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,
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Forensic services
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
Whats My Line?
Although some of these jobs still exist, most CPAs are not likely to see these titles on form 1040. Can you identify them? 1. Mercer 2. Collier 3. Cutler 4. Draper 5. Costermonger Robert Lester Porter, CPA 1. A dealer in textile fabrics. 2. A coal miner, one who works
Nothing to Fear
ON THE RECORD John W. Green, CPA Partner, Marcum & Kliegman LLP, Melville, N.Y. Speaking at AccountantsWorlds CPE Symposium in New York We ought to call Sarbanes-Oxley the CPA Employment Act of 2002. Ive been in public accounting since 1981 and Ive never seen anything like this. Next year, when
Cities for Entrepreneurs
Hot spots to start a business Source: Entrepreneur and D&B, 2003.
Telephones and Taxes
Pull out your cell phone billor even the one for your land lineand look at the long list of federal, state, county and local taxes. The Washington, D.C.-based Council on State Taxation ( www.statetax.org ) says state and local taxes imposed on telecommunications services are more than double the average
Answer Please: Fraud-Based Interviewing
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ONE WEAPON AUDITORS CAN USE AGAINST FRAUD is simply to speak to clients, managers and employees while observing their behaviors. Normal interview skills may be insufficient to determine whether an individual is withholding information, shading the truth or outright lying, so it’s wise to learn fraud-based interview skills
When You Suspect Fraud
he new general manager of a small manufacturing company knew something was amiss. Each time he asked the chief financial officer for critical cost information he got the runaround. “We don’t have a cost accounting system that can produce that information,” the CFO would say. Or, “I’m sure we have
Financial Literacy
The AICPA Personal Financial Planning Membership Section, state societies and the U.S. Department of Labor are offering free seminars to educate employers and service providers about their fiduciary responsibilities under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ( www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/ebsa/ebsa2004898.htm ). Small business owners and CPAs are invited to attend sessions
Accounting
The SEC released Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) no. 107, Share-Based Payment ( www.sec.gov/interps ). Its purpose is to help public companies implement FASB Statement no. 123 (revised 2004), Share-Based Payment ( www.fasb.org/pdf/fas123r.pdf ), which addresses transactions in which entities exchange their equity instruments for goods or services. The SAB does
Retirement
The AICPA augmented its CPA Marketing Tool Kit with a free brochure, How to Afford a Long, Happy Retirement, that practitioners can share with clients. Members can go to www.aicpa.org/cpamarketing/ and print color or black-and-white versions that leave space for a CPA firm’s name and contact information. The tool kit
Government Accounting
The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued Concepts Statement no. 3, Communication Methods in General Purpose External Financial Reports That Contain Basic Financial Statements, which defines various means of conveying information and provides criteria for effectively using them. The statement (# GC03) is available from GASB at http://store.yahoo.com/gasbpubs/gc03.html or at
Professional Issues
The AICPA augmented its CPA Marketing Tool Kit with a free brochure, How to Afford a Long, Happy Retirement, that practitioners can share with clients. Members can go to www.aicpa.org/cpamarketing/ and print color or black-and-white versions that leave space for a CPA firm’s name and contact information. The tool kit
Forensic And Litigation Services
The Institute’s Forensic & Litigation Services Committee released Practice Aid 05-1, A CPA’s Guide to Family Law Services (# 055299JA), which provides practical guidance for practitioners providing services involving domestic relations, divorce relations and litigation and matrimonial disputes. This product is available from the AICPA online at www.cpa2biz.com or by
Ethics
PEEC issued an exposure draft of a new ethics interpretation under Rule 101, Independence (AICPA, Professional Standards, volume 2, ET section 101.01) ( www.aicpa.org/members/div/ethics/ethics ). The proposed interpretation defines the terms financial interest , direct financial interest and indirect financial interest and provides guidance on their practical application. Comments are
Personal Financial Planning
The Institute, the AICPA Foundation, the National Endowment for Financial Education and the American Red Cross jointly published Disasters and Financial Planning: A Guide for Disaster Preparedness, which CPAs can use to help consumers obtain insurance and take other loss-mitigation steps before a catastrophe occurs. “Protecting the public interest is
FYI
Cheryl Linthicum, Mark Taylor and Teri Yohn will begin one-year terms in August as academic accounting fellows in the SEC’s Office of the Chief Accountant. Linthicum is associate professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio; Taylor holds the John P. Begley Chair in Accounting at Creighton University in
International
The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) proposed four international auditing standards (ISAs) ( www.ifac.org/guidance/exd-outstanding.php ): ISA 600 (revised), The Audit of Group Financial Statements; ISA 260 (revised), The Auditor’s Communication with Those Charged with Governance; ISA 705, Modifications to the Opinion
Features
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving beyond chatbots and into accounting workflows. A new generation of agentic AI tools can plan, execute, and adapt as they complete tasks, raising expectations for what automation can do inside firms and finance departments. What can agentic AI realistically do today and what challenges are there in its implementation? Find out in this Journal of Accountancy sponsored report.
From The Tax Adviser
August 31, 2026
2026 tax software survey
July 31, 2026
