Новости

SEC Approves One-Year Extension for Small Businesses From Auditor Attestation Requirement in Sarbanes-Oxley Act

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it has approved a one-year extension of the compliance date for smaller public companies to meet the Section 404(b) auditor attestation requirement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The SEC also announced that it received Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval yesterday to proceed with data collection for a study of the costs and benefits of Section 404 implementation, focusing on the consequences for smaller companies and the effects of the Section 404 auditor attestation requirements. The results of the study are expected to become available during the extension period.

VAT under attack

An unexpected suggestion in respect to the course of Russia’s tax reformed has recently followed: Sergei Glaziev, director of the National Institute for Development and Yuri Petrov from the Russian Academy of Science proposed to cancel value added tax in Russia without its replacement by any other tax.

CEBS publishes report on issues regarding the valuation of complex and illiquid financial instruments

The Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) has published today its findings on issues relating to the valuation of complex and illiquid financial instruments. The report puts forward a set of issues that should be addressed by institutions and accounting and auditing standard setters in order to improve the reliability of the values ascribed to these instruments. CEBS has prepared this in response to a request set out in the October 2007 roadmap of the ECOFIN on the financial market situation.

Authorities responsible for regulation of public companies announce next steps regarding the creation of a group to interact with the international accounting standards committee foundation

The world’s securities authorities responsible for regulation of public companies and implementation of IFRS – represented by IOSCO, as well as the European Commission, the Japan Financial Services Agency and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the securities authorities in the world’s three largest capital markets - welcome the upcoming Roundtable organized by the IASCF regarding the creation of an IASCF Monitoring Group. The IASCF is the private foundation that provides public interest oversight to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), which promulgates IFRS.

Criminal liability for insurers approved

Yesterday the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation together with the All-Russia Union of Insurers has developed a final set of amendments to the Criminal code which provide criminal liability for violations in the insurance sector of Russia’ economy.

Transfer pricing reconsidered

The long-discussed project on transfer pricing is as far from its adoption as before: at this Wednesday’s meeting held by Igor Shuvalov (first vice-president of Russia), it was decided to cancel all priorities in respect to two alternative projects - the one developed by the Ministry of Finance and the one by the Ministry for Economic Development and Trade where the first project has had higher probability of approval until recently.

EC “effect studies” on IFRIC 14 and IAS 1

The European Commission has published “effect studies” of the impact of two IASB pronouncements awaiting endorsement for use in Europe.

AICPA calls for three to five year timeline for IFRS transition

Barry C. Melancon, president and CEO of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, speaking at a forum of accounting and finance authorities on international accounting, called for a reasonable and clear-cut time frame of three to five years for the U.S. accounting profession to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards.

Bank of Russia gets tough on credits issued to corporate borrowers

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation has recently addressed yet another problem of the banking sector – issuing of so-called “fiduciary credits” to corporate borrowers. The Bank of Russia thinks that bad debts are very probable, because sometimes credits are issued to either someone who is in personal acquaintance with a credit manager (without even looking at this borrower’s accounting records or credit history), or to someone else, but without proper checks of his or her accountancy.

Education Needed for Move to IFRS

All eyes are on the Securities and Exchange Commission as it prepares to issue a detailed roadmap this summer for the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards, but some representatives gave hints about what might be in that roadmap at a conference held by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in New York.