Intheblack back issues from February 2008:
Year of the Rat brings a wider view
Feb 01, 2008; ... I AM EXCITED ABOUT THIS NEW YEAR - 2008 according to the Gregorian (Western) calendar; 4706 according to the Chinese calendar (and Year of the Rat as of 7 February); and the 123rd year in CPA Australia's history. I'd like it to become our "Year of the Wider View". The new board has met ...
Feedback
Feb 01, 2008; ... LETTER OF THE MONTH Skills that don't thrill As a CPA with over 20 years' experience in public practice, I wonder what fellow members think of the so called "skills crisis". I am aware that there is little CPA Australia can do to rectify the problem but, nevertheless, I do think ...
Life not so sweet for repatriates
Feb 01, 2008; ... LIFE AFTER AN OVERSEAS ASSIGNMENT can be a sobering experience for some returning expatriates, according to an International survey of those who have returned home from company-initiated international assignments. The survey, contributed to by CPA Australia members, found that many ...
The transition mission for mature-age members
Feb 01, 2008; ... AS PART OF CPA AUSTRALIA'S mature-age initiative, a new workshop is being offered to support members who are in career transition to explore their work options. Given the current skills shortage in a number of industries, opportunities exist for CPAs who wish to continue working in a ...
Women get on board
Feb 01, 2008; ... THE STALLED EFFORTS OF WOMEN to gain their place at the boardroom table, which was featured in the article "Get on board" in the December 07 edition of INTHEBLACK, was the impetus behind a major new initiative launched by the Western Australia division in August last year. The inaugural ...
Advocacy update
Feb 01, 2008; ... CPA AUSTRALIA CEO GEOFF RANKIN FCPA REPORTS ON ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT ON BEHALF OF MEMBERS CPA Australia remains committed to working with governments and their agencies to ensure current and future economic and social policies foster productive capacity and secure sustainable growth ....
Develop your QuickBooks knowledge
Feb 01, 2008; ... CPA AUSTRALIA IS PARTNERING WITH Quicken to offer a training program in 2008: QuickBooks Certificate for Accountants. The program is designed to give accountants a thorough knowledge of the QuickBooks system and the course will be focusing on the key functions needed when working with clients ...
The Job: Managing director
Feb 01, 2008; ... ROBERT KHAW CPA OVERSEES ALL ASPECTS OF ISTHMUS, KL RESTAURANT Q. What can you tell us about the restaurant? We chose the name Isthmus, KL to reflect the cuisine we are creating. An isthmus is a geographical term for a bridge linking two land masses across a body of water. Often ...
The elephant in the room
Feb 01, 2008; ... ECONOMIC OUTLOOK ... PETER PONTIKIS FCPA SAYS IGNORE INDIA AT YOUR PERIL THE RESURGENCE OF ASIA'S economies since the dark days of the regional financial crisis of the late 1990s has been signalled by the reawakening of the Chinese economy after a long absence from the global ...
2008 divisional and branch AGMs
Feb 01, 2008; ... All members are invited to attend the Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held in their divisions. Australian Capital Territory 18 March at 6pm 161 London Circuit, Canberra Contact: Matt Hailes Ph: (02) 6267 8585 New South Wales 19 March at ...
In the headlines
Feb 01, 2008; ... A SELECTION OF CFA AUSTRALIA'S MEDIA MENTIONS Confidence in corporate reporting CPA Australia's annual Confidence in Corporate Reporting survey attracted strong media interest. Coverage included The Australian Financial Review, The Age, Courler Mail, Hobart Mercury, Investor ...
Vale Sir Charles Court
Feb 01, 2008; ... ONE OF CPA AUSTRALIA'S OLDEST members, Sir Charles Court FCPA, has died at the age of 96. A former Western Australian premier, he had a major impact on the state's industrial development. Tributes have flowed in, many of them referring to Sir Charles as a leader and a visionary. They ...
Excel Yourself
Feb 01, 2008; ... NEALE BLACKWOOD SHOWS HOW TO CONNECT NOTES WITH CHARTS Q: I use text boxes to put notes onto charts. But If move the chart the text boxes dont move with it. Is there an easy way to achieve this? A: There are a couple of solutions to this problem. The first uses the Ctrl key to ...
Webwatch
Feb 01, 2008; ... RICHARD BAJRASZEWSKI FROM THE CPA LIBRARY INVESTIGATES WEB COLLABORATION Knowledge networks Social media and user-generated content are two of the buzz phrases of Web 2.0. The ideas behind online collaboration that inform open source software and services such as Wikipedia and ...
Taking stock
Feb 01, 2008; ... At 69, when many CPAs are relishing retirement, Loh Hoon Sun FCPA is still in the thick of business life as managing director of Singapore-based Phillip Securities. The retirement age in Singapore is 62, soon rising to 64 because of the skills shortage. But this will still make Loh five years ...
