October 2011

NPOs should disclose open tax years – TIS 5250.15

1 Comment / Accounting / By

Oops!  Amazing the trivia one can learn when reading the Not-for-profit audit risk alert.  Realized the following idea isn’t the only thing I missed after reading the risk alert.  (Aha, the point of constant learning is to figure out what you missed and fill in the gaps!)

TIS 5250.15 says that NPOs without any uncertain tax positions under FIN 48 still have to disclose open tax years in the same way as for-profit organizations.  That TIS is not available on-line so I can’t provide a link to an authoritative source.  And yes, I know that FIN 48 is actually now found in ASC 740-10, but FIN 48 registers in my brain easier that ASC 740-10.

So, if you have an NPO client, there should be something along the lines of the following comment from ASC 740-10-55-217: …

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Remember to renew your PTIN

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Your PTIN needs to be renewed for 2012.  Need to get that done by 12-31.

The IRS has opened up the renewal process. You can get started here.

Just renewed mine today.  Took 16 minutes from start to end.  (Yes, yes, I timed it since I was planning to write this post.)

MACPA (the Maryland state society) has some good background here.

I have lots of servants helping in my home and business

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After reading some comments in Russell Roberts’ book, The Price of Everything, I realized that I have a lot of servants hard at work in my home.  I have a huge number of servants working in my business.

See a partial list of servants who are hard at work at my other blog, Outrun Change:  I Have Dozens of Servants in My Home and Business.

…

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Can’t find anything in the accounting world to blog about? Are you kidding me?

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Nothing to write about in accounting.  You’re pulling my leg, right?

Looks like an all-hands conversation is brewing on the topic of why there are not more accounting professors who blog.

Survey of the current discussion by David Albrecht is at More on Why Accounting Profs Don’t Blog.  I will extend the discussion to ask why are there so few posts from accounting practitioners who are blogging.

One of several threads in the discussion amongst the profs is there’s not a lot of interesting stuff to talk about.

That idea gave me a chuckle yesterday while attending an 8-hour accounting and auditing conference put on by the California Society of CPAs.

While jotting down notes from the speakers, I put an asterisk by ideas that seemed to be a possible blog post.  At the end of the day I had 32 asterisks plus an outline for this post.

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AICPA is not amused with ‘little gaap’ body being a subsidiary of FASB

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(title of post changed from AICPA is not abused to AICPA is not amused.  Sorry!)

I mentioned earlier that the FAF, parent of FASB, wants to set up a group that would carve out portions of GAAP that did not apply to private companies. Problem with this deal is that all changes would have to be approved by FASB.  That means PCSIC would be a subsidiary or subcommittee of FASB.

The AICPA is not amused.

…

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Three minute grammar lesson

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Short, simple lesson of frequently goofed grammar rules at AmEx’s Open Forum by Barry Moltz:  Avoid These Simple Grammar Goofs in Your Business Marketing.  Also works for your emails or documentation memos or letters to clients.

Ten common mistakes.  Check it out.  Good reminders for me and it cleared up a couple fuzzy rules. 

The affect is you’re writing would be better.

(Sorry! I couldn’t pass up using three of the errors mentioned in the post.)

If you are in business, you should be familiar with these writers

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A few weeks ago I attended the Dave Ramsey Live! event in Long Beach.  Here is just one of the many great comments he had:

If you are in business, you should be reading these three authors:

  • Jim Collins
  • Seth Godin
  • Malcolm Gladwell

I wholeheartedly agree.

I have read all of the following books and heartily endorse them. If you want to grow and learn and stretch your brain, dive in anywhere!  Here’s a few titles to check out: …

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Entire body of GAAS has been replaced (except for 8 SASs)

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SAS 122 has been issued by the Auditing Standards Board. That document replaces every one of the current SASs, except for numbers 51, 59, 65, 87, 117, 118, 119, and 120.

The clarified SASs, all 39 of them, will go into effect for your audits of 12-31-12 financial statements (okay, okay, the technical cutoff is financial statements ending on or after 12-15-12).

That means for your audits in 2013, you will have to be up to speed on the new SASs in the new-and-improved GAAS body of knowledge.

…

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New Audit Risk Alerts are available

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Just noticed today the new General Audit Risk Alert is available.  If you are an auditor this is something you should be reading every year.  (If your firm doesn’t provide you a copy, go get one yourself.  You are in charge of your professional growth.)

Here is a link and the full title: General Accounting and Auditing Developments – – 2011/2012 Audit Risk Alert.

Might be worth getting the hot-off-the-press risk alert.  Order it now and you could read it in November to incorporate into planning during December for audits in January and February.  …

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Two overlapping recessions?

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We may be in two simultaneous, overlapping recessions.  One will go away, but the other won’t.

I have two posts at my other blog, Outrun Change, discussing this idea of overlapping recessions:

I’m trying to move my discussions of massive change in the economy and the work world to my other blog.

Looks like ‘little GAAP’ will be closer to ‘slightly-less-than-big-GAAP’

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Here’s the path the Financial Accounting Foundation has chosen for addressing the big GAAP/little GAAP issue, as announced on October 4:

Establishing a new body, under the oversight of the FAF, to identify standards that require modification and to vote on specific proposed exceptions or modifications that would then be subject to ratification by the FASB and submitted to the public for comment

The FAF would create a new entity under its supervision, the Private Company Standards Improvement Council (PCSIC).  Shall we call it Pic-sic?  …

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New blog:

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Why am I starting a new blog, Outrun Change? You can find it at www.outrunchange.com (new name and address listed after I moved the blog.)

The amount of change taking place today is staggering.  The rate of change is going to increase.  That change is making our knowledge and skills obsolete.  We need to be learning and growing to keep up with the amount of radical change taking place around us.  We need to learn fast enough to outrun change.

At the Christian Leadership Conference in April 2011, Dr. Richard Swenson said that there will be 1,000 times more change in the next century than in the 20th century.  He also said there was more change in the 20th century than the previous 5,000 years.  That is staggering.

My focus in the new blog will be on: …

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