Search Results

July 2009 |  Article

Federal securities class action activity declined in the first half of 2009, according to a report released Monday by the Stanford Law School’s Securities Class Action Clearinghouse and Cornerstone Research. Eightyseven federal securities class actions were filed in the first half of 2009, a 22.3 decline from the 112 filings in both halves of 2008.

January 2008 |  BY Laura Jean Kreissl, Darlene Pulliam |  Article

Despite some legal setbacks, the IRS has signaled it will continue to press for a strict reading of the work product privilege that protects taxpayer documents from discovery. With Action on Decision 2007004, the IRS said it will not acquiesce in the Sixth Circuit’s holding in U.S. v.

August 2007 |  BY Edmund Fenton Jr. |  Article

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CPAs can provide valuable services as litigation support consultants in lawsuits involving business damages. This analytical role allows CPAs to enter the litigation support business before taking on the greater challenge of being an expert witness. Before accepting an engagement, the CPA should ask the attorney for all existing documentation to determine if that type of work is within the CPA’s professional capabilities and make sure the engagement is crafted to protect the attorney work product privilege.

March 2007 |  Article

HIGHLIGHTS With FASB affirming its implementation date for FIN 48, several organizations, including the AICPA and FASB itself, are producing educational materials or additional guidance to help issuers comply with its new requirements for recognizing and measuring tax assets and liabilities.

February 2007 |  Article

The PCAOB proposed a standard, An Audit of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting That Is Integrated With an Audit of Financial Statements, to replace PCAOB Audit Standard no. 2 (AS2). The proposal is designed to focus audits on the matters most significant to internal control, eliminate unnecessary procedures, simplify the standard itself by reducing detail (the text is roughly onethird the length of AS2) and make audits more scalable for smaller companies.

January 2007 |  Article

HIGHLIGHTS The SEC enhanced the Internetbased search capability of its EDGAR database of company filings. Users now can search the contents of disclosure documents with a fulltext search tool. The newly searchable information includes registration statements, annual and quarterly reports and other filings by companies and mutual funds during the past four years.

September 2006 |  Article

Business valuation (BV) and forensic & litigation services (FLS) are the fastestgrowing niche markets in the CPA profession. This special section highlights these niche practices and the issues practitioners are facing. CPAs looking for additional technical and practice management guidance on BV and FLS topics also can visit the AICPA’s BVFLS Web site ( www.aicpa.orgbvfls ) for more detailed guidance.

September 2006 |  Article

What is the primary focus of your practice? What is the size of your practice? Note Multiple answers permitted. Source December 2005 AICPA BVFLS Membership Section survey. Practitioners can obtain guidance from many sources. The AICPA is currently developing valuation standards for its members the other organizations already publish standards.

September 2006 |  BY Michael A. Crain |  Article

Business valuation is a relatively new discipline. Financial valuation—the process of determining the value of a financial asset or liability—belonged first to those on Wall Street who focused on trading securities the concept of business valuation, or valuing private companies, arrived on Main Street about 25 years ago by entering the world of CPAs and those trained in finance.

September 2006 |  BY Bradley H. Minor |  Article

Business valuation is not an area of accounting to be entered into lightly. Statistics show there are many litigation claims against CPAs in the valuation area, mostly due to a misunderstanding of what services the CPA was to perform as part of the engagement and the CPA’s lack of formal training in performing valuations.