Points to Decades of Poor Accounting

Thousands of American Indians are still waiting for the federal government to account for billion of dollars held in trust in what is the largest and longest-running class-action lawsuit against the government.Advertisement
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Community News

Marcum & Kliegman Achieves Largest Net Revenue Audited Gain

Marcum & Kliegman has achieved the largest net revenue audited gain for the first half of 2005 among non-national accounting firms, according to the Public Accounting Report.
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Community News

UN Selects Deloitte For New Audit of Procurement Division

Deloitte Consulting LLP has been selected to perform a full financial and internal control audit of the United Nations (UN) procurement system that oversees the Iraq oil-for-food programme. The audit will focus on internal controls and procedures, operations, and staffing. The procurement office has been placed under the direct authority of UN Controller Warren Sach who made the announcement naming Deloitte as auditor.
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Canadian Audits Need Improvement Says Oversight Board

The Canadian Public Accountability Board (CPAB) recently released its second public report on its examinations of public accounting firms, finding that audits by these firms needed significant improvements.
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A&A

FAA Taking Sharper Look at Contracts

Questionable billing and hiring practices by a government contractor have spurred the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to determine whether certain contracts are costing the agency more money than they save.According to the Washington Post, the FAA is now reviewing so-called support services contracts with hundreds of small businesses because of problems with D.C.-based Crown Consulting Inc, which has 58 different contracts with the FAA worth up to $135 million.
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Technology

The Next Level of Computer Aided Audit Tools

InformationActive, Inc. officially released its new data analysis and manipulation engine ActiveData for Office™ on August 10, 2005. The general release comes three months after ActiveData for Office™ was introduced as a limited release, at the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Software Expo held in Fairfield, New Jersey.
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Community News

Berkshire Hathaway Reveals Additional Inquiry

Regulators are probing the accounting methods used by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., expanding an investigation that started with its connection to American International Group Inc.Since January, authorities have been looking at whether Berkshire Hathaway's General Reinsurance Corp. unit helped AIG misstate financial results.
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Pages

Voice of the Editor

Even though any accounting auditor would tell you it seems like there are an awful lot of tax accountants out there, surely one-third of the country isn't made up of tax preparers, so it's rather startling news to learn that one-third of Americans like to do their taxes. Who knew?
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Gail Perry, CPA
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, AccountingWEB
editor@accountingweb.com
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