SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Personal and corporate income tax laws are complex and expensive. The collective cost of tax filing, record keeping and the like is least $170 billion a year, says professor Peter Morici at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. In a column today, Morici says other nations more efficiently rely on consumption taxes than income taxes. The U.S. system should shift in that direction, he says. 

Don’t blame bailouts for excessive risk taking, one researcher said May 29, 2014, during a daylong accounting conference at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Research presented at the third annual Journal of Accounting and Public Policy Conference in College Park, Md., shows how the expectation of a safety net — which comes with strings attached — actually reins in shareholders and managers with limited liability.

The Accounting and Information Assurance Department at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business is adding tracks for public accounting and taxation to its 8-year-old Master of Science in Business: Accounting program. Both additions are 30-credit hour programs and take effect in fall 2014.

“You need to be above the market, because the moment everyone has the same thing, employees think they can always go out and look for another job," the researchers explain.

There's more to signature size than meets the eye. As it turns out, chief financial officers with large signatures are more willing to exploit others and bend the truth in their favor.

New research suggests that CFOs have a significant influence on firms’ disclosure decisions and respond to personal litigation risk over and above corporate litigation risk.

Researchers find a correlation between declining firm performance, narcissism and large signature size on annual SEC filings.

Companies with internal control weaknesses should stay away from acquisitions. Otherwise they may pay more in the long run.

Markets often react in counterintuitive ways to monetary policy. Understanding why can help analysts anticipate Fed action.