Forensic services

If you thought the 24-year prison sentence handed to former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling was severe, think again. A Chinese court has ordered Wang Zhendong to death for his role in a fraud case. Zhendong conned more than 10,000 investors out of $390 million by falsely convincing them that he

SURVEY SAVVY CEOs reported their level of confidence in prospects for revenue growth over the next three years as: Very confident – 52% Somewhat confident – 40% Not very confident – 6% Not confident at all – 1% Don’t know/Refused – 1% Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers 10th Annual Global CEO Survey, www.pwc.com/ceosurvey

SIGN OF THE TIMES T oday people change jobs—even careers—several times. CPAs aren’t immune to this trend, and many highly qualified practitioners find that as their lives and interests deepen they look to give back to their professional and academic communities. One way to do that is to teach at

Percentage of all new hires who will be women or minorities in 2008. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov .  

NUMEROLOGY  Americans worked an average 116 days last year to pay their taxes, with federal taxes accounting for 77 days and state/local taxes, 39 days. How does this measure up against your other major expenses? Housing and household operation: 62 days Health and medical care: 52 days Food: 30 days

BUSINESS TRENDS Increase workers’ productivity by protecting their credit? That’s exactly what employers hope to do when they add identity theft protection to their list of offered benefits. ID theft victims spend, on average, 40 hours repairing their credit history and personal funds, most of which must be done during

CONSUMER ALERT Tired of piles of “pre-approved” credit card offers filling your mailbox? Chances are if you use a credit card, you’re included on credit bureaus’ mailing lists, which are sold to outside parties for pre-screened credit card offers, marketing purposes and insurance solicitations. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act,

THE WORLD’S DUMBEST FRAUDSTERS Many Americans have received an e-mail or letter from Nigeria, claiming that the recipient can receive huge funds from an “over-invoiced” government contract or a wealthy individual who died without a will. In actuality, these are advance fee swindles where the victim must pay phony charges

SURVEY SAVVY According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), customer satisfaction for the fourth quarter of 2006 peaked at 74.9 on a 100-point scale, the highest level recorded since its initial measurement in 1994 and up almost 2% from 2005. Satisfaction in the finance and insurance sector registered at

GOLDEN BUSINESS IDEA Gone are the days of performance checklists, hastily reviewed during an employee’s annual review. Companies now use performance standards to design orientation and training plans, research customer service and development needs, and award performance bonuses. The National Federation of Independent Business ( www.nfib.com ) provides guidelines for

NUMEROLOGY Not all business types fared equally in last year’s IRS enforcement efforts. For the 2006 fiscal year, S corporation and partnership audits rose 34% and 15% from 2005, respectively, while audits of small businesses remained constant and efforts against large corporations—those with more than $10 million in assets—actually fell

BUSINESS TRENDS Large companies have moved rapidly toward majority voting for directors in the past year, according to a recent study by Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg, a Chicago law firm. More than 52% of the companies in the S&P 500 have now adopted a majority vote policy, bylaw or charter

SURVEY SAVVY Many employees expect revamped retirement plans by the end of 2007. A survey of 146 companies found that by the end of the year businesses are likely to offer: Automatic registration of employees into 401(k) plans (58%). Third-party investment advisory services (43%). Contribution escalation options (34%). Introduction of

ON THE RECORD “People can reject the standards, but ultimately this body was chosen to be independent and tough-minded and to do what it thinks is right. I think I would rather go down than cave in.” —Sir David Tweedie, chairman of the IASB, quoted in Accountancy Ireland.