Journal of Accountancy articles from June 2007

Journal of Accountancy archives from June 2007

Performance Dashboards and Analysis for Value Creation.(Book review)
June 1, 2007... Performance Dashboards and Analysis for Value Creation by Jack Alexander, CPA 301 pages with CD-ROM; hardcover John Wiley & Sons; Hoboken, N.J.; 2007 Like the proverbial elephant described by blind men, company performance and value are...

ROI on XBRL: interactive data cuts reporting costs today.(return on investment, extensible business reporting language)
June 1, 2007... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * The reality of XBRL has grown exponentially over the past two years, in large part due to the SEC's focus and encouragement. With the time. money and effort that Chairman Cox and the SEC have dedicated to this...

Stay connected on the road: what to include in your lightweight, high-tech mobile toolkit.
June 1, 2007... When traveling on business, it would be great if you could receive and send e-mail and easily perform other simple office tasks, like sending and receiving faxes or scanning documents into your computer--all without lugging around a ton of...

Remote Assistance: the next best thing to being there.(Product/service evaluation)
June 1, 2007... You are visiting an office in Texas and need immediate help with a computer application. Because of the problem's complexity, you figure a phone call won't resolve the issue. You need a live visit from an expert. The only problem is he or she...

Collaborate on the Web: Internet tools let teams write, edit and calculate together online.
June 1, 2007... Here's the problem: Your three-partner CPA firm based in Boston is on a tight deadline to prepare an audit report for a client. One partner is at the client's Philadelphia headquarters; another is traveling in Houston; and you're in Boston. The...

Flexing your super financial sleuth power: here's how to pump up the detective power of Benford's law.
June 1, 2007... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * Benford's law holds that the leftmost digit in many types of numerical data is a 1 nearly one-third of the time, with probability inversely proportional to the value of each increasing digit. * This phenomenon can...

Place a bet on gaming: This computer-oriented, late-night, high-risk industry needs CPAs - ka-ching!(certified public accountants)
June 1, 2007... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * Gaming has come of age and become a real discipline and a serious nationwide business. It involves a lot of different industries under one roof: gaming, lodging, entertainment, food and beverage, golf and other...

Closing the gaps in GAAP: GASB's implementation guides play an integral role in governmental accounting.(generally accepted accounting principles, Governmental Accounting Standards Board)
June 1, 2007... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * GASB regularly issues implementation guides, which are staff "question and answer" (Q&A) documents that are intended to reflect the GASB staff's understanding of the board's intent when it adopted the related...

IFRS: coming to America: what CPAs need to know about the new global GAAP.(international financial reporting standards, generally accepted accounting principles)
June 1, 2007... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are destined to be the lingua franca of the international accounting world. * Approximately 100 countries already require, allow or are in the process of converging...

Two years and counting: a review of Sarbanes-Oxley section 404 reporting.
June 1, 2007... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * This article examines the first two years of section 404 reporting data to determine whether section 404 has accomplished its intended purpose and what small companies can learn from the experience of large companies...

Value proposition: while CPAs may cost a little more, they bring critical skills to a company's finance team.
June 1, 2007... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * The CPA is the gold standard in financial credentials, but CPAs are increasingly in short supply. The result is that it is more difficult and more expensive for companies to find qualified CPAs. * CPAs can benefit...

New law provides AMT relief.(alternative minimum tax)
June 1, 2007... Individuals holding incentive stock options have historically faced a dilemma at tax time. If options are in the money, they may be subject to the alternative minimum tax (AMT) on paper profits even before selling their shares. If they sell...

IRS targets foreign tax credit generators.
June 1, 2007... The Joint International Tax Shelter Information Centre--an organization of tax administrators from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States--recently focused on transactions by U.S. taxpayers with foreign counterparts to...

No penalty for BLIPS.(bond linked issue premium structure)
June 1, 2007... In the widely reported case Klamath Strategic Investment Fund (see "Tax Matters," JofA, March 07, page 72), the district court disallowed claimed losses on a finding that the transactions were shams and lacked economic substance. An important...

Whose fraud?
June 1, 2007... The statute of limitations does not protect a taxpayer from a deficiency assessment for fraudulent returns when the fraud was committed by a preparer, the Tax Court ruled. In 2005, Vincent Allen was assessed a deficiency of $12,212 for...

Heavy price for ignoring levy notice.(United States v. MPM Financial Group)
June 1, 2007... In U.S. v. MPM Financial Group Inc., the Sixth Circuit scolded the defendant for exercising poor internal controls as it upheld a penalty for failure to comply with a notice of levy against one of its employees, who was also the corporation's...

Determining basis for gambling losses.
June 1, 2007... With the proliferation of legal types of gambling (lotteries, casinos, horse and dog racing, jai alai, bingo, etc.), many more taxpayers are in the (enviable) position of having to report winnings on their tax returns. While many taxpayers may...

The last word.
June 1, 2007... When I take my students to places like Thailand and Singapore, they have to leave their American conventions behind. They see what a great impact culture has on the way business is done. You can read about what it's like, but the look on...