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Accounting News Roundup: Big Deals, Bribes, and Indifferent Investors | 12.14.17

Posted on by Caleb Newquist
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House, Senate Republicans Reach Deal on Final Tax Bill [WSJ]
The text of the bill is still being written, but in short: the top individual rate landed at 37 percent; the corporate tops out at 21 percent; pass-throughs get a 20 percent income deduction. A compromise over the SALT deduction is in the works; rather than full repeal, it may come back but be capped at $10,000. The corporate AMT gets repealed while the individual AMT lives on but with higher exemptions. There are lots of other details of course, but voting on the final bill could start as early as Monday.

Bonus: The Wall Street Journal‘s Richard Rubin summarizes all this in a punny video featuring presents, lumps of coal, and talking bears.

Disney Makes $52.4 Billion Deal for 21st Century Fox in Big Bet on Streaming [NYT]
Old school media and show business trying to keep up: “Disney now has enough muscle to become a true competitor to Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook in the fast-growing realm of online video.”

Investors on Rev Rec Changes: Who Cares? [CFO]
The good news for any accounting team that’s worried about not being by tomorrow’s deadline is, investors are, “Meh.” Reactions range from indifference (“It’s not been a big focus.”) to preoccupation (“There’s going to be so many other issues that investors and investor relations teams [will be focused on], in particular the tax-law change that’s coming”) to unimpressed (“Basically, the rule didn’t change anything.”)

Reminder: Just because those people don’t care about the accounting, Wes Bricker has your back.

Former federal official, accountant indicted in Las Vegas bribery case [LVRJ]
File to Accountants Behaving Badly: Bribery. Fredrick J. Leavitt, a director of the financial management office for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation allegedly accepted bribes from Dustin M. Lewis to award Lewis’s firm, LL Bradford & Company, a Southern California Public Power Authority audit. What happened next probably won’t shock you: “After LL Bradford was selected as the winning bidder for the contract, according to the indictment, Lewis transferred more than $200,000 to Leavitt, who left the bureau and went to work as a tax partner for the accounting firm in January 2016.”

Previously, on Going Concern…

Greg Kyte’s Exposure Drafts cartoon features Magi seeking a 501(c)(3) charity.

From me: EY Employee Shot in Las Vegas Is Home for the Holidays

Grant Hutchinson offered 4 strange ways to keep your sanity this coming busy season. (This content is sponsored by San Francisco-based Murray, Stok & Company, an Accountingfly partner.)

In other news:

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• Rangel Loses Support in House [WSJ]
You can ignore what’s written below, except the part about rent-controlled apartments.

Charlie Rangel will not be quitting (temporarily sayeth Charlie Rangel) as the Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee. If you (read: Republicans) want him out, you’ll have to vote him out. Bad news for Chuck is that the Republicans in the House and several of his fellow Democrats are poised to do just that, “As many as 30 House Democrats could join 178 House Republicans in voting to oust Mr. Rangel as head of the Ways and Means Committee…a substantially higher number than in previous votes on his removal.”

Never mess with people when it comes to rent-controlled apartments. They’ll turn on you like Judas.

In the meeting, Mr. Rangel refused to quit as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and instead said he’d think overnight about the matter before deciding whether to step down or face an uncertain vote.

After the one-hour meeting broke, Mr. Rangel told reporters he would stay on.

“You bet your life,” he said. Pressed further, Mr. Rangel, raising his voice, said emphatically: “Yes, and I don’t lie to the press.”

There you have it. You want Rangs out? It’ll be over his dead body. Since he’s 79, it might just come to that.

• Taxpayers Have $1.3 Billion in Unclaimed Refunds [TaxProf Blog]
That’s just for 2006. California leads the charge with over $150 million, followed by Texas with $114 million, and Florida with $110 million. 1.4 million tax-hating Americans have until April 15th of this year to claim and then the money goes straight to Goldman Sachs.

• SEC to beef up its NYC office in 2010 [Reuters]
Here’s a possible gig for those of you that are still looking for work. The not-so-new but constantly improving (?!?) SEC is looking to hire a few good men and women for its New York office. Having got the scratch to put a few more hands on deck, the Commission is looking for 18 people for its enforcement team and 15 for its examination staff. There’s no indication that this will solve the SEC’s “idiots” problem but maybe you can at least land a job.