Transparency and Understandability, But for Whom? How Different Standards Setters Define the 'Average User'

By Sid R. Ewer

The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) may have gotten it right when it decided that the U.S. government’s consolidated financial report should be “easily understandable to the ‘average citizen.’” In contrast, the words “average citizen” do not arise in FASB’s definition of the external user, the IASB’s conception nearly mirrors FASB’s, and GASB sets the bar even higher. In the author’s view, FASB and these other standards setters, perhaps without realizing it, are moving away from transparency. The FASAB venture, although difficult, is laudable —just as investors and creditors are stakeholders in a business enterprise, citizens are stakeholders in government. Other standards setters might take more than passing notice of the FASAB’s efforts.

Full Story

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Essentials
Publisher's Column
Perspectives

Trust-Owned Life Insurance:Policy Review and Funding Techinques

High-net-worth individuals who need large amounts of life insurance should be aware of the considerable estate tax advantages of an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT). Within such an estate plan, life insurance can be used to accomplish the following goals: Payment of estate taxes; Estate equalization between heirs;Funding of state death taxes;Business continuity plans and funding of buy-sell agreements; and Charitable bequests. Full Story

Social Security and the U.S. Tax Code: Ripe for Reform

 The balance of power in the U.S. Congress shifted dramatically on January 3, 2007; it’s been more than a decade since the leadership in both the House and the Senate changed hands in the same election cycle. Back then, in 1994, the Republicans took over Congress with their “Contract with America.” Now it’s the Democrats’ turn to lead, and the new majority has already affected the domestic policy agenda in Washington, renewing the focus on both universal healthcare and an increase in the federal minimum wage. Full Story

An Accountability View of Accounting

In 2000, respected educators, including W. Steven Albrecht and Robert W. Sack (the authors of Accounting Education: Charting the Course Through a Perilous Future, American Accounting Association’s Accounting Education Series, volume 16, 2000), were warning the profession of the “perilous future” facing accounting: While we have been long-time supporters of accounting education, if we were creating a new business school today, we would not have separate undergraduate or graduate accounting programs.Full Story

The CPA Journal is broadly recognized as an outstanding, technical-refereed publication aimed at public practitioners, management, educators, and other accounting professionals. It is edited by CPAs for CPAs. Our goal is to provide CPAs and other accounting professionals with the information and news to enable them to be successful accountants, managers, and executives in today's practice environments.

©2009 The New York State Society of CPAs. Legal Notices

  

Visit the new cpajournal.com.