FRC to investigate Tesco accounts and auditor PwC

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/12/23/uk-tesco-accounts-idUKKBN0K00OQ20141223

SEC.gov | SEC Sanctions Eight Audit Firms for Violating Auditor Independence Rules

SEC.gov | SEC Sanctions Eight Audit Firms for Violating Auditor Independence Rules

EU Auditors review EU accountability landscape

EU Auditors review EU accountability landscape

Taking Stock: IFRS pocket guide unlikely to end on Carney's book shelf - 10 Jul 2014 - Accountancy Age

Taking Stock: IFRS pocket guide unlikely to end on Carney's book shelf - 10 Jul 2014 - Accountancy Age

Intensive course on IFRS – Mastering the standards

Does your company report in accordance withifrs course 213x300 Intensive course on IFRS Mastering the standards International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), or are you responsible for preparing the financial statements in compliance with IFRS? Is your company considering a move to IFRS? Or do you simply want to extend or to refresh your IFRS expertise? Then PwC´s intensive course on IFRS is right for you.

Objectives
Our module based IFRS course will help you deal with IFRS professionally and apply the standards competently by giving you:

• a solid basic understanding of the most important IFRS/IAS standards and of recent developments
  
• detailed knowledge of the content of these standards and how they are applied.

See full Article: Intensive course on IFRS – Mastering the standards | PwC Switzerland

IASB Consults on Its Core Principles - a Unique Opportunity, says KPMG [feedly]

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Audit reforms “nudge” in right direction but leave many unsatisfied

See full Article: http://www.accountancyage.com/aa/analysis/2264380/audit-reforms-nudge-in-right-direction-but-leave-many-unsatisifed

What’s Wrong with Internal Audit?

http://businessfinancemag.com/blog/whats-wrong-internal-audit

Competition questions over mandatory audit tendering - 22 Jul 2013 - Accountancy Age

http://www.accountancyage.com/aa/news/2283982/competition-questions-over-mandatory-audit-tendering

Auditing firm rotation, financial reporting and independence

Making it mandatory for audit firms to rotate is one of the measures regulators around the world are looking with the intention of improving the independence, objectivity and professional scepticism of auditors.

While we agree these attributes are at the heart of the audit profession, we (along with many other players and observers) believe that mandatory audit firm rotation is likely to reduce – not improve – the quality of audits and the reliability of financial reporting. Not only would such measures add cost and complexity to audits, we believe they would actually undermine some of the recent reforms — such as enhanced audit committee oversight over the relationship between company and auditor — that have improved audit quality.

See full Summary: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/audit-services/publications/regulatory-debate/mandatory-firm-rotation.jhtml

The Changing Face of Financial Reporting and Auditing

Top 10 Audit Pitfalls and How to Address Them

Follow these tips to survive a VAT and indirect tax audit.

Indirect tax, also known around the world as transaction tax, value added tax (VAT), goods and services tax (GST) or sales & use tax, is one of the top revenue sources for local and national governments worldwide. With many governments still struggling to address massive budget shortfalls, it is not surprising that they are tinkering with indirect tax rules in order to extract more revenue. As a result, the sheer number and variety of indirect tax changes are on the rise.

What does this mean for businesses chartered with collecting these taxes on behalf of government?

See full Article: http://businessfinancemag.com/tax-amp-accounting/top-10-audit-pitfalls-and-how-address-them

Internal Audit in the New Business Environment

Introduction

United States (US) public companies are navigating new reporting and monitoring demands arising from new regulation and societal trends. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and the apparent conversion of US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have created reporting issues for US companies. In addition, an ever-increasing environmentally conscious investor group has raised the demand for sustainability metrics and the recent financial crisis has led many companies to develop more elaborate enterprise risk management (ERM) practices.

Structured interviews with Chief Audit Executives (CAEs) of 11 large publicly traded companies (average revenues of $4.92 billion) with offices in Northeast Ohio were conducted to provide insight to these changes. The CAEs are well-seasoned professionals with an average of 19.2 years’ intenal audit experience. The internal audit staffs ranged from three to 80 individuals, with an average of 15.5. These individuals are leading professionals in internal auditing. Their opinions and insight are consolidated and summarized in this article to be useful to management as they consider the direction and scope of their company’s internal audit function, to internal auditors as they assess their role in the current business landscape, and to academics as they discern emerging business trends and challenges.

See full Article: http://www.accountancy.com.pk/articles.asp?id=206

Competition questions over mandatory audit tendering

FORCING AUDITORS to bid for the work of Britain's largest businesses every five years may not result in a more competitive market, according to members of the profession.

The requirement is one of a series of measures introduced by the Competition Commission to shake-up the FTSE 350 audit market, encourage more rivalry between the firms and improve the quality and transparency of the market.

Though some of the measures, such as the prohibition of Big Four-only clauses in loan documentation, were universally welcomed, the decision to halve the FRC's recently introduced ten year retendering period to five years was met with disapproval.

See full Article: http://www.accountancyage.com/aa/news/2283982/competition-questions-over-mandatory-audit-tendering

GAAR panel membership announced

THE COMPOSITION of the General Anti-Abuse Rule advisory panel has been revealed, after a six-week recruitment process.

Patrick Mears, former partner and head of tax at law firm Allen & Overy, heads the panel and led the search for members, appointing six successful candidates to fill the voluntary roles.

See full Details: http://www.accountancyage.com/aa/news/2283947/gaar-panel-membership-announced

Audit market competition plans unveiled

Major UK-listed companies must allow accountancy firms to bid for their audit work every five years, the Competition Commission has proposed.

It said that putting the work out to tender regularly would help to break up the dominance of the big four accountancy firms.

The commission stopped short of forcing companies to change auditors.

See full Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23401930

Will Big Four auditors become more powerful?

Company audits are the first line of defence for investors (any of us saving for a pension) against the management of businesses providing a rose-tinted view of their financial performance.

Those audits failed spectacularly to put up red flags of imminent danger for the big banks which collapsed in 2007 and 2008.

That failure was of course spectacularly expensive for everyone, and not just investors.

See full Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23403382

Governance, transparency and the audit committee

Audit committees matter. As the representatives of shareholders, they are critical to the integrity and the quality of the audit. In those countries where audit committees have the authority and responsibility to oversee final preparation of the financial statements and the audit, quality has improved measurably.

Providing more and better information to audit committees on a consistent basis will not only make them more effective, it will also help their decision-making around whether the audit firm should be reappointed. We believe there should be more transparent reporting by audit committees to give regulators, investors and the market more insight into both the audit and the appointment of the company’s auditors.

See full Summary: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/audit-services/publications/regulatory-debate/governance-transparency.jhtml

Deloitte: Auditor voices and views from the European Union

IASPlus