The AICPA Council approved the Institute’s recommendation to transfer selected operations from Jersey City, N.J., and New York City to Durham, N.C. The decision to relocate was based on the continuing rise of labor costs in the New York metropolitan area and unused space in the Jersey City office. The
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Forensic services
Antifraud Sponsors Sought
The Institute for Fraud Prevention (IFP), a consortium of organizations and companies that was cofounded by the AICPA, is offering academic grants for the study of various aspects of fraud. The IFP aims to improve the ability of businesses and governments to fight fraud and to educate the public on
When the Boss Trumps Internal Controls
hen a college was so broke it couldn’t even afford copy paper, toner and other inexpensive supplies, it took some sleuthing to find the reason. This article summarizes the heroic efforts of one CPA, without pay or outside staff (or experience in fraud detection), who helped bring down a powerful
IRS Commends AICPA for Service to Small Businesses
The Institute received an IRS citation of excellence for helping small business taxpayers. At the National CPA/IRS Tax Issues Meeting in November, AICPA Tax Division technical manager Benson Goldstein accepted the award from Kevin Brown, commissioner of the IRS’s Small Business/Self-Employed Operating Division. The IRS applauded the Institute’s “outstanding team
Protect Retirement Assets
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE NEW BANKRUPTCY LAW protects tax-qualified retirement plans—pensions, profit-sharing and 401(k) plans—from creditors in bankruptcy. SEP AND SIMPLE IRAs ARE excluded from bankruptcy estates under the new law, even if they qualify as ERISA pension plans. TRADITIONAL AND ROTH IRAs that are created and funded by an individual
How to Prevent Investment Adviser Fraud
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SECTION 206 OF THE INVESTMENT ADVISERS ACT OF 1940 provides guidelines for investment advisers on what constitutes fraud. THE SUPREME COURT HAS HELD THAT THE ACT imposes a fiduciary duty on investment advisers to act in the best interest of their clients by fully disclosing all potential conflicts
New Fraud Guidance
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SSARS NO. 12, Omnibus Statement on Standards for Accounting and Review Services—2005, amended SSARS no. 1, making specific changes regarding the practitioner’s consideration of fraud and illegal acts in compilation and review engagements. ALTHOUGH COMPILATION AND REVIEW performance standards don’t require CPAs to assess the risk of fraud,
No Privacy in Bankruptcy
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY LAWS AND REGULATIONS PROHIBIT CPAs from disclosing clients’ personal financial information, but bankruptcy statutes require that very same information to go into the public record. CPAs can’t change the law, but they can help clients get through the bankruptcy process. THERESA HOLT, JD, is an attorney and associate
Threats to Investors
Ponzi schemes. Using money from later investors to pay early ones until the scheme collapses is an old con that still finds new victims. Unlicensed individuals selling securities. Unlicensed sellers should be a red flag for investors. Unregistered investment products. Most legitimate investments must be registered with the state before
An Inca 1040?
Think accounting is the invention of modern minds? Not likely. Two Harvard researchers are convinced that ancient Incas tracked inventory and taxes through a three-tiered accounting system using knotted bundles of threads. The researchersand many scholars pondering their reportbelieve the colorful knotted quipu strings found at a 13th century archaeological
Audits That Keep Fraudsters Guessing
Scratch the surface of many audit plans and you’ll find predictable elements that someone bent on fraud can anticipate and foil. That’s why SAS no. 99, Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit, requires auditors to incorporate elements of unpredictability into their procedures. Here’s how. Use random
What Would Coworkers Think?
NUMEROLOGY Source: The Ladders, www.theladders.com .
A Thief Among Us
SURVEY SAVVY
Move or Improve?
Whether you decide to remodel your home or move to a new one, it could cost you big bucks. Here are some things to consider when making the decision. Source: Adapted from Remodel or Move? Make the Right Decision by Dan Fritchen, ABCD Publishing LLC, 2005.
Travel With Confidence
Americans spent more than $1 billion on travel insurance in 2004, more than 80% of it on per-trip policies that included cancellation coverage. The U.S. Travel Insurance Association says the top misconception consumers have about the need for travel insurance is that credit card companies or travel suppliers such as
Drucker on Motivation
Peter Drucker, the management guru, maintains that people motivate themselves. You cant motivate them; you can only thwart their motivation. To be an effective leader you must recognize that the business youre really in is the obstacle identification and removal business.
Five Facts About Your Credit
NUMEROLOGY 1 You have three credit reports. Each of the three national credit bureausEquifax, www.equifax.com ; Experian, www.experian.com ; and TransUnion, www.transunion.com independently collects and maintains consumer financial records. The information on each credit report can be significantly different, though. Since you dont know which bureau a lender will use,
E-Fraud More Than Doubles
Source: The National White Collar Crime Center and the FBI, www.ifccfbi.gov , 2005.
Bankruptcy Reform Is Here
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY LAWRENCE S. CLARK, JD, LLM, is dean of the Cameron School of Business at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Wilmington and lead author of the McGraw-Hill Law and Business textbook series. His e-mail address is clarkl@uncw.edu . RANDALL HANSON, JD, LLM, chairman of the department of
Bubbling Up
Alan Greenspan, June 9 testimony to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress T here can be little doubt that exceptionally low interest rates on 10-year Treasury notes, and hence on home mortgages, have been a major factor in the recent surge of homebuilding and home turnover, and especially in the
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Build reusable Skills in Anthropic’s Claude AI
Instead of rewriting prompts each time, CPAs can turn routine tasks into reusable AI Skills. This Technology Q&A walks through how to build Claude Skills that process files, ask setup questions, and export clean Excel outputs.
From The Tax Adviser
April 30, 2026
Current developments in taxation of individuals: Part 2
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