August 2003 - Journal of Accountancy

One of our small business clients—we’ll call him Bob—recently expanded his one-store, family-run retail operation into a four-store chain. As many small business owners have to do, Bob had to relinquish some hands-on control when his business grew. He had to hire new employees for each store, and he worried

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY NEW ACCOUNTING REGULATIONS BROUGHT ABOUT by Sarbanes-Oxley and SAS no. 99 will force many companies to change how they do business. Compliance with these and other rule changes will expand the burden of corporate CPAs. ONE NEW REGULATION THAT WILL AFFECT ALL public companies is the proposed NYSE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE AICPA’S ETHICS ENFORCEMENT PROCESS must be swift and open to outsiders’ scrutiny if the profession hopes to maintain public confidence. IF A STATE BOARD OF ACCOUNTANCY suspends, revokes, withdraws or cancels a member’s certificate, permit or license to practice public accounting, the AICPA automatically suspends or terminates

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EACH VALUATION ASSIGNMENT IS UNIQUE, and often there’s more than one way to answer a question, interpret a fact or approach a problem. How the valuator prepares the client for the BV engagement sets its direction and becomes the foundation of the engagement letter and, ultimately, a responsible

f Sherlock Holmes—the world’s most famous fictional detective—were solving today’s biggest corporate crimes, he probably would be a CPA, too. That’s because it takes both accounting knowledge and the unique skills of a detective to resolve allegations of fraud. This article addresses how investigating fraud differs from the field of

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FOR CLIENTS DREAMING OF A FINANCIALLY SECURE retirement, CPAs need to offer assistance on which savings vehicles—qualified and nonqualified—will help them reach their goal. This decision involves both tax and nontax considerations. CLIENTS PREPARING FOR RETIREMENT HAVE a wide variety of savings vehicles available to them including 401(k)

t’s no exaggeration to call the continuing double-digit rise in health insurance premiums a crisis. In recent years employers of all sizes have faced premium increases of 12% to 15%. Some hikes have even gone as high as 30%. In 2002 the average national increase was 12.7%, up from 4.8%

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY MANY OWNERS OF CPA FIRMS KNOW their future retirement likely will be funded by enlarging the ownership pool. For young CPAs who can’t afford to purchase a partnership interest, some firms create an interim level that avoids the ownership-affordability problem by promoting an individual to “nonequity” (income) owner.