To gain a solid understanding of the rules relating to foreign operations and the practical know-how to set up foreign accounting operations in compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and IFRS.
DETAILED LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Identify forms of doing business internationally, including new entity structures such as LLPs
• Recognize tax planning considerations of multinational ownership chains, including withholding tax and VAT benefits
• Identify U.S. governmental and professional sources of information on foreign political and economic conditions
• Identify U.S. governmental and professional sources of information on foreign markets for U.S. goods and services
• Recognize common challenges when operating in a foreign country (e.g., office facilities, banking, communications, culture)
• Recognize residency thresholds for foreign taxation purposes
• Identify common local labor law requirements for expatriate employees
• Recognize the maximum fines and penalties (corporate and individual) under the FCPA
• Identify the bribery elements of the FCPA, including corrupt intent, payment, recipient, and business purpose
• Explain the scope of the FCPA’s business purpose test
• Identify common red flags that indicate potential FCPA violations
• Recognize which entities are subject to the FCPA accounting provisions
• Assess the risks of using third-party agents in the context of the FCPA
• Identify permissible facilitating payments under the FCPA, provided they are legal under local law
• Recall examples of SEC enforcement actions under the FCPA
• Identify warning signs of weak or ineffective corporate risk management
• Recognize the primary goal of risk management
• Recognize that operational risk management should be practiced at all levels of the organization
• Identify the need for both high-level and detail-level perspectives when identifying risk internally
• Recognize the key characteristics associated with effective internal control systems
• Recall the release date of the original COSO internal control framework
• Identify whether the COSO framework is principles-based or rules-based
• Recognize the types of entities for which the COSO framework is designed
• Identify the general objectives of the COSO framework (operations, reporting, compliance)
• Recognize the expanded components of risk assessment under the ERM framework
• Identify the U.S. GAAP codification topic governing foreign currency matters
• Recognize which party is responsible for determining an entity’s functional currency
• Identify economic factors used to determine functional currency (cash flows, pricing, markets, expenses, financing)
• Recall when U.S. GAAP requires changing functional currency in highly inflationary economies
• Recognize the accounting effects of remeasurement of financial statements
• Recognize the accounting effects of translation of financial statements
• Identify types of exchange rate risk (currency, interest rate, commodity, fraud)
• Identify risk exposures most relevant to different types of businesses (e.g., bond funds, natural gas companies)
• Recognize common warning signs of ineffective risk management
• Identify the order of the corporate risk management process (define, measure, manage, monitor)
• Recognize that financial risk management should be tailored/customized to an entity’s business
• Identify the primary perspectives used to view market risk (transaction, portfolio, economic)
• Recognize hedging instruments commonly used for portfolio exposures (futures, bond options, swaps)
• Identify the type of market risk associated with business sensitivity to market prices (economic exposure)
• Recall the most important objective in using derivatives to hedge (e.g., reducing cash flow or earnings volatility)
• Identify key activities in evaluating risk management strategies (natural offsets, hedging techniques, cost/benefit, strategic alignment)
• Recognize that corporate market risk management is an ongoing process
• Recognize the purpose and scope of ASU 2017-12 and its impact on hedge accounting simplification and expansion
• Recognize the purpose and scope of ASU 2022-01 and the expansion of the portfolio layer method
• Identify the types of hedges that qualify for hedge accounting (fair value, cash flow, foreign currency)
• Recognize the key features of a fair value hedge, including how gains/losses are reflected
• Recognize the process required when the U.S. dollar is the functional currency (remeasurement, gains/losses in earnings)
• Recognize the treatment of gains and losses under cash flow hedges (effective portion in OCI, ineffective portion in earnings)
• Identify the circumstances that cause hedge accounting to be terminated
