Tax, accounting, auditing news - Journal of Accountancy

March 10, 2015

Sec. 529A ABLE accounts may be set up before the IRS issues guidance

The IRS announced that state ABLE programs that are established before the Service issues guidance under Sec. 529A will be deemed to comply with the rules when they are issued.

March 10, 2015

Long-haul truck driver has no tax home

A long-haul truck driver who spent 358 days on the road during 2009 did not have a tax home that would permit him to deduct his travel expenses as unreimbursed business expenses.

March 10, 2015

Forging cooperation between internal audit, external audit, audit committee

The varied roles of internal auditors, external auditors, and audit committees often intersect. A new report describes how they can work together for mutual benefit.

March 9, 2015

GAAP taxonomy adopted by SEC

The 2015 GAAP financial reporting taxonomy has been adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission and will be supported immediately. The taxonomy is a set of computer-readable tags for data included in financial statements.

March 5, 2015

FASB to propose new not-for-profit reporting requirements

The Financial Accounting Standards Board voted to propose new requirements designed to make not-for-profit financial statements more useful.

March 5, 2015

U.S. finance execs remain optimistic, envision growth, according to survey

Overall optimism among U.S. finance executives in business and industry took a slight quarterly dip, but sentiment remains positive compared with previous first quarters in the post-recession era, according to an AICPA survey.

March 4, 2015

IRS considering free e-filing for employment tax returns

The IRS asked for comments on a proposal to establish a free e-filing program for employment tax returns in an attempt to increase electronic filing of these returns by businesses.

March 3, 2015

IRS proposes new slot machine tax rules

Under the safe harbor, gamblers complying with the rules would be permitted to net gains and losses from all slot machine play on the same calendar day at one gambling establishment.

March 3, 2015

Supreme Court holds trade association can challenge Colorado’s Amazon law

The U.S. Supreme Court held that federal law does not prevent a trade association from suing Colorado to prevent enforcement of a law that requires out-of-state retailers to report sales to Colorado purchasers.

March 3, 2015

Root cause analysis can improve audits, regulators say

Root cause analysis of audit issues has the potential to bring about significant improvements in audit quality, audit regulators said while presenting results of a global survey of audit inspection findings.

March 2, 2015

GASB tackles fair value in state and local government reporting

New guidance issued by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board defines fair value and how it should be measured in state and local government financial reporting.

March 1, 2015

March 2015

February 27, 2015

FASB task force to consider whether the new revenue standard applies to certain prepaid cards

FASB’s Emerging Issues Task Force is expected to consider whether the new, converged revenue recognition standard applies to certain prepaid cards.

February 26, 2015

FAF seeks assessments of Private Company Council

The Financial Accounting Foundation board of trustees issued a request for comment on the effectiveness, accomplishments and future role of the Private Company Council.

February 25, 2015

Taxpayers who already filed 2014 returns using incorrect Forms 1095-A won’t have to pay more tax

The IRS announced that about 800,000 taxpayers (20% of the people receiving the form) had received incorrect Forms 1095-A, Health Insurance Marketplace Statement, for 2014.

February 25, 2015

Proposed FASB disclosures would link bifurcated embedded derivatives to host contracts

The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued a proposal that would require disclosures linking each bifurcated embedded derivative to its host contract.

February 25, 2015

Revenue recognition: New differences emerging

International convergence of the new revenue recognition standard may decrease as a result of clarifying revisions that will be proposed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board.

February 25, 2015

ASB issues attestation interpretation to agreed-upon procedures engagements standard

A new AICPA Auditing Standards Board attestation interpretation provides guidance for third-party due-diligence services performed as agreed-upon procedures engagements related to asset-backed securitizations.

February 24, 2015

IRS asks for comments on proposed rules for high-cost health plans

The Affordable Care Act will impose a 40% excise tax on health care plans that provide excess benefits (so-called Cadillac health plans) starting in 2018. To prepare for its implementation, the IRS is asking taxpayers to comment on proposed rules.

February 20, 2015

Thousands receive incorrect health care tax forms; signup period extended

The government says it sent thousands of incorrect Forms 1095-A to taxpayers who signed up for health insurance on the HealthCare.gov website. It is working to correct those forms by early March.

FROM THIS MONTH'S ISSUE

Clean data faster using Excel’s REGEX functions

Excel’s REGEX functions provide a simpler, flexible solution to text-cleaning tasks, reducing the need to combine multiple functions when cleaning imported data. This JofA Technology Q&A article shows the way with step-by-step instructions and a video walkthrough.