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AI
If AI takes on junior-level work, how will CFOs develop talent? [CFO.com]
For the first 10 years of his career, Brian Beaupre built financial models in Excel and learned finance by developing the numbers that were behind major business decisions. It was how he developed his skills before eventually becoming CFO of Teikametrics, a company that makes software for e-commerce sellers. “Quite literally, what these AI tools are doing today is what I did for the first 10 years of my career,” Beaupre said in a June interview with CFO.com at the CFO Leadership Council’s Spring Conference. At the time, his advice to younger finance professionals was to get comfortable with AI and understand the data feeding it. A few months later, Beaupre is now thinking about what happens when the tools do too much of the learning for them.
AI Replacing Workers Is the Wrong Reason For All Those Layoffs [Inc.]
Joe Procopio writes:
I’m kinda sad that I still have to make the AI-is-a-tool-not-a-replacement argument in the back half of 2026. We’ve been making so much progress! But I’m still seeing loads of evidence that we just can’t let go of the notion that the path to AI supremacy and riches is to replace all the workers with AI. Like the article I read this morning touting AI eventually replacing all the accountants. Which makes perfect sense. Until you get that letter from the IRS. Let’s talk about why they’re still talking about AI-as-replacement, and where that model breaks down.
Education
KPMG commits $1.5M to support the future of accounting at William & Mary [W&M]
The investment will partially support the associate director role of the Estes Center for Excellence in Accounting, helping the center build lasting connections among students, faculty, alumni, and the accounting profession. Rebecca Reimers is serving as the inaugural associate director.
Career
2 things you can do to get promoted, according to a PwC exec [Business Insider]
PwC’s Dallas Dolen has spent the better part of two decades conducting performance reviews and promotion meetings, and he said there are two things workers can do to improve their chances of getting ahead. “You have to be willing to, at midnight, jump on the plane,” Dolen said.
People
BPM names Brian Finnegan chief operating officer [Consulting.us]
Based in the firm’s headquarters, Brian Finnegan succeeds Carl Sorboro, who is retiring at the end of the year. As COO, Finnegan will oversee the 1,300-person firm’s operations, business processes, and strategic execution. He has been with BPM since 2002, most recently serving as leader of the assurance practice.
Rules and Regulation
Hill, Cotton Introduce Bill to Reduce Regulatory Burdens on Small Broker-Dealers [House Financial Services Committee]
House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill (AR-02) and Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) recently introduced the Small Business Audit Correction Act. The bicameral legislation would provide targeted relief from certain audit requirements for small broker-dealers in good standing, reducing compliance costs and allowing them to devote more resources to growing their businesses and serving customers. “When we discuss regulatory relief in the financial services industry, the focus often falls on community banks. But small, privately held broker-dealers deserve that same attention,” said Chairman Hill. “These firms serve as a gateway to the capital markets for Main Street businesses, yet they remain burdened by costly, one-size-fits-all audit requirements. That’s why I’m pleased to lead the House effort on the Small Business Audit Correction Act, which will provide targeted relief for small broker-dealers in good standing, allowing them to devote more resources to growing their businesses and serving their customers.”
ISSB chair Emmanuel Faber: ‘There’s global demand for a unified accounting language’ [Geneva Solutions]
Geneva is poised to become the global hub for accounting standards that go beyond the traditional finance metrics. The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), which develops sustainability reporting standards for businesses, is set to establish its global headquarters in the city by mid-2027. Its president, Emmanuel Faber, explains the significance of this move and why sustainability analysis – rooted in environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors – is no longer in vogue.
KPMG still claims privilege over 74 documents [Accounting Times]
In correspondence with the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, ASIC chair Sarah Court said KPMG has advised that it has not yet produced some material to the corporate regulator that it has to the PJC, as it maintains a claim of legal professional privilege (LPP). This material includes independent director materials comprising 1,579 documents, of which KPMG has claimed LPP over 68, as well as engagement materials comprising six documents.
Private Equity
Alan Healy: The quiet takeover of rural Ireland’s accountants and advisers [Irish Examiner]
A string of Ireland’s provincial towns and suburbs have seen a repeated pattern in recent months, with local and long-standing accountancy and financial advisory firms being snapped up by larger entities.
CPA Ontario introduces new regulations governing alternative practice structures [Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP]
Alternative practice structures (APS), already firmly established in the United States, are generating significant interest and activity in the Canadian market, particularly in regard to accounting firms. At a basic level, implementing an APS involves an accounting firm transferring all lines of business not required to be held in a Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA)-owned firm, together with back-office and administrative functions, to a service company that is not subject to regulatory ownership constraints and can therefore raise equity financing via private equity or the public markets. CPA Ontario previously released bulletins commenting on APS, but had not updated its regulations or provided specific guidance as to whether and to what extent such structures are permissible in Ontario.
Tax
Kalshi’s Backroom Tax Victory Gives It Leverage in Legal Fights [Bloomberg]
A day before it came up for a vote, North Carolina’s massive budget was posted with a handful of new paragraphs inserted on page 626, near the end of the document, with little time for public vetting or changes. The hasty edit — imposing a 6% tax on prediction market trading fees in the state — was made shortly after staffers for Speaker of the House Destin Hall met with lobbyists for the prediction market giant Kalshi, according to people familiar with the meetings. While Kalshi’s trading wasn’t previously taxed, the addition was a big win for the company and other prediction markets because it will subject bets on the platforms to a rate about a quarter of what traditional sportsbooks will pay in North Carolina.
IRS steps up fraud fight with new app, CEO promises ‘100% secure’ platform [FOXBusiness]
IRS CEO Frank Bisignano joined FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.” to discuss the app’s security, growing demand for online services and the agency’s efforts to combat identity theft.
IRS raises per diem rates for business travel effective Oct. 1 [Journal of Accountancy]
The special per diem rates that taxpayers may use to substantiate travel and business expenses under the per diem substantiation method (set out in Rev. Proc. 2019-48) will increase for the coming year, as provided by the IRS in Notice 2026-60 and applicable starting Oct. 1.