The straight line

Corporate Cybercrime

Corporate cybercrime has been in the news a number of times in the past couple of years.  Recently, Scoular Company was taken for $17.2 million in an international email swindle to a bank in China.  In addition, Target, P.F.Chang’s, Neiman Marcus and JPMorgan Chase, to name a few, all have fallen victim to computer hacking. ...

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Accounting Standards Updates

   Extraordinary Items                 All references to Extraordinary Items will no longer be segregated on the Income Statement.  An event was considered extraordinary if it was both unusual and infrequent.  This change allows for early adoption, and retrospective application.    Business Combinations – Intangibles                 Non-public companies are no longer required to recognize intangible assets...

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Credit Risk

With the recent drop in commodity prices, one topic that always seems to be part of the discussion is credit risk.  Credit risk refers to the risk that a borrower will default on any type of debt by failing to make the required payments.  This risk includes potential lost principal and interest, disruption to cash...

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Crossover Refunding

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...

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Dependent Children Working and Filing Tax Returns

Getting that first part-time job can be an exciting time for your teen-aged children.  I get quite a few questions from tax clients about their dependent children starting their first job, ie – how should they fill out their W-4 forms, do they need to file a tax return, etc. In many cases, the dependent...

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Leases – Will We Ever See A Standard?

I know, here we go again talking about putting leases on the balance sheet.  The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has been talking about changes to the current standard since 2006. We keep hearing “when, not if” in regards to changes to lease accounting.  The delay seems to stem from differences in opinion between FASB...

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