GASB proposal on Statement of Financial position

The deadline for comments on the exposure draft is Feb 2011 http://www.accountingeducation.com/index.cfm?page=newsdetails&id=151318

How did states fare

through 2009 http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2010/11/state_growth_rates

IRS mini course in

990s http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=212597,00.html

Comments on 990 requirements from

a private school's perspective  http://chronicle.com/article/The-New-990-More-Data-More/125376/

AICPA State and Local Group experts comment

on GASB pension considerations http://www.aicpa.org/InterestAreas/AccountingAndAuditing/Resources/AcctgFinRptg/AcctgFinRptgAdvocacy/DownloadableDocuments/FINAL_Pensions_PV_Letter.pdf

Treasury Steps to implement Dodd Frank

are outlined here http://www.advisorone.com/article/deputy-secretary-wolin-outlines-treasurys-steps-implementing-dodd-frank

Public sector corruption

studied in this Transparency International 2010 survey.  The surveys look at different aspects of corruption each year - this year it's looking at public sector.  A link within the article will take you to the Transparency International site.  The article itself is from the Economist.http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/10/corruption_perceptions

small business opportunities

in government - from the business.gov newsletter http://community2.business.gov/t5/The-Industry-Word/Top-5-Small-Business-Opportunities-in-Government-for-2011/ba-p/40750?cm_mmc=GovDelivery-_-102710-_-weekly-_-community

An archived yellow book webinar update

included a powerpoint and handout.  http://www.aicpa.org/InterestAreas/GovernmentalAuditQuality/Resources/Pages/WhatYouNeedtoKnowAboutthe2010YBED%E2%80%93MemberWebEvent.aspx

Giving USA Foundation had a somewhat lower % decline

reported than The Philanthropy Report, but Giving USA includes private foundations and smaller charitieshttp://www.aafrc.org/press_releases/gusa/gusa060910.pdf

Donations drop 11% for nonprofits

at least for the biggest charities, according to this report from the Chronicle of Philanthropy.http://philanthropy.com/article/A-Sharp-Donation-Drop-at-Big/125004/

High government debt

needs to be defused.  See this Wall Street Journal article.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304741404575564133687036768.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_t

City and state pensions are in trouble

according to a study done at Northwestern http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/801-economy/123905-new-study-shows-the-dire-state-of-pensions

An overview of the Form 990 EZ

This 19 slide audio material is available from the IRS.  Users will probably want to have hard copy of the form and schedules available for viewing as they listen to this audio course  http://www.stayexempt.irs.gov/Mini-Courses/An_Overview_of_the_Form_990-EZ/an_overview_of_the_form_990-ez.aspx

IRS mini course in

Applying for tax exempt status http://www.stayexempt.org/Mini-Courses/Applying_for_Tax_Exempt-An_Overview/applying-for-tax-exempt-organizations.aspx

A survey ranking of the 50 States

all 50 are out here ranked by various criteria, including debt per capita, unemployment, median household income, fiscal governance, and other factors.   There are a couple surprises out there.  http://247wallst.com/2010/10/04/the-best-and-worst-run-states-in-america-a-survey-of-all-fifty/

Bond sales hit the highest in ten months

States and local governments are ready to issue about $13 billion in municipal bonds this week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The glut of supply is forcing issuers to raise yields to attract buyers.  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-05/muni-bond-sales-reach-10-month-high-as-new-york-state-borrows-1-4-billion.html

Should GASB help the public

see the truth about pension obligations?   This author thinks so.  http://accounting.smartpros.com/x70540.xml

Some states tax revenues up

30 out of 47 show increases http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20100903/FREE/100909967

Form 990 in Public Eye

It not only points to what the Internal Revenue Service expects, but also to best practices for tax-exempt organizations.  See this Journal of Accountancy Articl Sept 2010  http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2010/Sep/20102725.htm

Unemployment rates for the states

Per USA today, some good news and some bad news http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-08-20-state-unemployment-july_N.htm

Some states try to boost with amnesty revenue

This BKD alert summarizes seven states with current amnesty periods for certain taxes due.   http://www.bkd.com/media/articles/advisor/2010/2010-08alertsTX-2.htm

GAO proposing changes to yellow book

this would be the 6th revision since 1972.  The exposure draft (210 page document) contains  a letter at the beginning that summarizes the audit standard uchanges known as GAGAS.  The changes include those made in recent years in  the auditing profession as well as special considerations necessary for a government environment.  The most significant proposed change in the draft surrounds independence issues - GAO is taking a stronger stand on this matter, limiting what auditor can do.  The draft is located  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10853g.pdf.  The comment period closes 11/22/2010.  The yellow book webpage with the existing version and other yellow bookmaterilas is located at http://www.gao.gov/govaud/ybk01.htm

Highest state income tax rates

in pictures and with words  Make sure you click on the count-down with pictures of the top ten, and notice right under the picture that they show the rates and the amounts.  Bill Gates's father is involved in the debate about taxxing the wealthy.  http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/19/tax-rich-bill-gates-personal-finance-highest-state-income-tax-rates-2010.html

New Jersey didn't have all disclosures

New Jersey recently settled a claim from the SEC that the state failed to disclose to bond investors that it didn't properly fund two of its pension plans when it issued bonds from 2001 to 2007. Likely more lawsuits in crackdowns to come  http://accounting.smartpros.com/x70295.xml

Long term debt - the real problem

This CNN article  http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/19/news/economy/long_term_debt/index.htm

Business.gov or the newer website

Update Jan 2011 with links that direct to a newer website  http://www.sba.gov/community  

original post: This is not so much about governmental accounting topics, but about business and government.  This community has different forums that may be of interest.  From  "Starting and registering a business" to "government contracting" there is a supportive community. http://community2.business.gov/ 
This community forum is a part of the larger site of a division of the small business administration.  http://www.business.gov/  also has resources and a weekly newsletter you can sign up for.

