Here’s one of the stranger recent entries from the annals of internal control breakdown, as reported by the New York Times: Macy’s said on Monday that an employee had “intentionally” misstated and hidden up to $154 million in delivery expenses over the past few years, forcing the retailer to delay a much-anticipated earnings report that…

Here’s another fact pattern recently discussed by Canada’s IFRS Accounting Standards Discussion Group: A Company owns and manages forests for the primary purpose of harvesting trees for timber. The Company determined that by reducing its harvest levels by 10 per cent, it could develop carbon credits and sell them in the voluntary market for a…

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) recently published a biennial report on its Continuous Disclosure Review Program, providing an overview of results and highlighting key findings and outcomes over the past two fiscal years. Most of the contents are familiar (some of them, like “issuers not providing issuer-specific details or sufficient contextual information to enable investors to understand…

The IASB recently announced “the start of a research project to review and improve the requirements for the statement of cash flows and related matters in IFRS Accounting Standards.” This is in response to feedback during the IASB’s most recent agenda consultation, with investors, companies and others identifying this area as a high priority. The…

“CPA Canada takes PM to task over remarks on accountants,” announced a recent release. It’s worth reproducing the entire bulletin here: In the wake of the criticism over the Budget 2024 propose to increase the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused wealthy Canadians of “using accountants” to reduce their tax payments. In a…

“IASB review concludes the revenue Standard is working as intended,” announces a recent news release. This announced the publication of the Project Summary and Feedback Statement relating to the Post-Implementation review of IFRS 15. These are the headline conclusions: there are no fundamental questions (fatal flaws) about the clarity or suitability of the core objectives…

As we addressed here, the Canadian Sustainability Standards Board issued for comment its first two proposed standards. These are proposed Canadian Sustainability Disclosure Standard (CSDS) 1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information  and CSDS 2 Climate-related Disclosures, built on the pre-existing IFRS S1 and S2; the CSSB didn’t propose any major changes to…

CPA Ontario recently issued Trust in New Frontiers: Putting AI Governance into Practice. The foreword states: “The question of trust is at the heart of the debate surrounding artificial intelligence and its impact. And as the use of AI becomes even more commonplace in business and society, that question of trust is also at the…

This is from a recent Globe and Mail opinion piece by Douglas Sarro, a securities law professor at the University of Ottawa: An upcoming Supreme Court of Canada case deals with public companies’ obligation to immediately disclose material changes that occur within their business rather than waiting until their next financial quarter to tell investors…

The IASB recently issued the exposure draft Equity Method of Accounting—IAS 28 Investments in Associates and Joint Ventures. This flows from a decision to not to undertake a fundamental review of the equity method. As set out in the basis for conclusions: “The IASB noted that the equity method is well established and fundamental changes would…