July 2001 - Journal of Accountancy

   EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE CPA WHOSE CLIENT WANTS TO ensure that companion animals will be properly cared for in an estate trust has to have sensitivity to the client’s feelings as well as know where to steer him or her. Extreme emotions are involved when people talk about death—and money.

   EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A SURPRISING NUMBER OF INDIVIDUALS SET UP PRIVATE foundations and other philanthropic entities without considering if they are the best option to meet their charitable inclinations. Income and estate tax savings are not the only consideration. A PRIVATE FOUNDATION IS THE CHOICE OF THOSE who want to

   EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE IRS HAS PROPOSED CHANGES THAT WOULD ALLOW simplified Lifo to live up to its name for companies that operate with relatively high and volatile gross margin percentages. The changes, outlined in IRS Bulletin 2000-23, allow taxpayers to use public price indexes without having to convert them

   Insurance Issues is a new column making its debut in the JofA this month. It will provide regular coverage of insurance-related subjects of interest to CPAs, their clients and employers. or more than four decades, split-dollar plans have been a popular way to fund employee insurance benefits, deferred compensation,

CFOs’ compensation increased 17% in 2000, but more than half their pay consisted of stock options. The at-risk (nonsalary) share of pay went up for other financial executives as well, reflecting corporations’ greater emphasis on tying compensation to performance.   CFO Controller Treasurer Top tax executive Top audit executive  

   t the fall 2000 AICPA Advanced Litigation Services Conference, Judge Alex Kozinski’s keynote speech, “A View From the Appellate Bench: The Changing Landscape for CPA Experts—Beyond Daubert ,” covered a few points relevant to CPA expert witness testimony. Judge Kozinski serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals’ Ninth Circuit,

   his is a tale of two relationships. Ezzon Corp. employs Jay and Pat. Jay has been married to Lisa for two years; Pat has lived with Chris for six years. CPAs who think they are familiar with the rules applicable to unmarried couples living together may be surprised to

   ccountants spend hours working at computers, and usually much of that time they’re doing repetitive tasks—such as opening the same group of spreadsheets or creating the same header or formatting for each new workbook and document. Wouldn’t it make sense to invest a little time to create programs that

   EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHANGES IN THE BUSINESS WORLD are creating more opportunities for CPAs to provide assurance on nonfinancial information. Practitioners are expanding their services by trading on the skills they’ve traditionally used to provide assurance on historical financial statements. TO BROADEN THE APPLICABILITY of the attestation standards, the Auditing

   n a perfect world, the numbers in financial statements would tell CPAs everything they need to know about a business. Numbers are precise, definable and measurable. But in reality CPAs need words, too, to tell them the whole story of an enterprise. That’s the sole purpose of the footnotes