Good morning, capital markets servants. Hope you got some rest and are ready to tackle another exciting week of keeping the global financial system chugging along.
In this news brief
- Uh Oh, Elon’s Spotted Us
- We’re Gonna Be Talking About AI and Billing For Ages Aren’t We
- EY Grabs a Former Treasury Official
- A List of Overachieving Accountants That Doesn’t Include Big 4
- Alright Let’s Not Insult Fences
- This One’s For the Fans of SEC Enforcement
- Godspeed, You Contrarian You
- Tax Collection, AI, and Fraud, Oh My!
Uh Oh, Elon’s Spotted Us
Super Intelligence (fka AI) is now acing accounting tests
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 2, 2026
We’re Gonna Be Talking About AI and Billing For Ages Aren’t We
Thomson Reuters Institute asks an important question: If AI can do the work, then what are you actually charging for? We’ve pointed out before that this question would be easier to answer had the profession burned the billable hour to the ground long ago, alas here we are.
Every tax season, firms bill their clients for hours spent preparing returns, checking figures, and filing paperwork. That has always been the backbone of the tax, audit & accounting business. However, there is a shift going on, and it will force firms to answer a harder question: If a machine can do the compliance work, what exactly are clients paying for?
The data suggests the answer isn’t technical skill; instead, it’s presence, judgment, and trust — and unfortunately, most firms haven’t figured out how to price for any of those.
Yeah see, should have put a dollar amount on trust and judgment before AI crashed through the wall like the Kool-Aid Man. Now the profession is going to spend the next ten years trying to figure this out while clients grow increasingly impatient and AI bros insist AI will replace all the accountants any day now.
ICYMI: The AICPA is working on it. Over the years we’ve made a habit of ragging on the AICPA for being late to the party with task forces that should have been on top of emerging issues that impact the entire profession but in this case, they’ve moved about as fast as can be expected and any progress should be lauded without cynicism.
EY Grabs a Former Treasury Official
A former Treasury Bigshot who was supposedly forced out in July is headed to EY:
Ken Kies, the former top tax official at the Treasury Department, will be joining EY’s lobbying and tax practice ranks after an unexpected exit at the agency earlier this year.
Kies, who served as both the assistant secretary for tax policy and the acting top lawyer at the IRS, left in July after serving just over a year in the government.
Following Bloomberg Tax’s report of Kies’ departure, the Wall Street Journal was the first to report he clashed with White House officials over warning against a request that risked violating a law that limits White House involvement in audits.
“After exploring a number of options, this was clearly the best fit for what I would like to do in both the tax policy space and everything else related to tax. I hope to continue to be involved in discussions about how to address the impending situation with respect to Social Security,” said Kies.
A List of Overachieving Accountants That Doesn’t Include Big 4
Canadian Accountant reports on an interesting thing happening at the exam level up there in the Great White North: Big 4 don’t dominate the ranks of the top scorers on the spring Common Final Examination (CFE):
Forty students out of 1,578 future accountants who passed the June 2026 Common Final Examination earned honour roll distinction, placing them among the highest-scoring CFE writers nationwide. Far more students at public accounting firms write the fall sitting of the CFE as these students are working during tax season rather than studying for the exam.
Of the 40 students, only one worked for a Big Four firm (Deloitte), and one worked for homegrown national accounting firm MNP LLP. The remaining 10 tended to work for smaller, local CPA firms across the country.
National gold medal recipient Yash Dineshkumar Patel works for Baker Tilly Ottawa LLP, and regional winner Émilie Boulay of Montreal works for Québec newspaper La Presse.
Alright Let’s Not Insult Fences
Checking in on the KPMG whistleblower scandal in Australia, we’ve got AFR with this: Chartered Accountants’ Ainslie van Onselen hands KPMG a free pass
No one wants to be caught within cooee* of KPMG. ANZ was the latest client to ditch the firm as its auditor on Friday. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has extended a government contract ban. Rainmakers are leaving in droves.
Points to Chartered Accountants ANZ and its publicity-happy chief executive Ainslie van Onselen for bravely sticking by their mate (read: benefactor). [Ed. note: AFR points out in the article’s short that Ms. van Onselen earned $1.2 million last year]
I would have ended the article excerpt here except there is an amazing burn in the next section:
The industry body, which is supposed to hold the largely unregulated auditing sector to account, handed down the findings on Friday of the “CEO review” van Onselen commissioned.
To call the resulting report a whitewash is an insult to fences. Chartered Accountants found the firm “actively promotes a culture of confidentiality”, has adequate compliance processes, and boasts leaders with a sterling commitment to ethical behaviour.
*per Wikipedia, a cooee is “is a shout that originated in Australia to attract attention, find missing people, or to indicate one’s own location. When done correctly—loudly and shrilly—a call of ‘cooee’ can carry over a considerable distance. The distance one’s cooee call travels can be a matter of competitive pride. It is also known as a call of help, distinct amongst the natural sounds of the bush.”
This One’s For the Fans of SEC Enforcement
The Federal Drive podcast spoke to Alonzo Llorens and Tiffany Rowe about the SEC’s new financial reporting and accounting unit.
Transcript here if you, like me, prefer words or the whole thing is on YouTube.
Godspeed, You Contrarian You
In other SEC news, Commissioner Hester Peirce is leaving. I only found this out while scrolling Xitter over the weekend despite the fact that there was a whole-ass statement issued on October 1.
Commissioner Peirce has shown what it means to hold fast to your convictions and defend your viewpoint with integrity and grace, always asking thoughtful questions with respect for those answering. She has demonstrated how much one determined voice can accomplish, overcoming at times animosity and indifference. Her ardor is nowhere more evident than in her advocacy for digital asset innovation.
Ever the contrarian, we could always count on Peirce to throw a little salt on whatever the SEC was up to. For example: SEC Nabs Its First NFT Case, Commissioner Peirce Won’t Be Throwing a Party. Her dissents will be missed.
Tax Collection, AI, and Fraud, Oh My!
Deloitte covered three recent TIGTA reports in its Tax@hand roundup:
- In a 23 September report, TIGTA found that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) failed to consistently track potential Fair Tax Collection Practice (FTCP) and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) violations, with many cases either miscoded or omitted from agency tracking systems
- In a separate report released on 24 September, TIGTA reviewed five AI use cases that the IRS classified as “high impact” and found shortcomings in its risk management practices.
- A 25 September GAO report estimated that federal tax fraud costs the federal government between USD 116 billion and USD 304 billion annually, equal to roughly 2% to 6% of total federal tax liability in tax year 2022, the most recent year for which an estimate is available.
Alright that felt like a lot for an unassuming Monday morning, let’s get out of here. Email or text if you have a tip or story for us, preferably text as my inbox is a wasteland of boring and off-topic press releases. Bye!