IRS overpaid up to $13.6B in low-income tax credits, report finds [The Hill]
Five Things You Should Know About the Online Sales Tax Bill [TaxVox/TPC]
BlackBerry's Keyboard Is Back—But Will It Sell? [WSJ]
Pooping malt liquor drinker jailed in Vero Beach gunfire brouhahaAn Indian River County sheriff's deputy about 9:20 p.m. April 9 went to the Gifford Docks in Vero Beach after a report of shots fired. He found Michael Johnston, 44, who said he'd had eight drinks, including two cans of Colt 45, which he said was "too many apparently!" Another man was with him. […] Johnston said both men fired weapons on the dock, and that he'd been "drinking and shooting." About 20 shots were fired, he said. The deputy saw bullet holes and other gunfire damage on the dock area. Johnston said the damage came from him shooting at a glass bottle, saying, "the dock (feces) was my (feces)!" Johnston was swaying as the deputy spoke to him and defecated in his trousers, the affidavit states. [TCPalm]
Alterra Investors Should Oppose KPMG Reappointment, ISS Says [Bloomberg]
Alterra Capital Holdings Ltd. (ALTE) investors should reject the insurer’s plan to reappoint KPMG- Bermuda after a government accounting board faulted the auditor’s work, said Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. The proxy-advisory service joins Glass Lewis & Co. in advising shareholders next month to vote against a proposal by Alterra’s management to keep the Bermuda affiliate of the Big Four accounting firm as the company’s auditor.
Obamas Earned $1.7 Million, Paid $453,770 in Taxes; Bidens Made $379,178 [Bloomberg]
President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported $1.7 million in adjusted gross income last year and paid $453,770 in federal income taxes, according to tax returns released yesterday by the White House. The Obamas’ adjusted gross income for 2010 dropped about 69 percent from the previous year, when it was $5.5 million, and 2010 was the couple’s lowest-earning year since 2006, before Obama’s presidential campaign generated interest in books he wrote. Their total federal income tax liability for 2010 dropped about 75 percent from 2009, when it was $1.8 million.
ASU 2011-2: The Accounting for Troubled Debt Restructurings Still Leaks Oil [Accounting Onion]
How accounting standards and Hondas are not alike.
Testy 9th Circuit Hears Whistleblower Case [CNS]
Two Boeing employees who were fired after providing a newspaper reporter information about alleged ethics violations asked the 9th Circuit to reconsider a federal judge’s ruling that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act does not prohibit termination for disclosures to the media. No court has yet addressed whether employees can be fired under federal whistleblower laws for providing non-confidential information about potential fraud to the press.
Arguments Have Loopholes, Too [CFO]
The debate over GE’s taxes has as many holes as the IRC.
Gary Busey Endorses Donald Trump for President in 2012 [YouTube]
Doubts emerge over U.S. move to global accounting [Reuters]
Once thought inevitable, a decisive move by the United States to one-world accounting is now in serious doubt. Blame delays, shifting timelines, or huge debt and high unemployment problems in the United States’ own back yard, but the idea of a massive change in companies’ accounting framework is not the crowd-pleaser it once was. “If there was a compelling value proposition that said, ‘as a policy, this is the right thing to do,’ it would be going faster than it’s going,” said Steven Nielsen, chief executive officer of Dycom Industries.