Cool Customers
Feb 01, 2008; ... THE GROWING CHINESE CONSUMER GOODS MARKET MAY GIVE US THE GREATEST LESSONS ABOUT UNDERSTANDING THE CUSTOMER Knowing your customer is essential to the success of any business enterprise. China is the market that many multinationals are concentrating on. So how does one begin to understand ...
BOOM towns rock
Feb 01, 2008; ... THE MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORLD ECONOMIC POWERHOUSE CHINA AND RESOURCE-RICH AUSTRALIA-STILL HAS A LONG WAY TO GO Wandering through a construction site in the southern Chinese boom town of Shenzhen, where yet another factory is being built, the dizzying statistics ...
A bounty awaits
Feb 01, 2008; ... THE RAPID GROWTH OF ASIA'S MIDDLE CLASS OFFERS ENORMOUS POTENTIAL FOR FINANCIAL PLANNING IN THE REGION A run Abey, executive chairman of Australianbased financial planning group ipac securities, takes what initially seems a surprising tactic. He encourages competing Australian firms to ...
Alternate worlds
Feb 01, 2008; ... PLENTY OF SMEs ARE SEEING THE UPSIDE OF ALTERNATIVE LISTING IN INTERNATIONAL MARKETS When the Sydney-based wave-energy producer Oceanlinx needed to raise money to bring its new technology into commercial production, it had little hesitation in heading to the Alternative Investment Market ...
Shiny happy people
Feb 01, 2008; ... IN A WORLDWIDE SKILLS SHORTAGE IT'S IMPORTANT TO KEEP YOUR STAFF HAPPY. CONTENTED WORKERS TEND NOT TO MOVE TO GREENER PASTURES Hi-tech company Google has become famous, not only for its popular search engine, but as a coveted workplace of choice. It offers leading-edge technology for ...
Always switched on
Feb 01, 2008; ... UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS PRODUCTS ARE FINDING A PLACE IN BUSINESSES THAT NEED TO MAINTAIN AN "ALWAYS ON" COMMUNICATIONS PRESENCE Internet-based communications have come a long way since they started as simple data services such as web surfing and email. Now the same underlying network that ...
SEC set to close GAAP
Feb 01, 2008; ... THE US SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE Commission (SEC) has removed the requirement for non-US companies reporting under IFRS to reconcile their financial statements to US GAAP. The change was prompted by the record number of US investors who own securities in foreign companies and the need for ...
Survey calls for risk disclosure
Feb 01, 2008; ... There's strong support among business professionals and the Australian public for companies to be required to disclose all material business risks, according to CPA Australia's Confidence in Corporate Reporting 2007. The survey asked Australians - including shareholders, business ...
A revamp for internal audit
Feb 01, 2008; ... Internal auditor leaders must adopt a risk-centric mindset if they aspire to be key players In assurance and risk management, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Two reports from PwC -Internal Audit 2012 and Internal Audit 2012-Asia Pacific Supplement identify trends that will ...
Greenhouse and energy reporting
Feb 01, 2008; ... CPA Australia welcomes the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System Regulations Discussion Paper issued by the Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Taskforce of the Australian Greenhouse Office. The proposed system is both a precursor to ...
Tax systems 'improving' one country at a time
Feb 01, 2008; ... A report co-published by the World Bank, the IFC and PwC claims that 65 economies around the world "improved" their business tax systems over the past three years. While reducing corporate income tax was seen as the most popular reform - implemented by 27 countries - many sovereignties ...
A return to safer lending practices
Feb 01, 2008; ... Treasury: PETER PONTIKIS FCPA INVESTIGATES HOW CENTRAL BANKS RESPONDED TO THE SUB-PRIME CRISIS THAT ERUPTED IN THE USA LAST YEAR WHEN THE SUB-PRIME CRISIS AROSE last year, the response by the world's premier central banks was almost immediate. The Bank of England bailed out ...
Offshore and out of line
Feb 01, 2008; ... Ethical dilemma: COMPANIES THAT SEEK OUT TAX HAVENS VIOLATE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL AND CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY, WRITES TIINA-LIISA SEXTON Dilemma: The managing director has approached you regarding the transfer of some of your company's business activities offshore to a known tax haven. He ...
Learn to love your super
Feb 01, 2008; ... Superannuation: CPA AUSTRALIA IS REACHING OUT TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC TO BECOME MORE ENGAGED WITH THEIR SUPER, WRITE MICHAEL DAVISON AND RELL HANNAH THE SUPERANNUATION AGE IS UPON us. Thanks to successive reforms since the eariy 1990s, most Australians have a long-term compulsory savings ...