States who don't tax income

are listed herein  http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20100808/REG/308089976

Great Nonprofits

http://greatnonprofits.org/

States sink in benefits hole

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704398804575071873547372514.html?mod=djem_jiewr_AC_domainid  From the Wall Street Journal Feb 2010

Federal Budget Deficit

http://accounting.smartpros.com/x70034.xml   1 trillion and counting.....

Better government website

http://www.bettergov.org/
the Better Government Association (BGA) is a non-partisan Chicago-based watchdog group with the mission to "combat waste, fraud and corruption in city, county, suburban and state government." The "Government Payroll Database" section midway down the homepage, allows visitors to check out the paychecks of Illinois public officials.

Single audit applicable to funds from the

Financial Recovery Act.  This AICPA article is a nice summary of the issues that may be relevant to organizations that never had to worry about the Single Audit Act before.  Also check out the links at the bottom of that page to other governmenal audit resources.  A few of the links are to subscription only, but not all.  There are some informative powerpoint slideshows related to webcasts that you can link to. http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2010/Jun/20092145.htm

A guide to charitable giving

http://www.charitynavigator.org/
This web site gathers data on nonprofits and reports various top 10 lists.  Some of the lists you would want to be on, others you would not.  Check out your favorite charity.  Very easy site to peruse.

Do you have your $42,000 to pay down your share of the national debt?

The United States hit 13 trillion dollars in the red...Check out this Smart Pros article that helps disseminate the bad news

http://accounting.smartpros.com/x69706.xml

NFP white paper issued by Grant Thornton

that helps explain the appropriate balance of reserves to retain within the organization to balance the multiple objectives.  http://www.gt.com/portal/site/gtcom/menuitem.91c078ed5c0ef4ca80cd8710033841ca/?vgnextoid=fc46f802382b8210VgnVCM1000003a8314acRCRD&vgnextfmt=default

GASB proposed pension reform will get some attention

http://accounting.smartpros.com/x69680.xml   To have government underfunded pensions be looked at more realistically, some recommendations have been made

The States who file but may not have to pay income tax

http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/26336.html

I thought this map was interesting showing the data on the 50 states, as to who files, but may not have a tax liability.

State and local governments shifting to selling taxable bonds

http://www.bondbuyer.com/issues/119_352/monthly_muni_volume-1012894-1.html
While this article in the Bond Buyer newspaper indicates May was the fourth heaviest bond issuance for May since the information has been tracked, it also has some complexities as governments are shifting their financing somewhat to non-tax exempt issuances.  Read to see why this is happening

Should nonprofits help fill state's budget gap?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127092795
NPR article proposes fees.

Nonprofits had better file the forms

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=222668,00.html
Tax exempt organization must file 990 or lose their tax exempt status See the attached guidance.

Ten Thousand Commandments of Federal Regulation

So ten were not enough. http://cei.org/10kc
This synopsis was provided by Accounting Education News at accountingeducation.com

The costs of federal regulations often exceed the benefits, yet receive little official scrutiny from Congress. The report urges Congress to step up and take responsibility as lawmakers to review and roll back economically harmful regulations. “Rolling back regulations would constitute the deregulatory stimulus that the U.S. economy needs,” said Crews.

Among the report’s findings: • 3,503 new regulations took effect last year. The burden of government is heavier than ever. • How much does government cost? Government is spending $3.518 trillion of our money and imposing another $1.187 trillion dollars in the form of regulatory compliance costs. • How much of our economic output should be eaten by regulatory costs? Regulatory costs now absorb 8.3 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. • What's the federal government's total share of the economy? Regulations + spending combined puts the federal government's share of the economy at over 30 percent. • Regulations cost more than the income tax. • New rules that cost at least $100 million increased by 13 percent between 2007 and 2008.

The report urges reforms to make the regulatory costs more transparent and accountable to the people, including annual “report cards” on regulatory costs and benefits, and congressional votes on significant agency rules before they become binding.

Tim Berners Lee commenting

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8572809.stm
about government data transparency. Countries should be judged on their willingness to open up public data to their citizens, the inventor of the world wide web has told the BBC. author is Chris Vallance

Site for nonprofit information

http://www.usa.gov/Business/Nonprofit.shtml

Stanford Social Iinnovation

http://www.ssireview.org/
A nonprofit and foundation-oriented periodical with strategies, tools, and ideas

CBO warns of deficits

Congressional budget warns of huge budget deficitis in this Time article that has links to other relevant materials about the federal situation.
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1958671,00.html

Illinois searches foreign buyers to support pension debt

It appears that this is aimed to institutional investors....and the debt is taxable, not tax exempt.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=munievents&sid=ah3FJPW4QXG8

New data sets available

for the public are now open, aiding increased transparency http://www.data.gov/

Illinois pension woes

This article is describing the vast underfunded Illinois pension system.

http://illinoisissues.uis.edu/archives/2010/02/pension.html

Combat fraud, waste and abuse

http://fmcenter.aicpa.org/NR/rdonlyres/4549A0AA-E3C2-4F84-9D32-14C06EBF0AA9/0/GovtAcctBriefDec09linked.pdf

AICPA publishes a brief on internal controls for government. Notice that the sidebar of this pdf file also has links to other resources.