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Accounting News Roundup: Grant Thornton Cool with New Auditor Report, Still Worried About Getting Sued; KPMG Losing Standard Chartered?; Trimming Tax-Exempt Orgs | 08.23.13

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

Grant Thornton CEO on Proposal for a New Kind Of Auditor’s Report [CFOJ]
“The audit report hasn’t been changed in substance in 70 years and if this is what investors want then we need to meet the needs of investors,” said Ed Nusbaum, whose firm is one of the six largest global accounting networks. […] “There are some challenges with this, it won’t be an easy process,” Mr. Nusbaum said, explaining Grant Thornton’s lawyers will be looking at how to put the proposals into action “without getting sued.”

Computer Bugs and Squirrels: A History of Nasdaq’s Woes [DealBook]
1987: A troublesome squirrel | Just two months after a historic stock market crash, a stray squirrel touched off a power failure in Trumbull, Conn., that shut down the Nasdaq for 82 minutes, preventing an estimated 20 million shares from being traded. The squirrel lost its life.

1994: Another squirrel, and computer bugs | After running for years without interruption, Nasdaq suffered a series of technical breakdowns that summer. To cap it off, a squirrel chewed through an electric company’s power line, leading to a 34-minute interruption when the exchange’s own backup power system in Trumbull failed to kick in. “No one is yet ready to describe the recent problems as anything more than a run of bad luck,” The New York Times wrote at the time.
 
KPMG audit role is under threat at Standard Chartered [London Evening Standard]
Standard Chartered looks set to dump KPMG as auditor after four decades of its checking the bank’s books, as the seemingly cosy relationship between big business and its accountants is smashed in the wake of the financial crisis. The Evening Standard can reveal that the bank is putting the audit role out to competition in a move that will be seen as a victory for Pirc, the shareholder governance lobbying group. Last year Pirc called for KPMG to be sacked after alleging that the accountant had allowed Standard Chartered to overstate the strength of its 2011 accounts by $3.6 billion (£2.3 billion). KPMG, led in the UK by senior partner Simon Collins, earned $18.7 million from Standard Chartered last year.

Lew warns Congress to strike debt ceiling deal [FT]
Jack Lew, the US Treasury secretary, delivered his most extensive warning yet to Congress about the dangers of brinkmanship over the US debt ceiling, saying it would inflict broad damage to the economy in an “unnecessary self-inflicted wound”.

Pennsylvania Mulls First Statewide Plastic Bag Tax In The U.S. As 'Small Price To Pay' [Forbes]
It's cute when PA tries to be progressive.

How Optimism Can Hurt Your Team [HBR]
Probably not a problem for many of you, but we'll share just in case.

It's time to eliminate many tax-exempt status designations [DMWT]
Um, the NFL and NCAA are tax-exempt if that makes any sense.

Find Your Most Helpful Coworkers with One Email [Lifehacker]
This will work. You're welcome

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Business Looks to Republicans to Block Rules, Taxes [Bloomberg]
The Republican gains in Congress mean U.S. companies from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Wellpoint Inc. may be able to weaken or block what they consider President Barack Obama’s anti-business policies on health care, the environment, taxes and financial reform.

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The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Why Democrats Lost [HuffPo]
For the less-politically inclined.

With Recent Change, GAAP, IFRS Differ on How to Treat Debt [A&A Update/Compliance Week]
The International Accounting Standards Board recently finalized a change in International Financial Reporting Standards that tells companies to measure most liabilities at amortized cost, or the historical cost written down over time based on a schedule. Where a company might exercise an option to measure a liability at fair value, any changes in value would flow to equity via the “other comprehensive income” section of the income statement rather than profit and loss.

Major State Tax-Related Election Results [Tax Foundation]
Among them, Prop 19 (aka legalizing pot and taxing the hell out of it) failed.

Election 2010: What the Democratic Debacle Means for Fiscal Policy [TaxVox]
Washington is divided into two camps—those who believe divided government will open the door to compromise on tough fiscal issues, and those who don’t. Put me squarely in the second camp. We are already hearing conflicting messages from both President Obama and House Speaker-to-be John Boehner (R-OH). They give lip service to “working together” and the need for deficit reduction, but will do little of either. Here are five reasons why:

Frank reelected to 16th term [On the Money/The Hill]
But will lose the HFSC Chairmanship. Bob Herz might be enjoying this more than anyone.


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Knicks Postpone Home Game Before Tests Reveal No Threat From Absestos [Bloomberg]
All clear!

Accounting News Roundup: SEC Official Explains His Porn Habits; Private Companies May Embrace IFRS Quicker; New Bill Would Ax Tax Tardy Fed Employees | 03.04.10

• Porn Nightmare Never Ends for SEC Official [FINS]
Whatever your porn preferences, you’re probably not sharing them with complete strangers. If you are, the cloud of awkward around you has got to be so thick that you may as well have leprosy. However, if you have the unfortunate luck of getting caught viewing this art form at work, then you might be forced to discuss your preferences, how often you’re engaging in the activity, among other things:

[T]he really juicy stuff begins when he’s asked about accessing Web sites like tgirlhotspot.com and ladyboyx.com (warning, very NSFW): “Our records show that on Wednesday, August 13, 2008, beginning at 1:57 p.m., you made approximately 85 attempts…to access a Web site called tgirlhotspot.com. Do you have any recollection of attempting to access this site?”

The employee answers: “I do not personally have recollection of it, but it would not surprise me.” To which the inspector — and the reader — responds: “Okay. That’s fair.”

Seriously, who can remember every instance that they’ve visited ladyboyx.com? Does the guy have a photographic memory? Maybe on certain images but date, time, and spreadsheet you had open that you could quickly jump to in case someone came to close? That’s asking a little much.

• Should the U.S. Forget about Private-Company GAAP? [CFO Blog]
Now that the Blue Ribbon Panel for private company GAAP has been announced, it makes some people wonder if the non-SEC types will just ignore this whole song and dance the Commission is doing get with the IFRS program ASAP. Ahh, the advantages of being a private company…

Even though both the BRP and the SEC will release their musings on their respective topics in 2011, private companies already have options, “[T]he U.S. private sector has already set some IFRS wheels in motion. In 2008, AICPA recognized the IASB as an official standard-setter, which means U.S. auditors are allowed to issue opinions on private-company financial results filed using IFRS.”

It’s doubtful that IFRS reporting will spread like H1N1 among private companies but while the SEC twiddles the private sector seems to recognize where all this is ultimately going.

• Jason Chaffetz: Ax Hill staff tax cheats [Politico]
Since all the members of the House are up for reelection this year, everyone needs something solid to campaign on and apparently Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has found his stump.

Chaffetz is introducing legislation that would extend an IRS policy — termination employees that haven’t paid their federal taxes — to all federal departments and agencies.

In 2008 alone, 447 House employees and 231 Senate workers didn’t pay their taxes, according to figures from the IRS, Office of Personnel Management and Department of Defense.

“We have over 600 staffers on Capitol Hill not paying their taxes. That’s just not acceptable,” Chaffetz said in an interview with POLITICO. “It’s disingenuous to take federal taxpayer dollars and not pay your full share of taxes. It’s wrong.”

Between to the two bodies in Congress, over $8 million are owed in taxes. We don’t have to remind anyone how little money this is grand scope of the federal government. But hey! Rep. Chaffetz has an election to win and by God, this could be the ticket. Some other notable delinquent federal employees include the Postal Service at $257 million; Dept. of Veteran Affairs at $131 million; Army and Navy owe $81 million and $61 million respectively.

But pointing out those people wouldn’t make for very good press.