Search Results for: accountancy

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels, and KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Commission official has told Accountancy Age that the ‘high level tax group’ set up to consider the implications of the Marks & Spencer tax case may be just “gesture politics”, given the difficulties of making reforms to the European Union’s (EU) court system.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has made the case for governments and inter-governmental organisations increasing their influence over cross-border accountancy bodies, such as the International Accounts Standards Board (IASB). In a green paper on financial services, Brussels said that “the debate about the future governance, funding and political accountability of global standard-setting bodies….are…

BY ALAN OSBORN
SUDDENLY accountants are being held in unusually high esteem and it’s all because of their work in connection with the relief effort for victims of the Boxing Day tsunami. To date some Pounds 4.7 billion for the stricken countries has been raised worldwide but nothing like that sum has yet got through to the people affected; some of it stolen perhaps and some of it wasted, but a lot of it bogged down in inadequate financial infrastructures: step forward the big multinational accountancy firms who have provided staff, management and professional advice and training, a good deal of it on a pro bono publico basis.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission is expected to investigate the professional indemnity insurance market in the UK as part of a wider look into the business insurance sector, Commission officials have confirmed. The investigation has been ordered by Neelie Kroes, the EU competition commissioner, and is expected to begin in June.…

Keith Nuthall
IT is good to know that Accountancy Age is required reading for European Commissioners, even when researching jokes for their usually dry speeches. Administrative affairs Commissioner Siim Kallas shamelessly plundered our wry linking of his job title with the ministerial moniker of Yes Minister’s hapless Jim Hacker.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Accountants Federation (FEE) is assessing moves at the European Union (EU) to pass legislation that reflects some of the changes made in the USA under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The FEE is preparing a position paper on the EU’s 8th company law directive, which is primarily concerned with auditing issues, but, said a spokesman, is “not exactly equivalent to section 404 of the SO Act because it doesn’t require an audited statement regarding the internal control of the company”.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE BRUSSELS whistle-blower Marta Andreasen, who was sacked late last year as chief accountant of the European Commission two years after exposing serious weaknesses in its accounting system, has been rebuffed by MEPs in her attempts to find a job with the European Parliament (EP).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INTERNATIONAL accountancy firms will be closely monitoring next week’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Hong Kong for signs that the WTO’s long-running Doha Development Round talks are about to crack open national accounting and auditing markets. Progress in refreshing the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) has been sluggish since talks began in 2000, one year ahead of the general round, with few trade-offs being offered in bilateral exchanges.…

Keith Nuthall
THE LATEST government debt figures from European Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat shows that Italy and Greece have a long way to go before breathing easy over their governments’ indebtedness. Under the Growth and Stability Pact underpinning the value of the Euro, any country using the currency with debt exceeding 60% of GDP must ensure they are steadily moving towards the black.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has released formal requests to World Trade Organisation (WTO) member countries to liberalise their services sectors, including accountancy, under the Doha Development Round. Financial services are explicitly mentioned in these bilateral demands, addressed directly to all 103 WTO member governments.…