|
 New
Pension Accounting Rules: Defusing The Retirement Time Bomb
The SEC and FASB have recently directed their attention
to improving the rules for pension accounting. On October
18, 2004, the SEC announced that it was investigating whether
six large companies had manipulated earnings when calculating
their costs for pensions and retiree health benefits. (The
companies were not identified by name.) In particular, the
SEC intended to focus on assumptions companies use to calculate
current pension expenses. Full
Story
|
Leap of Faith
A little more than a year ago, Steve Langowski, NYSSCPA
president for 2005/2006, created the CPA Exam Task Force
in response to complaints he had been hearing about the
new computer-based CPA exam. At that time, the computer-based
test (CBT) was no longer quite so new; students had been
taking it for about 18 months, and many were saying that
certain aspects of its administration—including scoring,
cost, and registration—clearly needed some work.
Less
clear, however, was the task force’s ability to affect
change. Full
Story
|
 The
Benefits of Early Controls Assessment
Until
now, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) section 404 landscape
for smaller public companies has been rather quiet, driven
in part by a second extension in the deadline for compliance.
Moreover, given the negativity associated with the year-1
section 404 certification process and concerns over the
high cost of compliance, many nonaccelerated filers have
not even committed to any controls assessment process, while
others are taking their time until further guidance is available.
Full
Story
|