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Accounting News Roundup: Border Adjustment and Deloitte’s New Tax Boss | 01.30.17

Posted on by Caleb Newquist
When no other image will do, you get cuddly creatures

Wall financing

Tony Nitti did some Yeoman’s work late last week, explaining the border adjustment tax that has been floated as a possibility for paying for President Trump’s proposed border wall. And if you read that and are still confused, consider the avocado.

Deloitte Tax’s new boss

If you enjoy a nice word salad, go ahead and read this press release about Steve Kimble becoming the new Chairman and CEO of Deloitte Tax. Here’s the quote someone wrote for him:

We continue to operate in a rapidly changing and increasingly digital global business environment, which creates both challenges and opportunities. As we navigate the rapid pace of change, I look forward to working closely with the companies we serve to provide high quality tax services and business insights. I’m also committed to developing agile talent and building the next generation of tax leaders to differentiate Deloitte in the marketplace.

Elsewhere in buzzy press releases: EY launches Future Work Now to put human back in human resources

Accountants behaving badly

Perhaps this is a stretch for “accountant” but a “treasury specialist” has been charged with the “largest embezzlement in Western Pennsylvania history.” The US Attorney’s Office alleges that Cynthia Mills helped herself to $9.5 million from Matthews International, “a conglomerate best known for manufacturing funeral products.” From 1999 to 2015, Mills somehow directed funds into bank accounts controlled by her and her husband. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article includes an impressive forfeiture list that includes everything from houses to boats to six pages of fur coats.

Previously, on Going Concern…

In Open Items, someone wants to know if it makes sense to go back to audit from tax.

In other news:

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Weighing the Worth of an External Audit [Compliance Week]
Does the external audit still have value? Some people have questioned that notion. Despite that grave assessment, there are still many that believe that the external audit has value. However, most have no illusions about the challenges before the profession.

Colleen Cunningham has a post up at Compliance Week with her thoughts:

[W]e need a fundamental shift away from the rules and complex accounting standards we currently use in the United States. The move to International Financial Reporting Standards would certainly help. IFRS is based more on principles and concepts, and while some people worry that these are “lesser” standards than U.S. GAAP, I believe that we will see more transparency about choices, options, and assumptions through enhanced disclosure under IFRS…

Perhaps the audit opinion should be less boilerplate to allow the auditors to provide more information and commentary. This could add needed transparency. Unfortunately, the litigious environment in which we operate would make this a risky proposition.

We like these ideas but more information and commentary would mean…more professional judgment! Hopefully the PCAOB would be okay with that idea because the trend seems to be that auditors can’t be trusted to do their jobs.

Dixon Hughes will close GSO site, shift staff to H.P. [Triad Business Journal]
Dixon Hughes is the latest firm to pull up the stakes in Greensboro, North Carolina. What is going on down there?

Jones Soda Announces Change of External Audit Firm [Market Wire]
Organic soda company drops Deloitte. Peterson Sullivan will take it from here.

AICPA Submits Comment Letter on IRS PTIN Proposal [Journal of Accountancy]
The AICAP submitted a letter to the IRS re: the proposed reg that would, among other things, require Preparer Tax Identification Numbers (PTIN) for tax professionals that don’t sign the returns. T

he AICPA isn’t so thrilled with this idea, and the JofA reports some of their thoughts, “(1) a successful implementation of registration and use of PTINs, along with the imposition of Circular 230 on all preparers should be sufficient to address unethical and/or incompetent tax return preparation and provide tremendous gains to tax administration in general; (2) it may cause confusion among taxpayers about the relative qualifications of tax return preparers; and (3) the additional burdens to the tax preparers and pass through of these costs to the taxpaying public should be considered.”