Board Sets Participants, Agenda for Roundtable on Auditor Independence and Tax Services

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board today announced the participants in a July 14, 2004, roundtable meeting to discuss issues relating to tax services and auditor independence.

Participants include representatives from accounting firms, public companies, investors and regulators.

The meeting will be held from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Presidential Room at the Capital Hilton, at 1001 16th St., N.W., in Washington, D.C.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 authorized the PCAOB to establish rules and standards for auditor independence. In the exercise of its new responsibilities, the Board has determined that it is appropriate at this time to consider the impact of tax services on auditor independence. The purpose of this roundtable is to review existing tax services provided by auditors to public company audit clients and to discuss the effect, if any, these services have on auditor independence.

The roundtable will cover a number of topics, including whether an auditor's engagement to provide various types of tax services could affect the auditor's independence, and if there are any overarching principles that could provide guidance in considering the impact of these services on independence. In addition, the roundtable will discuss whether there are any specific factors that audit committees should consider in evaluating an engagement for an auditor to provide tax services, and whether any ethical issues are raised by auditors' involvement in certain tax services.

The meeting is open to the public and will be webcast at www.pcaobus.org. The auditor independence roundtable briefing paper is available under the Standards section of the PCAOB Web site.

The archived webcast of the roundtable can be found here.
 

Participants:

AFL-CIO
Damon Silvers
Associate General Counsel

American Bankers Association
Richard Angelone
Senior Vice President and Director of Corporate Tax

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Tom Ochsenschlager
Vice President of Taxation

CALPERS
Mark Anson
Chief Investment Officer

Chartered Financial Analyst Institute
Patricia Walters
Senior Vice President, Professional Standards & Advocacy

Colorado State University
Lynn Turner
Professor of Accounting

Consumer Federation of America
Barbara Roper
Director of Investor Protection

Council of Institutional Investors
Elliot Schwartz
Director of Research

Crowe Chizek and Company LLC
James L. Brown
Executive

Dean Uminski
Partner

Deloitte
Scott Bayless
Partner

Dixon Hughes
Walter McNairy
Partner

Ernst & Young LLP
Mark Weinberger
Vice Chair – Tax Services

Financial Executives International
Colleen Sayther
President & CEO

Goldstein Golub Kessler
Paul Koren
Partner

Internal Revenue Service
The Honorable Mark W. Everson
Commissioner

Cono R. Namorato
Director, Office of Professional Responsibility

Interpublic Group of Companies
Nick Cyprus
Senior Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer

KPMG LLP
John Chopack
Vice Chair of Tax Operations

McGladrey & Pullen, LLP
Bruce P. Webb
National Director of Auditing

Pfizer, Inc.
David Shedlarz
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Michael Gagnon
Risk Management Leader and Chief Compliance Officer

The Government Accountability Office
Jeffrey C. Steinhoff
Managing Director, Financial Management and Assurance

U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission
Office of the Chief Accountant
Donald Nicolaisen
Chief Accountant

Robert Burns
Chief Counsel

Andrew Bailey
Deputy Chief Accountant