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Accounting News Roundup: Another Ernst & Young Resignation; Obama, the Middle Class Warrior; More Women in KPMG’s New Partner Class | 10.11.11

Report: Repatriation Tax Holiday a ‘Failed’ Policy [WSJ]
The 15 companies that benefited the most from a 2004 tax break for the return of their overseas profits cut more than 20,000 net jobs and decreased the pace of their research spending, according to report from the Democratic staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released Monday night. The report warned against repeating the tax break, calling the 2004 effort “a failed tax policy” that cost the U.S. Treasury $3.3 billion in estimated lost revenues over 10 years and led to U.S. companies directing more funds offshore. U.S.-based multinationals often defer bringing back profits earned abroad to avoid paying U.S. taxes on them.

Sky China shares plunge in Singapore after auditor quits [Reuters]
Shares of Singaporelisted Sky China Petroleum Services Ltd slumped as much as 32 percent to a record low on Tuesday after the company said its auditors, Ernst & Young LLP, had resigned. This is the latest in a string of auditor resignations that have hit Chinese stocks listed in Singapore and the United States, sending investors running.

Protest Gets Green Light [WSJ]
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday the city would allow an anti-corporate protest to remain in a Lower Manhattan park indefinitely, his strongest affirmation that authorities would tolerate the demonstrations—as long as they remained law-abiding. “The bottom line is—people want to express themselves. And as long as they obey the laws, we’ll allow them to,” said Mr. Bloomberg as he prepared to march in the Columbus Day Parade on Fifth Avenue. “If they break the laws, then we’re going to do what we’re supposed to do: enforce the laws.”

Call for News Corp vote against Murdochs [FT]
News Corp faced intensifying pressure for corporate governance changes on Monday as the biggest investor advisory group in the US recommended shareholders vote against the re-election of 13 of the media company’s 15 directors, including Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive. The ISS advisory group said that the phone-hacking scandal at News Corp’s London-based newspaper group had “laid bare a striking lack of stewardship and failure of independence” by the board that had led to enormous financial and reputational costs to shareholders.

Taxing Millionaires Casts Obama as ‘Warrior’ for Middle Class Americans [Bloomberg]
Democrats have turned to an agenda that Republicans are calling class warfare, as President Barack Obama presses a “Buffett Rule” to tax the rich, Senate Democrats offer a millionaires’ tax instead and party leaders fulminate against Bank of America’s $5 debit-card service fee. Campaigning for re-election, Obama welcomes the charge. “Then guess what? I’m a warrior for the middle class,” he declared Sept. 22, standing at a Cincinnati bridge linking the home states of the Republican leaders of the House and Senate and setting a new course for his own party.

NBA’s First Two Weeks of Season Canceled [WSJ]
NBA Commissioner David Stern canceled the first two weeks of the season after two straight days of last-ditch negotiating sessions failed to resolve the labor dispute. Mr. Stern said both sides were “very far apart on virtually all issues….We just have a gulf that separates us.” The cancellation came after a seven-hour meeting at a Manhattan hotel on Monday. There are no further meetings scheduled and no timetable for when more games could be axed. Mr. Stern said that any financial losses incurred in the stretch will be factored in as negotiations move forward. The league has said it stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars.

At Long Last, Facebook Releases an iPad App [Bits/NYT]
Trite status updates including “Loving this fall weather!” coming to a tablet near you.

They fuck you up, accountants [AccMan]
Indeed they do.


Ernst & Young employees get dirty, entertain kids at annual day of service [WaPo]
“I came home exhausted and filthy,” said Kevin Virostek, Ernst & Young’s Greater Washington managing partner. “But I never had a better day at Ernst & Young.”

Quarter of KPMG new partners are women [Accountancy Age]
Quite ironic that the article doesn’t quote any women.

Posted in ANR