Indiana Tax Return processing

This just in from the Indiana Department of Revenue:

The individuals who sent in their tax returns and checks after the April 18 deadline will not have their checks processed until June 1 (at the earliest). The DOR apparently had over 500,000 returns sent after the April 18 deadline.

If you are among them and you were worried that your check had not been cashed, don't fret. They just have not gone around to processing it. Then again, it would help if you send in the return before the deadline next year.

Update on IFRS Presentation

Well, I finally got the chance to present what I learned about IFRS to my boss and her boss. This was my first presentation since graduating from my business degree, so of course I was a little nervous. Fortunately, it was just a presentation to 2 people. If often do better in small groups than big groups.

Overall, I think my message was well-received and the plan is to have me give another update in another 6 months or so. By then, the SEC will probably have made a more clear-cut decision of whether or not to adopt the IFRS laws. Before that happens, I should probably join "Toastmasters" and learn to give effective presentations!

 

Business Development Skill Builders for young CPA's

I just spent my whole Sunday afternoon working on a Power Point presentation about the IFRS update in the U.S., which I need to present at work on Wednesday. I had forgotten how time consuming making these presentations really can be. The last time I did something like this and got accreditation for it was back in school when we had to make various class presentations in Financial Accounting, Management Accounting, and other courses. Once I started working, I never once had to make a presentation. And you know what they say when you don't use certain skills - you often lose them.

There is an article in the Journal of Accountancy that specifically talks about this. According to the article entitled, Business Development Skill Builders for Young CPAs.When young CPA's like me start new jobs and are at the lowest rung of the corporate ladder, very rarely do we develop these business development skills that include presentations. We do need to be encouraged to continue honing the soft skills that we learned in school. That way, we can definitely be the true leaders of tomorrow.

Anyway, hopefully, the presentation will go well on Wednesday (fingers crossed)!

The IFRS Condorsement/Convergence idea

I just finished an 8 hour CPE course on the IFRS (pronounced I-F-R-S or I-Fers) on Monday. The first thing we learned was that in 5 years, there likely will not be US GAAP standards for US companies to follow. It is just fascinating how much uncertainty this whole IFRS Condorsement/Convergence idea has on companies. The SEC first sets a deadline for announcing whether the US will go with these International Standards by June 2011. Recently, however, there were a couple of kinks in some accounting standards projects between the IASB (International Accounting Standards Board) and the FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) that could lead to another delay in the announcement.

The US is currently one of the last few countries that have not yet decided to go with IFRS. Many US companies are on the fence about whether to do early adoption, or to wait until the SEC gives the final go-ahead.  Canada (the nation up north and where I am originally from) decided to go live on 01/01/2011. It is so far only for Canadian public companies, but I have no doubt that private firms will shortly be encouraged to follow.  The US does quite a bit of business with Canada and other countries who are currently adopting, so I thought this would be an easy decision.  Certainly this would be a complete makeover in financial reporting as we know it. However, if we start early in  its preparation, I think the outcome would be pretty successful.

Let's just make a decision already and see it through.