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Accounting Regulatory Bodies

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Accounting Regulatory Bodies
University of Phoenix
Principles of Accounting
ACC/300

Financial accounting is necessary for managers to make educated decisions for future operations based on accurate company financial data. The company’s accountants also prepare financial reports on a regular basis to provide company financial information and performance to external audiences such as investors, creditors, and auditors. These reports must conform to the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) which were put in place by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and enforced by several other agencies. This paper will discuss some of these regulatory bodies and how a company must comply with these agencies.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other regulatory bodies set accounting standards and requirements for accounting reporting frequency and presentation.

The SEC was created in during the great depression in 1934 following the stock market crash in 1929.The SEC was initially created to regulate the stock market and prevent large corporations from abusing the sale and reporting of stocks. The SEC enforces seven major laws that govern the trading industry: the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Trust Indenture Act of 1939, the Investment Company Act of 1940, the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and most recently, the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act of 2006 (Wikipedia, 2009).

Another regulatory body whose primary purpose is to develop the generally accepted accounting principles is the FASB. The FASB is a private not-for-profit organization and was designated by the SEC to create and enforce the rules and regulations of the GAAP. The FASB replaced the Committee on Accounting Procedure (CAP) and the Accounting Principles Board (APB) of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) which was created in 1957 and was in operation under different names as far back as 1887 (Wikipedia, 2009).

The GASB is similar in operation to the FASB in that the agency can also develop GAAP policies and procedures that apply to state and local government agencies. The mission of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board is to establish and improve standards of state and local governmental accounting and financial reporting that will result in useful information for users of financial reports and guide and educate the public, including issuers, auditors, and users of those financial reports (GASB, 2009).

Finally the IRS is charged with collecting taxes and enforcing internal revenue laws established by the government. The IRS was created in 1862 by President Lincoln and congress during the civil war to fund the war expenses. Each company must file a tax return with the IRS on a quarterly basis according to GAAP policies. In 2006 the IRS collected more than $2.2 trillion dollars in taxes from businesses and individuals. The functions of the IRS are to identify the taxpayer, assess the taxpayer to tax, collect the tax and penalties assessed, and pay all amounts collected into the consolidated fund (IRS, 2009).

References

GASB, (2009). GASB.org, Retrieved May 9, 2009 from: www.gasb.org

IRS, (2009). IRS.gov, Retrieved May 9, 2009 from: www.irs.gov

Wikipedia, (2009). Wikipedia.com, Retrieved May 9, 2009 from: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEC

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