Former Dutch minister picked as IASB chairman [FT]
“The head of the Dutch financial markets regulator has been given the politically sensitive job of running the body that sets the accounting rules followed in the European Union and an increasing number of other countries.
Hans Hoogervorst, a former Dutch finance minister, was on Tuesday named chairman of the London-based International Accounting Standards Board, which sets the IFRS accounting norms.
He will take on the job at the end of June 2011, succeeding Sir David Tweedie, the Scot who has occupied the post for a decade.
Mr Hoogervorst, chairman of the executive board of the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets, is not an accountant.”
I Can Afford Higher Taxes. But They’ll Make Me Work Less. [NYT]
Wherein we discover one more example of how tax cuts (or lack thereof) will affect someone.
Gap scraps new logo after online outcry [Reuters]
“GAP Inc scrapped a new logo on Monday just a week after launching it following an “outpouring of comments” online and from customers in support of the original blue box design it’s had for more than 20 years.
Gap rolled out an updated version of the logo last Monday on its website and planned to include it in its holiday marketing, a spokeswoman said.
But the company saw more than 2,000 comments on its Facebook page on the issue, with many people railing against the new logo and calling for a return to the old.”
Friday Is the Drop-Dead Date for Small Charities Wanting to Stay Tax-Exempt [Tax Update Blog]
You’ve been warned.
One Step Closer to Little GAAP [CFO]
“A blue-ribbon panel has recommended that a new set of accounting standards be drawn up for private companies based on U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. The panel also recommended that a private-company rulemaking board be established, separate from the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which currently writes and revises U.S. GAAP.
The details of how the rules will be developed — and how FASB and its parent organization, the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF), will be involved in the process — will be outlined in a report issued in December, said panel chair Rick Anderson, chairman and CEO of accounting firm Moss Adams, during the panel’s fourth and final public meeting on Friday. The final product, often dubbed “little GAAP,” will be a pared-down version of the full set of rules, requiring fewer disclosures and less-detailed measurements of some assets and liabilities.”
Wal-Mart Lands Agreement to Sell iPad [WSJ]
“Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it will start selling Apple Inc.’s iPad on Friday at hundreds of stores throughout the U.S.
Wal-Mart landed the tablet computer a little later than two of its largest retail rivals: Best Buy Co., which has been selling the iPad since its launch in April, and Target Corp., which began carrying it this month.
The Bentonville, Ark., retail giant said that what it lacked in timeliness it will make up for in sales heft. It vowed to slowly ramp up the number of U.S. stores carrying the iPad to more than 2,300 by the height of the holiday season in mid-November.
There will also be no Wal-Mart “rollback” price cut on the iPad: The tablets will sell for Apple’s suggested retail price, which starts at $499 for the cheapest version with 16 gigabytes of storage and wireless internet access but no 3G mobile connection.”
