Government entities have been providing pension benefits to their employees for many years. The promise that pension benefit payments will be made to employees when they retire creates an accounting liability for the governmental entity. Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement No. 68 requires the pension liability to be reported in the financial statements of governments...

Many of our governmental clients have been issuing crossover refunding obligations to take advantage of lower interest rates.  While this is an advantage to the governments, it is important the transactions are properly accounted for. With a crossover refunding, the original debt is still outstanding and is not callable until a later date.  The governmental...

Tax season is finally here. The deadline for calendar-year corporations to file a return (or an extension) is Monday, March 16. The deadline for individuals to file their income tax returns (or an extension) is Wednesday, April 15. As businesses and individuals start gathering financial records to give to their tax professionals, they should know how...

Disasters never happen at a good time. But the timing is irrelevant. What counts is that your business can recover quickly with minimal long-term effects. And that means having a disaster recovery program in place so that your company is well-positioned to respond to — and rebound from — a wide range of calamities. The issues your...

Workplace violence isn’t just limited to high-risk jobs such as police officers, taxi drivers and late night convenience store clerks. It happens everywhere, as illustrated by recent high-profile cases. Workplace shootings have occurred at all types of businesses including factories, hospitals, engineering firms, advertising agencies and colleges. Testing Issues Some employers have tried testing to gauge the propensity for violence...

The free use of a company car is one of the best perks an employee may be entitled to as part of a compensation package. But the benefit to the employee isn’t completely “free” under current tax law. Essentially, personal use of a company car is treated as a taxable fringe benefit, subject to income tax...