Audit

Audit Committee Brief
Deloitte - Mar 10, 2010
Recent economic events have heavily influenced the SEC’s scrutiny of financial reporting. At the 2009 AICPA National Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments, SEC Director of Enforcement Robert S. Khuzami said that during fraud investigations, his division is evaluating whether boards of directors and audit committees have properly discharged their duties. This evaluation includes determining whether red flags and other information that may have identified fraud were recklessly ignored.

IFRS - What Should Boards and Audit Committees be Considering Now?
Deloitte - Jan 31, 2010
Audit committee members play a critical role in the effective functioning of the capital markets. Their oversight and experience assists company management teams to navigate rough waters, capitalize on opportunities, operate efficiently, and, of course, provide timely, reliable financial information to investors. In an effort to support these important audit committee activities, and to help directors stay current, this publication provides guidance on an important emerging topic for audit committees: IFRS — International Financial Reporting Standards. This publication has two sections: (1) an overview of IFRS with considerations for the board and audit committee; and (2) an “issues guide” in the appendix, a tool that outlines a number of the technical accounting differences between U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and IFRS and provides some key questions to use in meetings with management.

The Obama Administration FY 2010 Tax Proposals
McGladrey - Aug 26, 2009
The Treasury Proposal contains three recommendations under a heading called “Tax Cuts for Business.” It appears that the administration intends to help alleviate the impact of severe business operating losses by expanding the number of years to which such losses can be carried back. Further, it seems that encouraging technological development is also high on the President’s list, and the Treasury Proposal reflects that goal as it would make the research and experimentation credit permanent. However, the far greater number of business proposals will significantly raise taxes for businesses generally and some proposals target special tax breaks in the current law for certain industries. Oil and gas producers, organizers and managers of hedge funds and real estate developers would all experience significant changes in the ways they are taxed if these proposals become law. In addition, there are a number of proposals designed to expand information reporting, improve compliance by business, and revise some ways that income from financial products is reported. All in all, the Treasury Proposal seems designed to impose greater burdens on businesses in order to pay for deficit reduction and health care reform.

Addressing Underwater Options: Measured Responses to a Contentious Problem
Radford - an Aon Consulting Company - Nov 06, 2008
WE GENERALLY CREDIT THE HIGH-TECHNOLOGY BOOM OF THE 1990S FOR THE GROWTH OF BROAD-BASED STOCK OPTION programs, and can correspondingly blame the 2000/2001 downturn for introducing us to large-scale underwater options. The risk for these awards to fall underwater has existed since stock options were initially introduced as a compensation vehicle. For the first time however, the high-technology sector was faced with company-wide morale, retention and motivation crises that struck at the core of the employee value proposition – the ownership culture.

Not Just a Housing Problem -- Legal Audits to the Rescue
Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP - Mar 31, 2008
Although much attention has been devoted to the adverse effects of the subprime mortgage crisis on the housing market and the financial institutions owning substantial portfolios of collateralized mortgage obligations consisting of subprime loans, there is now a growing focus on the related adverse effects in the bond and securities markets.

Recession-Related Risks a Top Concern for Audit Committees in 2008
KPMG - Feb 20, 2008
While audit committees will continue to focus on refining their oversight of financial reporting, internal controls, and risk management in 2008, they also will be paying close attention to “recession-related risks”—and there may be many.

Ten to-Do's for the Audit Committee in 2008
KPMG - Jan 01, 2008
When considering their 2008 agendas, audit committees should…

Considerations for the Audit Committee
KPMG - Jan 01, 2008
While International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) may not be around the corner, there are strong indications that U.S. public companies may one day be required to file IFRS financial statements. The SEC’s August 2007 concept release on the potential use of IFRS by domestic public companies, the elimination of the U.S. GAAP reconciliation for foreign private issuers using IFRS, and the SEC Roundtable series in December 2007 all point to the momentum toward IFRS.

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