It’s coming.

By “it,” I mean the granddaddy of U.S. financial “re-regulation.” Just as The Great Depression hatched the SEC, the current downturn/crisis/recession “is about to prompt the most far-reaching renovation of the rules and institutions that regulate finance since the 1930s,” according to longtime Wall Street Journal columnist David Wessel.

OK, so what should we do about it? more

Earlier this week, in a post about indirect taxes (and the possibility that companies are overpaying them), I wrote that while U.S. businesses certainly have enough on their plates in coping with sales and use taxes, they don’t have to worry about value added tax (VAT).

I may have spoken too soon.

VAT has never been a part of the tax landscape in the United States, though it’s a fixture of many fiscal systems around the world. But now the idea is gaining traction in some increasingly urgent discussions of tax reform in Washington. more

One of the questions I always get when I work with a company is “How should our IT be organized?” Here are some thoughts on what I’ve observed over the years.

First, there is no one right answer, no ultimate truth. As with many things in life, form follows function, and how you structure your IT organization should be about what you want to get done at that time as much as about anything else. For example, needing to reduce costs and eliminate inefficiencies will demand a different structure than would a focus on service delivery to the marketplace or growth through acquisition and integration. more

If your firm is in the habit of using over-the-counter (OTC) products to hedge its exposure to interest rate change and foreign currency fluctuations, now might be a good time to consider exchange-traded instruments, such as futures and options. While OTC products have a role in many companies’ hedging programs, so do exchange-traded products, says Marcus Katz, director of interest rates products and services with CME Group. CME is the organization behind the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Granted, CME is in the business of exchange-traded products, so Katz has an interest in promoting them. However, the products have a few things going for them in today’s environment. For starters, they can be less expensive than products found in the OTC market. Just as important, given growing concerns over counterparty risk, companies whose hedging transactions that take place via an exchange are made whole if the other party defaults. more

Recently, whenever I’ve blogged about indirect taxes in all their multifarious nefariousness — sales taxes, use taxes, excise taxes, and the rest of the gang — it’s been from the point of view that they’re a massive source of frustration for corporate taxpayers struggling to keep up with the endless changes, and a rising audit threat as governments scramble to replace revenues lost in the downturn.

But I may have missed an important aspect of this picture. Maybe it’s not all bad.

Seriously — sales tax refunds may be a hidden source of much-needed cash. more