Have you heard the phrase “What a year this week has been?” It’s one of our favorites for those weeks when the headlines start coming and they don’t stop coming.

This year has already had more than a few of those weeks, we realized, as we reflected on the last six months while plucking out new gray hairs. To spare you the whiplash of revisiting that timeline, CFO Brew has recapped some of the biggest finance stories of the year so far.

Over rules. It’s been an uneven six months for potential new rules of the road for finance and accounting. The Securities and Exchange Commission put its climate rule on ice in April—figurative ice, thankfully, because who knows how long real ice will be around—and the Treasury Department is arguing in court over its new requirement for companies to report who owns them. On the talent side, we’ll know by July 3 whether a judge will allow the Federal Trade Commission to start enforcing its ban on noncompete clauses in September. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has had more success, pushing through major changes to standards for auditor independence and quality control and updates to rules on “technology-assisted analysis” and auditor liability.

Ruh-roh. New Year’s-style resolutions for the second half of 2024 may be in order for organizations that made high-profile mistakes in their earnings releases. (Hi, Lyft!) Resolutions may be a good idea in general, though, because the headline-grabbers aren’t the only ones goofing up.

To keep reading about the biggest finance stories of the year, click here.—GD

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Keeping straight all the developments in tax policies and requirements can be, well, taxing. Two tax experts recently shared with CFO Brew the tax issues on their minds and what finance leaders should be paying attention to in the second half of 2024 (and beyond).

First and foremost is the expiration of provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which are set to expire at the end of 2025 unless Congress acts to extend them.

What lawmakers decide to do about the TCJA is beyond the CFO’s control. However, there are more immediate TCJA benefits to think about, according to Kevin Gehrmann, tax partner at Wiss.

Markdown. One is the declining bonus depreciation on fixed assets. The bonus depreciation rate this year is 60%, but will fall to 40% next year. If an organization is looking to purchase some new fixed assets, such as buildings or machinery, it’s probably better to do that by December, Gehrmann said.

“You’ll get the same amount of tax depreciation over the life [of the asset], but if you can kind of accelerate that in 2024, you may save on some federal and state tax, which I think every CFO would love to do,” he told CFO Brew.

For more on tax changes to watch, click here.—AZ

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