Another typical, lazy dog, expecting a handout.
Tax Charges Pile Up As U.S. Companies Report Earnings [WSJ]
Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Facebook all took hits to their deferred tax assets, which, as we’ve noted before, is NBD. Analysts are ignoring the effect anyway, but the write-offs are in the billions, people are bound to notice. I’ll just leave this here, again: “This is a very, very trivial problem to have, the opposite of a problem really.”
UK building distributor SIG says 2016 profit overstated, shares fall [Reuters]
Whenever a whistleblower complaint leads to a discovery like, “a number of accounts [being] overstated, ‘in some cases intentionally,'” you’re going to have a bad time. SIG says it’s working with their auditor, Deloitte, to figure out what’s going on but also hired KPMG “to conduct a review of financial reporting.”
Steinhoff board and management don’t know how accounting scandal happened [ANA]
Christo Wiese, the former chairman and one of Steinhoff’s largest shareholders, says precisely what no one wants to hear: “[W]e really do not know how this has happened.” He went on to try throwing Deloitte under the bus:
He was at pains to point out that the auditors who pointed out the irregularities in the 2017 financial statements had been the same company “paid handsomely” to do previous audits, the integrity of which are also now been questioned.
Deloitte, FWIW, is on record that they did the right thing.
Remembering Bert Padell, the Accountant Who Got Hip-Hop Paid in Full [Vulture]
Mr. Padell, who died on January 21st, “was the music industry’s Yoda.” He started his career as a batboy with the New York Yankees, where he met Joe DiMaggio, who later became a client, but became best known for working with hip-hop artists including Run-DMC, Sean Combs, Notorious B.I.G., and many others.
What’s the Craziest Thing You’ve Ever Found in a Xerox Machine? [NYT]
I’m old enough to remember spending an inordinate amount of time at the Xerox machine, making copies of prior year files that were needed for current year files. Making copies (in your best Richmeister voice) was, by far, the most tedious task for a young accountant. SALY, amirite? I never found anything crazy in a Xerox Machine, certainly nothing as significant as the Pentagon Papers, but since accountants have a love/hate relationship with the Xeroxing, there might be a decent yarn or two out there.
Previously, on Going Concern…
I noticed that some cryptocurrency traders are just now getting familiar with taxes.
From the archives: Drones Set to Disrupt the “Ideas Accounting Firms Won’t Pursue” Niche
In other news:
- U.S. Regulators Subpoena Bitfinex, Tether Over Digital Tokens
- After 15 years, eBay plans to cut off PayPal as its main payments processor
- CBS Board Plans to Discuss Viacom at Thursday Meeting
- Elon Musk’s Boring Company sells all of its flamethrowers in less than a week
- Michigan Man’s Dog Qualifies For Unemployment Benefits
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