A blueprint for the future
Feb 01, 2008; ... SME succession planning: WELL-CONCEIVED AND EXECUTED SUCCESSION PLANNING PROVIDES OWNERS WITH A MEANS OF CONTROLLING THEIR OWN FUTURE - AS WELL AS THAT OF THE BUSINESS, WRITE JAMES BECK AND ANDREW RODGERS DOES YOUR ORGANISATION HAVE more than 10 staff or annual revenue of more than $5 ...
Turning up the heat on tax havens
Feb 01, 2008; ... TAX: THE TAX OFFICE IS USING INCREASINGLY SOPHISTICATED TOOLS TO TRACK TAX EVADERS, SAYS JENNIE GRANGER LAST FINANCIAL YEAR AROUND $5.1 billion left Australian shores for tax havens. While this figure may not seem significant when compared with the total flow of funds from Australia to ...
Bring tax law into the 21st century
Feb 01, 2008; ... Taxing times: ROBERT RICHARDS TACKLES THE TAX OFFICE ABOUT TWO FOOTBALLERS' CASES; WONDERS WHY ENGINEERS CAN'T CLAIM THEIR TOOLS; AND LOOKS AT THE CASE OF A CASINO AND ITS LESSOR THE HIGH COURT DECIDED THE CASE Maddalena v FC of T (31 August 1971) in the days when the High Court was not ...
Engineers alienated in personal income tax
Feb 01, 2008; ... I LOOKED AT THE RULES PREVENTING people splitting personal services income and the "results test" in INTHEBLACK October 2007 pp67-68). In particular, I examined a decision of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Skiba v FC of T (Administrative Appeals Tribunal, 27 August 2007). Since then ...
Prepayments and part IVA
Feb 01, 2008; ... AS I INDICATED IN THE NOVEMBER 2007 issue of INTHEBLACK (pp67-68) taxpayers' experiences with Part IVA (the general anti-tax-avoidance rules contained within the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936) have generally not been pleasant. I placed most of the blame for this on those Western Australian ...
Unforeseen outcomes at a cost
Feb 01, 2008; ... Audit debate: THE FALLOUT OF REFORMS TO THE AUDIT PROFESSION BROUGHT ABOUT BY CLERP 9 HAVE BEEN CONSIDERABLE. BUT OPINION DIFFERS AS TO THEIR OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS IN THE RED CORNER: Dianne Azoor Hughes THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THE legislative reform levied on auditors was to ...
"These changes have altered the audit landscape"
Feb 01, 2008; ... IN THE BLUE CORNER: Jennifer O'Donnell GLOBALLY, THE AUDITING PROFESSION has undergone significant change over the past five years. After a number of high-profile corporate collapses, new regulations and enhanced auditor oversight functions were introduced in a number of jurisdictions, ...
Airborne
Feb 01, 2008; ... A LOVE OF FLYING HELPS ANDREW HOHOLT CPA COMBINE BUSINESS AND PLEASURE It was while Andrew Hoholt CPA was driving to visit a client that he experienced an epiphany. Hoholt is director of the Hoholt Financial Group, which has offices located in Tamworth and Armidale in rural New South ...
The Future of Management
Feb 01, 2008; ... The Future of Management By Gary Hamel Harvard Business School Press, $44.95 Mob rule DEREK PARKER ENCOUNTERS NEW IDEAS ABOUT MANAGEMENT INCLUDING EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION Hamel likes to portray himself as a crusader. His past books, Leading the Revolution and Competing for ...
The Passionate Professional
Feb 01, 2008; ... The Passionate Professional By Linda Julian Julian Midwinter & Associates, $35, plus delivery Given the huge number of professional services firms In Australia, there is surprisingly little guidance available for them. Julian, a consultant who specialises in this area, alms to ...
Charting for Dummies
Feb 01, 2008; ... Charting for Dummies By Barbara Rockefeller, Ken Henderson, Larry Lovrencic, and Peter Pontikis Wiley, $39.95 Investing by the technical analysis of trends Is an Intrinsically complex process, and carries its own type of risk. This book does its best to put the subject in straightforward ...
The future now
Feb 01, 2008; ... OK, SO ITS PRICEY, BUT CHARLES WRIGHT DIGS A HANDTOP MARVEL (ProQuest: ... denotes text missing in the original.) It's a sizeable investment but think of it like this: the OQO e2 UltraMobile PC could put the future of computing in the palm of your hand. More accurately, perhaps, ...
Training and events
Feb 01, 2008; ... Tax update series Workshops 4 Claim up to CPD Hours per session Feb - Dec - Monthly NSW VIC QLD Quarterly ACT SA WA Apr/Jul/Oct - Quarterly Griffith, NSW Understand the latest changes in tax legislation and what they mean to you and your ...