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In a regulatory filing, Sonic Automotive said that, due to a material weakness, its CEO and CFO concluded that its disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of September [...]

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has launched an investigation into Deloitte for its audits of the national car dealership Lookers. Set to be conducted by the body's enforcement division under [...]

Automobile dealerships are proving to be a lucrative niche market for many accounting firms. These dealerships are profitable businesses and they can be found in every corner of the country. To succeed in the dealership niche, accountants must try to develop in-depth knowledge of the business, use industry benchmarks to assess dealership performance, study special tax and accounting regulations, and contribute to the reduction of fraud., The key to the dealership niche is focusing on new profit centers. When people envision automobile dealerships, they mostly conjure up images of pennant-draped parking lots, salespersons in loud sport [...]

Inventory valuation techniques used by car dealers have significant effects in the analysis of the firm's profitability, liquidity, leverage and cash flow. The speed of inventory movement is essential in car dealing and last in, first out (LIFO) valuation is often used to offset inflation. It is therefore necessary for lenders to assess the firm's status by using both LIFO and first in, first out inventory to better estimate the cash flow. A reliable cash flow analysis makes for a more reliable evaluation of cash repayment ability.

The IRS has explored for audits 30 dealership-related activities, according to a special compilation by the Chicago Automobile Trade Association. Dealers are advised to forward this list to their accountants [...]

Byline: Bradford Wernle Under new management headed by Fiat, Chrysler Group wants to know how well dealers are taking care of customers. So it is dispatching an audit firm, SGS [...]

With Sarbanes-Oxley forcing auto suppliers into unprecedented accounting analysis, the trick for analysts and investors will be sorting out serious issues and restatements from minor ones. Accountants and financial analysts [...]

Frontier Chevrolet was an automobile dealership operated by Frank Stinson and his holding company, Roundtree Automotive Group, Inc. Frontier's executive manager, Dennis Menholt, a long-term employee of Stinson, was allowed [...]

What is work in process, and why should it be reconciled each month? It represents the amount of money that has been paid to technicians for hours flagged on open [...]

Times are good, at least for the majority of dealers, but it's never a bad idea to continually find ways to cut our expenses. This is one dealer's idea, recently [...]

The IRS has indicated that it considers 12 monthly statements prepared by an automobile dealer on a FIFO basis to be a conformity violation that could lead to the termination of the LIFO election. The IRS has also found that estimating the LIFO adjustment at any point and showing a LIFO adjustment as an other deduction can be a conformity violation as well. Automobile dealers and their tax advisers should review financial reports with an eye to scrutinizing inventory reporting in the twelfth month statement., Recently, the IRS issued two technical advice memorandums (TAMs) on the issue of LIFO conformity for automobile dealers. The rulings (which have not yet been released for publication) conclude that [...]

A hard line stand among some IRS agents on the LIFO procedure's 'conformity requirement,' declares James C. Tanner, of the dealership specialist CPA firm of Heider, Tenner & Dirks, Denver, [...]

I've often heard the question asked: 'Is accounting an art or a science?' There are arguments for both. However, from a general manager's point of view, the Month End Closing [...]

Dealers of General Motors Corp's (GM) Cadillac Motor Div are concerned about the ongoing dealer sales audits and are planning to bring up the matter at the National Automobile Dealers Assn convention in New Orleans, LA. Cadillac National Dealer Council Chmn Tom Shirey see the audits as a sign of mistrust of dealers on GM's part. GM corporate audit staff are focusing on tiered incentive programs in 1990 and 1991 wherein dealers received incentive money based on sales. Cadillac dealers may be asked to return the incentive money received if disallowed sales are discovered.

S & W, the Alabama powersports dealership involved in a year-long effort to modernize its business, is not unlike other powersports dealerships in how it handles F & I opportunitiess. [...]

Accounting firm Henry & Home PLC has doubled the number of clients in its automotive specialty practice with the addition of certified public accountant Henry Santostefano. The client roster jumped [...]

* CHROME DATA FORMS AUTOMOTIVE ACCOUNTING DIVISION: Chrome Data Corp. has created a new automotive accounting division in response to the success of Quick LIFO, its inventory tax accounting program, [...]

A Virginia used-car dealer has contested the results of an Internal Revenue Service audit. His battle could have significant repercussions for new-and used-car dealers, industry officials claim. The IRS alleges [...]

The persuasive value of the IRS training manuals issued under the Market Segment Specialization Program is of relevance when tax practitioners read the guidelines for corporate-owned life insurance in the manual developed for audits of independent used car dealers. Split-dollar life insurance policies and other corporate-owned policies are identified as potential audit issues. The manual suggests that premium payments may be part of a sham loan scheme and suggests that corporate payments could be recharacterized as income to the employee.

Thanks to Leo Hart, veteran NCM moderator and current member of the NCM board of directors, NCM has talked about 30 percent net-to-gross for years. We have hundreds of benchmarks [...]

In a recent column I took the IRS to task over their attacks on dealership LIFO. Well, in for a penny in for a pound, I've decided to continue my [...]

Recently, an article in this magazine carried the following headline, 'Dealers Face More Audits as IRS Rethinks LIFO.' The article went on to explain that IRS dealer specialist Robert Zwiers [...]

As I continue to call on dealers, I am amazed at how many fail to appreciate the importance of record-keeping. Your accounting system is comparable to the arteries and veins [...]

Now You See It. . . During the past several months, a long-time dealer friend has been involved in trying to sell out his family dealership to his son, using [...]