Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Oh Rats! The IRS Is Infested; PwC Partners Will Divorce If It Spares Their Cash | 6.15.26

Good morning, capital markets servants. Everyone have a good weekend? Good. Got some news for you.

Here’s a heckuva headline to start things off: IRS employees protest rat infestation at Chamblee campus; agency announces telework option: “We looked at each other. It screamed, I screamed.”

Several employees at the Internal Revenue Service’s Atlanta campus in Chamblee say they are frustrated with what they describe as ongoing rodent infestations and deteriorating working conditions inside the facility.

Current and former employees, along with union representatives, gathered outside the campus Thursday afternoon to protest the conditions and call for expanded remote work options.

Some current employees told CBS News Atlanta they did not attend the demonstration because they feared retaliation from management.

Thank you, NTEU Chapter 284 for speaking out about the unsafe working conditions at the IRS Atlanta Campus. IRS has now announced they will allow some employees to telework, but we'll keep making our voices heard until ALL employees have a safe workplace: https://t.co/tk3813Hr45 pic.twitter.com/DSH5XEjMyJ

— NTEU News (@NTEUNews) June 12, 2026

Hey that rat looks familiar…

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The IRS Phone Bank Pays HOW Much!?

In other IRS news, the inspector general has issued an unsurprising report that says skilled employees were slumming it on low level work while still pulling their skilled salaries:

Still other employees were “involuntarily detailed” to other jobs within the agency, including supervisors and high-skilled techs who make $100,000 or more, but were pressed into duty answering the phones — a job that can pay as little as $35,000.

They’re still getting paid their full salary and benefits, however, the inspector general said.

“Positions at these grade levels often include senior, supervisory, and highly specialized technical employees. However, the positions to which they are detailed are at lower GS grade levels,” the report said.

Can we talk about how they’re paying $35,000 to answer phones or nah?

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Getting Divorced Over an Audit Failure

As you may have heard, PwC is going to have to pay a pound of flesh for Evergrande. And some partners are taking drastic measures to protect their wealth:

The liquidation of China Evergrande Group, the collapsed property developer, is raising concerns among some partners at its former auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers China about the potential impact on their own finances.

Several partners at PwC’s Hong Kong and mainland China affiliates say they are exploring strategies to safeguard personal assets, in case legal and regulatory challenges facing the firms ever spill over into any financial or legal burdens for themselves. One says he has even contemplated divorce as a means to shield wealth, while another is cutting education budgets for his children.

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For Those Who Like Tax Policy

ICYMI: Deloitte published their 2026 Global Tax Policy Survey, a survey of 1,010 tax and finance leaders across 28 jurisdictions. A takeaway:

A majority of respondents (85%) now expect AI-based tax compliance software to deliver positive impacts ranging from improved accuracy to reduced compliance costs, while 15% remain more negative, expecting the main impact to be increased implementation costs.

When it comes to the question “What is the biggest challenge for tax leaders in 2026?” Deloitte says:

The biggest challenge comes from the rising tide of complexity in the tax system. While some of it can be attributed to sources such as Pillar Two and the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, a lot of complexity also comes from inconsistent domestic implementation of international regimes. The volume of public tax transparency disclosures stemming from a combination of regulatory requirements and voluntary disclosures, adds further pressure and is expected to increase in coming years.

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EY Doesn’t Want Companies to Focus Solely on AI Cost-Cutting

A Business Insider article that sounds like a pitch for EY’s AI services more than anything: EY’s AI leader says companies are too focused on AI cost-cutting

Wall Street tends to reward CEOs who slash jobs in the name of efficiency.

However, those companies are leaning into an area with the “smallest level of return,” Dan Diasio, EY’s global consulting AI leader, told Business Insider.

“There’s a very clear limit to the amount of value you can create by just focusing on productivity and cost reduction,” said Diasio, who also serves as EY’s Americas consulting CTO.

He said AI may be able to shrink the time spent on a task, but it doesn’t necessarily eliminate the job around it. If cost reduction is the main strategy, those companies are effectively asking AI to pay for itself by reducing headcount.

Meanwhile, AFR published this: How AI threatens the giants of consulting

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God Forbid We Train Anyone Anymore

Over at PwC, they analyzed global job ads and found employers want senior-level skills even in newbies:

Employers in AI-exposed fields are increasingly looking for entry-level workers to have the skills that they previously expected from senior workers, including emotional intelligence, judgment, and leadership.

The findings come from PwC’s 2026 AI jobs barometer, released on June 15th, which analyzed over 1 billion job advertisements globally.

Analysis of 2.4 million entry-level roles in the US found that AI-exposed roles are seven times more likely to list “traditionally senior” skills than they were in 2019.

The skills now expected of less experienced staff include motivational leadership, team building, people and stakeholder management, process management, mentorship, and data-driven decision-making.

PwC themselves lists some of these qualities as desirable in candidates: