Whitman to host lecture on tax consulting, internal control reporting

Whitman to host lecture on tax consulting, internal control reportingSeptember 13, 2007Amy Schmitzaemehrin@syr.edu

Should auditors be allowed to provide tax consulting services to their public company audit clients? Although the Sarbanes-Oxley Act prohibits audit firms from providing most forms of consulting services to their public company audit clients, most tax consulting services are still allowed.

This question and more will be explored by Randy Elder, associate professor of accounting and director of the Lubin School of Accounting in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University. Elder will speak about “Tax Consulting and Reported Weaknesses in Internal Control” on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at noon in Room 525 of the Whitman School building. The lecture, which is part of the Whitman Colloquium lecture series, is free and open to SU faculty, staff and students.

Elder will examine the association between tax consulting fees and the likelihood of tax-related and other internal control weaknesses reported by auditors under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. These relationships provide evidence on whether consulting services offer positive knowledge spillovers to audit services or adversely affect auditor independence.

Elder holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State University. His research has been published in The Accounting Review, Issues in Accounting Education, the Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, and Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory. Elder is also a co-author of the seminal textbook on accounting, “Auditing and Assurance Services: An Integrated Approach,” published by Prentice Hall.

For additional information or to R.S.V.P. for the colloquium, contact Shannon Hiemstra, Whitman School of Management, at (315) 443-3549 or srhiemst@@syr.edu.