hances are you or your clients have received a letter similar to the one shown in the exhibit below (usually with more errors of punctuation and usage). If not, it’s probably just a matter of time. These solicitations used to come by mail, but now they appear in your e-mail
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Forensic services
A Joint Effort to Fight Corporate Fraud
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IN THE BATTLE AGAINST CORPORATE FRAUD, the FBI’s top financial crime investigators have taken their case to the CPA profession, seeking expanded cooperation between accountants and law enforcement officers. THE AICPA AND THE FBI RESPONDED with a joint effort that was kicked off with a webcast featuring three
Attorney-Client Privilege: CPAs and the E-Frontier
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE EXTENDS to accountants under the Kovel rule when a CPA acts at the direction of the lawyer to provide information for the client. Inadvertent disclosure of confidential information may lead to loss of the privilege. A PRACTITIONER WHO DOES LITIGATION CONSULTING should document the circumstances of
Build an Antifraud Practice
stablishing a solid antifraud practice is not the same as building a typical CPA firm,” says Karen J. Tierney, CPA, of Glastonbury, Connecticut, “but for CPAs with the right background, training and expertise, I believe the antifraud profession offers great opportunities.” Craig L. Greene, CPA, a partner in the accounting
New Approaches to Fraud Deterrence
all me a skeptic. Maybe it’s because I’ve investigated a couple of thousand fraud cases over a career now entering its fourth decade. Perhaps it’s because questioning is one of a CPA’s most valuable talents. While I believe that as a profession we’re moving in the right direction, I’m convinced
Smart Stops on the Web
FRAUD SITES Online Education for Managers www.bettermanagement.com CPAs and business managers can brush up on the basics of fraud as well as learn detection and prevention strategies from articles and case studies at this Web site. Titles include “Business Intelligence in the Financial Services Industry.” Fraud investigators can explore the
Catch the Warning Signs of Fraud in NPOs
MONTHLY CHECKLIST SERIES Catch the Warning Signs of Fraud in NPOs With their high fund-raising and performance goals and with volunteers often handling money and keeping accounting records, nonprofit organizations can be prime targets for fraud. Here are some of the red flags CPAs can advise NPO employers and
Rules for the Written Record
hile some may consider report writing one of the more mundane aspects of conducting a fraud examination, documenting the case is every bit as important as investigating it. This article looks at how to record the results so end users receive the information they need and, equally essential, the report
A Primer for Brainstorming Fraud Risks
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AUDITORS MUST INCORPORATE BRAINSTORMING sessions to identify fraud risks in the planning stages of their audits, as mandated by SAS no. 99, and use them periodically throughout the process. INNOVATIVE THOUGHTS ARE CRITICAL to the generation of high-quality ideas. Consequently, leaders should tell team members to assume there
Niche Development Tips
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CPAs WITH DIVERSE EXPERTISE tell JofA readers what niche development techniques or processes helped them accumulate clients in a certain category. To learn about the automotive industry, for example, one firm attended automotive conferences, took dealership classes and interviewed car dealers. TO BUILD A FORENSIC ACCOUNTING, family law
Reasonable Compensation
Determining what constitutes reasonable compensation is a long-standing issue for C corporations. IRC section 162(a)(1) allows a deduction for reasonable compensation for personal services actually rendered. The IRS views unreasonable salaries as disguised dividends, making them nondeductible by C corporations and taxable to the shareholder. This means employee shareholders are
Technology
The AICPA, XBRL US and XBRL International sponsor a conference on development and use of the extensible business reporting language (XBRL). Speaking at the gathering ( www.xbrlusaseattle.com ), which takes place November 3–7 in Seattle, will be representatives from accounting organizations around the world, professional services firms, financial institutions and
Losses Trust Deducted Were Not From Passive Activity
IRC section 469(a)(1) defines a passive activity as one involving the conduct of any trade or business in which the taxpayer does not materially participate. In section 469(a)(2), the statute describes a taxpayer as any Individual, estate or trust. Closely held C corporation. Personal service corporation. In general, the IRS
Follow the Greenback Road
ith a sixth-grade education, legendary gangster Al Capone thought he was smart enough. By the time he was 26, “Scarface” had 1,000 employees and a weekly payroll of $300,000. In the 1930s, when the average American worker made about $2,400 annually, Capone was raking in more than a hundred million
Government Accounting
The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) issues an exposure draft of Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Standards (SFFAS), Heritage Assets and Stewardship Land: Reclassification from Required Supplementary Stewardship Information. The proposed standard would move such assets and land to a “basic information” reporting category. Currently SFFAS 8, Supplementary Stewardship
Webcast
Arresting Financial Fraud: The Inside Story From The FBI A FREE Interactive Webcast By The AICPA Live Webcast! November 6, 2003 1 – 2:55 pm ET Recommended CPE: 2 credits www.cpa2biz.com/CS2000/Products/CPA2BIZ/Arresting+Financial+Fraud: Presented by: AICPA FBI The public has recently been inundated with media reports of accounting scandals at the likes
Bankruptcy and S Corporation Pass-Through
Although there are some signs the economy is improving, many businesses continue to fail. Recently the Tax Court considered the effect of an S corporation’s selling an asset while in bankruptcy. All S corporation shareholders contemplating filing for corporate bankruptcy need to consider the potential tax outcome of such a
Auditing
The SEC defers until January 1, 2005, a requirement that auditors of nonpublic broker-dealers register with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) ( www.sec.gov/rules/other/34-48281.htm ). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 required auditors of financial statements of public companies or “issuers,” as defined in the act, to register by October
International
The international auditing and assurance standards board (IAASB) of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) exposes two draft international standards of auditing: ISA 240, The Auditor’s Responsibility to Consider Fraud in an Audit of Financial Statements, and ISA 300, Planning the Audit. ISA 240 outlines the responsibilities of all those
The Fraud Examiners
ecoming a fraud examiner—a.k.a. a financial detective—is not for everyone. Detectives—either in law enforcement or in the private sector—typically have distinct personality traits (see “ America’s Original Private Eye ”): They’re as good with people as they are with numbers and they are inclined to be aggressive rather than shy
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How to find the right CAS clients
The key to success with CAS is selecting the best clients. Tools like ideal client profiles (ICPs), buyer personas, and even artificial intelligence can help identify the businesses that best fit each CAS practice.
From The Tax Adviser
March 31, 2026
Current developments in taxation of individuals: Part 1
March 31, 2026
Current Developments in Taxation of Individuals: Part 1
March 6, 2026
