Determining and minimizing estate tax. Spencer Cook died on July 18 of the current year, leaving a gross estate of $8,600,000. Claims to be settled against that estate included funeral, administrative and medical expenses of $180,000 and the other debts of $210,000. Spencer’s wife Sara has a considerable estate of her own, and she and spencer have each agreed to leave $500,000 of their personal estate to charity. One year after Spencer’s death, Sara passed away. Allowable expenses against Sara’s estate totaled $420,000 excluding charitable bequests. Using the estate tax rates and unified credit in the text:

Exhibit 20-1: Unified Transfer Tax Rate Schedule for the Year 2014

1 Determine the estate tax to be paid by both Spencer and Sara assuming that no credit shelter trusts are employed and that Sara’s gross estate is $13,300,000 including the assets inherited from Spencer.

2 Assume that prior to death Spencer and Sara both created a credit shelter trust calling for the surviving spouse to be the income beneficiary and their children to be the recipient of the principal. The principal of the trust is equal to the applicable exclusion amount. Determine the estate tax to be paid by both Spencer and Sara assuming that Sara’s gross estate at the date of her death was $11,400,000 including the assets inherited from Spencer.

1. Cepheid variables are significant because a) their luminosity can be determined from knowledge of their period b) their luminosity can be determined from a single measurement of their flux c) their luminosity can be determined from knowledge of their surface temperature d) they are all the same distance away from 2. Equilibrium in a star is produced by a balance between ___ and ____. a) gravitational forces and radiation outward, gas pressure inwards b) gravitational forces and gas pressure inwards, radiation outward c) gravitational forces inwards, radiation and gas pressure outward 3. Galactic rotation curves in the vicinity of spiral arms are typically a) decreasing b) flat c) increasing 4. In the determination of the Hubble constant how are the most accurate distances to nearly galaxies determined a) using the average brightness of HII regions b) using the maximum brightness of novae and supernovae c) using the period- luminosity relation of cepheid variable stars d) using spectroscopic parallaxes 5. Suppose our universe has positive curvature. Which of the following statements would be FALSE? a) the universe has a center b) the universe will eventually begin to contract c) the universe has a finite volume d) the universe has no boundary

In your opinion, should the Sorbane-Oxley Act remain in force or should it be abolished? Explain your position.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was signed into law on July 30, 2002 in response to corporate scandals such as WorldCom and Enron.

Now all companies are required to file periodic reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with new requirements for reporting of corporate obligations. Non-compliance to these regulatory requirements comes with significant penalties.

Debates have continued since 2007 over the perceived benefits and costs of SOX. Opponents of the bill have claimed that it has reduced America's international competitive edge against foreign financial service providers because it has introduced an overly complex regulatory environment into U.S.financial markets.

Proponents of the measure said that SOX has been a "godsend" for improving the confidence of fund managers and other investors with regard to the veracity of corporate financial statements.

SOX and ENRON article:

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/sarbanes-oxley-act-and-the-enron-scandal-393497

Highlands Health Care System, Inc. (HHCS) is a private, non-profit health care network serving a multi-county area of Northeast Mississippi where there is a growing aging population. HHCS has been in operation since 1952.

It provides a large acute-care hospital; a Heart and Vascular Center, an acute inpatient Rehabilitative Center; Neurosciences and Stroke Center; Cardiac Catheterization and Electrophysiology Lab; a specialty pediatric clinic; Highland Hills Village Retirement Community; Home Health Care/Hospice Services and Hospice House; Outpatient Services and Wellness Center and, numerous community outreach programs. HHCS is on the cutting edge of medicine and utilizes advanced technologies.

Recently, Brownstone Oncology (established 2002) received a grant (6.4 million) to extend their services to their cancer patients at all stages of care. Brownstone is within half a mile of HHCS. The management of both organizations are separately revisiting their strategic plans.

What might be a good statement to describe HHCS mission? In other words, create a mission statement for HHCS.

A study of smoking status and the risk for recurrent coronary events after myocardial infarction (Rea et al, 2002) had the following results: a) 433 out of 2619 patients who survived to discharge had a recurrent coronary event within 3 years; b) With nonsmokers as the reference group, the relative risk for recurrent coronary events of persons who stopped smoking before their heart attack was 1.17 (95% CI, 0.93 to 1.43); for those who continued to smoke after their heart attack their relative risk of recurrent coronary events was 1.51 (95% CI, 1.10 to 2.07) c) For those who quit after their heart attack, their risk declined gradually over the three year follow up to that of nonsmokers. 11. In your own words, what do these findings mean for the population of patients who stopped smoking before their heart attack? confidence interval). 12. In your own words, what do these findings mean for the population of patients who continue to smoke after a heart attack?  

Between 20 and 25 violent acts are portrayed per hour on children’s TV. A study by Johnson et al (2002) looked for links between TV viewing and aggression by following the TV viewing habits of children 1-10 years old. Of these, 88 watched < 1 hr TV per day, 386 watched 1-3 hrs and 233 watched > 3 hrs. Eight years later, researchers looked to see if any of the children had records of aggressive assaults on other people. The numbers of children with aggressive assaults were 5, 87 and 67 for each TV category, respectively. The remaining children were not aggressive.

Question 1: Create a contingency table of the results from the study. Carry out an appropriate statistical test to determine whether TV viewing is associated with future violence. What is the conclusion from your test?

Question 2: Do the results of the study prove that TV watching behavior causes increased aggression in children? Why?

Year # AIDS cases diagnosed # AIDS deaths

Graph "year" vs. "# AIDS deaths." Do not include pre-1981. Label both axes with words. Scale both axes. Calculate the following. (Round your answers to the nearest whole number. Round the correlation coefficient r to four decimal places.)

a =

b=

r=

n=

In some of the recent corporate scandals, senior executives “doctored the books” and misrepresented the corporate financial status of the company. In others, transactions were created to and from inert or false companies to enhance the bottom line. All of these actions required some intervention and dependence on current or new IT systems. As a result the Federal Government passed the SOX regulations in 2002-2003 and the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform law in 2010.

Do you feel the information technology group could or should identify (expose) these fraudulant practices?

What do you feel the responsibilities of the CIO are relative to internal fraud and illegal activities?

Is the CIO ethically responsible for how the network and computing “utility” within the company is used?

Is it an IT responsibility to build and install systems that cannot be compromised?

Does the information technology have the responsibility to ask “why” a business function is needed when a system is built?

Does the internal or external audit function have any responsibility in guiding the development of new Information Technology systems? Explain.

3. Article: Control Cash-Register Thievery

Based on this article what fraud is the most easiest to detect?    Most difficult?

https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2002/jun/controlcashregisterthievery.html

4. Article: Ghost Goods: How to Spot Phantom Inventory

Why does the client most likely resort to creating a phantom inventory?

https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2001/jun/ghostgoodshowtospotphantominventory.html

5. Article: Ghost Goods: How to Spot Phantom Inventory

Should the auditor consider both motive and opportunity when investigating an inventory fraud?

https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2001/jun/ghostgoodshowtospotphantominventory.html

7. The Crazy Eddie Antar fraud is discussed in the article So Thats Why Its Called a Pyramid Scheme and in Chapter 12.   What are the lessons learned by fraud examiners from this fraud?

https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2000/oct/sothatswhyitscalledapyramidscheme.html

8. When a fictitious refund is made for merchandise returned what is the problem that the fraudster must solve in order for the fraud to be undetected?