Corporate taxes
Now that the US and UK are talking big about cutting corporate tax rates, you can expect some people to suggest abolishing it altogether. BloombergView's Leonid Bershidsky makes a case for it:
Because of everything companies do to game it, the tax distorts financial reporting and creates a lot of needless work for lawyers, accountants and tax agents, imposing a high transaction cost on business and society.
He suggests that a value-added tax could replace any lost revenue, which is a nice idea, but would probably go over like a Baby Ruth in a swimming pool.
Bitcoin
EY Switzerland announced that it will start accepting Bitcoin in 2017, that its employees will get a "digital wallet" so they can use the currency and a Bitcoin ATM in the building of their Zurich office. I know I'm overgeneralizing the utility of Bitcoin by suggesting that its biggest fans are ultra-liberatarians who wish to purchase drugs online, but do those people have a big need for professional services? In Switzerland? I'm not sure. In any case, my suggestion for Deloitte's Bitcoin ATM in Toronto applies here as well.
Accounting talent crisis solution: Older workers
This Wall Street Journal article suggests that the preconceptions of older workers having trouble switching careers or finding a job later in life are wrong. Part of the reason, according to one study is, "when there is a shortage of skilled workers, older workers get jobs."
I can't think of a funnier resolution to the talent crisis in the accounting profession than a bunch of firms hiring loads of retired or semi-retired accountants so they can continue billing by the hour, paying lousy salaries and asking people to come into the office on weekends.
Accountants behaving badly
Here's an international ABB that's worth sharing just because it's so ridiculous. It involves Olufemi Akinwa, an accountant with Eternal Oil & Gas who was allegedly kidnapped when he went to withdraw a large sum of money from his employer's bank.
According to a police source, contrary to the report that Akinwa was robbed and kidnapped, the suspect had planned his kidnap, threw his telephone into the sea before going to stay in Epe area of Lagos. Akinwa, who spoke with Vanguard, said: “I have been working with the company for five years before my arrest on November 18. I was on my way to the bank and was chatting with a friend in the UK called Kingsley on phone. “He asked me where I was, and I told him I was in the bank to withdraw money for my company. He then said he needed $15,000 out of that money, that he has deportation problem.
This occurred in Nigeria of all places, which is about right considering the story includes a "promise to promote my music," a motorcycle ride, thoughts of suicide, an finally, "after all the torture," and finally, Akinwa says he confessed "after all the torture." Ryan Lochte couldn't have come up with a better story.
Previously, on Going Concern…
Greg Kyte's latest cartoon shows how much CPAs have to be thankful for.
In other news:
- Court Blocks Obama’s Expansion of Overtime
- People are shopping today.
- Wells Fargo Asks Court to Force Customers to Arbitration in Fake Accounts Cases
- Sorry sorries.
- “It smelled like death”: An oral history of the Double Dare obstacle course
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