The international standard setter for financial accounting and environmental, social, and governance reporting needs sustainable funding, said Michel Madelain, managing director of the IFRS Foundation.

Funding, Operational Needs: Madelain said that one of his priorities over the next two years is to shore up funding for the foundation and rethink its operations. He was speaking Tuesday at a meeting of the advisory council for the IFRS Foundation, which is the parent body of both the International Accounting Standards Board and the International Sustainability Standards Board.

The foundation is likely to lose money this year and its funding is “unsustainable,” Madelain said. Relying on donations from governments, accounting associations, and private firms, the foundation’s expenses have exploded since the sustainability standards board was launched in 2021. Funding for the sustainability board nearly doubled to £26 million ($33 million) in 2023, while money for the accounting board fell to £16 million in 2023 from £17 million in 2022. Read More

Technically Speaking design by Jonathan Hurtarte/Bloomberg Tax

To discourage tax-loss harvesting and other avoidance strategies, US legislators should consider taxing unrealized gains or drastically reducing capital gains rates, Andrew Leahey argues in his latest Technically Speaking column.

Tax planning’s complexity and costs make them “inaccessible to average taxpayers, leading to a push-pull dynamic with efforts to make the tax code progressive,” Andrew says, adding that tax policies are more equitable when they limit opportunities and incentives to work around them. Read More

The global tax advisory market is forecast to grow by 4% in 2024 to reach around $57.8 billion, according to Source Global Research.

International and indirect taxes are expected to be the fastest-growing services, the professional services firm said, due in part to the introduction of the OECD’s global minimum tax, effective in dozens of countries.

Organizations surveyed by Source Global Research reported skills shortages in several areas.