Exxon Mobil’s profits and taxes: both records

Exxon Mobil announced recently the highest annual profits by a US corporation in history. Reaction was predictable – the US Congress was littered with outraged politicians calling for a windfall profits tax. But that would be wrong, and the Tax Foundation can explain why much better than I: While they were recording record profits lastContinue reading “Exxon Mobil’s profits and taxes: both records”

Mining Wikipedia for accounting topics

Wikipedia is a good source of information about a variety of topics. I’m pleased to find that it’s generally pretty good about accounting too. The article on the Balance Sheet contains “case studies” showing the effect of some transactions on a very basic balance sheet. As well, I’d never seen non-current liabilities referred to asContinue reading “Mining Wikipedia for accounting topics”

Nortel completes latest restatement

Nortel released their 2005 financials Friday and completed more restatements of prior years’ results. The restatements related to revenue recognition and decreased revenues and net income because the revenue should’ve been booked in different periods. Maybe this will mark a turning point for the Canadian communications equipment company and they can retain (or regain) theirContinue reading “Nortel completes latest restatement”

Nortel’s revenue recognition wrinkles

Om Malik, writer at Business 2.0 and power blogger, has posted his thoughts on the Nortel announcement from a couple days ago that they would have to restate their earnings again. His reaction is one of incredulity that Nortel, “a big NYSE company,” could actually not be able to get their accounting straightened out afterContinue reading “Nortel’s revenue recognition wrinkles”

Revenue recognition and Nortel

Nortel Networks Corp. once again will have to restate its financial results to fix accounting mistakes, the company said on Friday as it posted a fourth-quarter loss of $2.2 billion. Their chief executive maintains that the revenue was just recognized in incorrect periods, from 2002 through 2005. Revenue recognition is definitely a touchy subject theseContinue reading “Revenue recognition and Nortel”