professionwatch
GRIDLOCK
As we went to press, it looked more and
more like the lame-duck session of Congress
might turn into an inconclusive battle over
the future of the Bush tax cuts. Congressional
Republicans, fresh from landslide-scale vic-tories in the mid-term elections (see cover
story), seemed determined to stick to their
pledge to extend all of the cuts — though
there were some signs that individual members of the GOP leadership might be willing
to accept the Obama administration’s proposed compromise of extending them only
for those making under $250,000.
Among other unfinished legislation, Con-
gress had thus far failed to pass its annual
“patch” for the Alternative Minimum Tax —
though a bipartisan group of key commit-
tee chairs did write to the Internal Revenue
Service in mid-November promising to do
“everything possible” to enact AMT relief. The
lawmakers pledged legislation that would
“allow the personal credits against the AMT
and the exemption amounts for 2010 to be
set at $47,450 for individuals and $72,450 for
married taxpayers filing jointly.”
cess, and financing. The strategy review
consultation document is available online
at http://go.ifrs.org/strategyreview.
CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS
FASB issued an exposure draft outlining
changes in the standards for repurchase
agreements and other agreements that both
entitle and obligate a transferor to repurchase
or redeem financial assets before their maturity. The proposals are intended to simplify
the accounting for these transactions by removing from the assessment of effective control the criterion requiring the transferor to
have the ability to repurchase or redeem the
financial assets, as well as implementation
guidance related to that criterion.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
CPAS, MEET IFRS; IFRS, MEET CPAS
How much time should standard-setters allow
for implementing major convergence projects?
50%
AICPA members’ level of
familiarity with IFRS
30%
40%
20%
0%
10%
Source: AICPA Fall 2010 IFRS Readiness Survey
NONE BASIC SOME ADV EXPERT
AT LEAST
2 YEARS
MORE THAN
2 YEARS
GEARING UP FOR TAX SEASON
The IRS launched the testing system for its
Modernized e-File system in early November,
uncovering and working through errors in the
process. On the bright side, it announced that
just shy of 70 percent of individuals e-filed
their returns in 2010, up almost 3 percent
from 2009.
To help with the 2011 season, among other
things, it posted videos highlighting difficult
areas of the rules for the Earned Income Tax
Credit, and describing how to become an authorized e-file provider. It also released Revenue Procedure 2010-44, offering two safe
harbors for auto dealerships to treat certain
sales facilities as retail sales facilities, and to
be treated as resellers without production
activities; Rev. Proc. 2010-45, with a safe
harbor for certain grants related to electric
car batteries; and Rev. Proc. 2010-46, with a
safe harbor for corporate taxpayers for capital
projects under certain Department of Transportation programs.
On the enforcement side, in response to a
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report, the IRS said it would take
additional steps to check on whether sole
proprietors are hiding sources of income
during field audits, and to improve its procedures to make sure the government gets
its share of foreclosure sales by delinquent
taxpayers.
Looking forward, the service announced
cost-of-living adjustments affecting dollar limitations for pension plans and other
retirement-related items for tax year 2011,
and, in Revenue Procedure 2010-40, inflation
adjustments for a number of other items for
$289,000,000
Amount of uncollected sales taxes that Texas is demanding from Amazon.com, for the period from
December 2005 to December 2009
44 Percent of accounting and finance workers who were confident about their ability to find a new job in Q3, up from 36% in Q2. (Source: Mergis Group)
UNCERTAINTY ABOUT UTP
Elements of the IRS’s new disclosure requirements for uncertain tax positions that senior
corporate execs want more clarification on
BIG IMPROVEMENTS
Accuracy rate of tax returns at IRS volunteer sites
Source: TIGTA
100
80
A spate of firm mergers of all sizes marked
November, with large Top 100 Firms like
BDO, cbiz/Mayer Hoffman McCann, Citrin
Cooperman and Clifton Gunderson acquiring smaller firms, and a number of smaller
firms merging amongst themselves (see M&A
Watch, page 38).
60
20%
18%
17%
17%
40
20
CONCISE
DESCRIPTIONS
MULTI-YEAR
POSITIONS
RANKING OF
RESERVES
EXPECTATION
TO LITIGATE
0
2009
2010
Source: KPMG Tax Governance Institute
In a speech last month, International Ac-
counting Standards Board Chairman Sir
David Tweedie said that the board would
be making more of an effort to complete its
major convergence projects by the middle
of next year, due to pressure from countries
aiming to adopt International Financial
Reporting Standards in the next two years.
The IASB and the U.S. Financial Accounting
Standards Board had earlier pushed back the
deadline for completing some of their major
convergence projects from mid-2011 to the
end of 2011.
Meanwhile, the trustees of the IFRS Foundation, which oversees the IASB, are asking
the public for input on its future strategy. The
trustees are seeking the views of stakeholders
on four strategic fronts — the foundation’s
mission, governance, standard-setting pro-
2011, including the Kiddie Tax, the adoption
credit, and medical savings accounts.
H&R Block released an update on its law-
suit against its refund anticipation loan provider, HSBC, saying the two have been “in
discussions.” Block sued HSBC in October,
seeking to require the bank to provide the
funding for RALs and refund anticipation
checks next tax season.
An international monitoring group report-
ed that the International Federation of Accountants had carried out a series of reforms
to rebuild confidence in its standard-setting
for audits through greater transparency,
diversity and accountability, but suggested
that more could be done, and that it would be
examining whether standard-setting boards
within professional membership organizations can operate in the public interest.
IN OTHER NEWS
XBRL US has appointed Campbell Pryde
as its new president and chief executive officer, succeeding Mark Bolgiano. Pryde has
been chief standards officer at the business
reporting standards consortium for three
years, and previously worked at KPMG and
Morgan Stanley.
CALL FOR TOP FIRMS
Accounting Today is in the midst of collect-
ing information for its annual Top 100 Firms
and Regional Leaders lists. If your firm is one
of the top 20 in your region and you haven’t
been contacted yet, let us know at Ac Today@
SourceMedia.com. To check your firm against
last year’s list, visit the Reports and Rankings
section of Accounting Today.com.
