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Accounting News Roundup: Inversion Crackdown; Manager? No, Thanks; KPMG Gonna Try Audit Transparency | 09.23.14

U.S. Acts to Curb Firms’ Moves Overseas to Avoid Taxes [NYT]
The Treasury Department figured it had to do something since Congress won't be acting any time soon: "The guidelines use existing Treasury regulations to crack down on complicated transactions like internal loans, stock purchases and sales that such inverted companies use to substantially reduce the tax they owe in the United States. They would short-circuit so-called hopscotch loans — when an American parent company uses its foreign subsidiary’s earnings without paying United States taxes — making the loans count as American property."

Tesco's New CFO to Join Early [WSJ]
Alan Stewart to the rescue! "Mr. Stewart had been scheduled to join Tesco from rival retailer Marks & Spencer PLC on Dec. 1, but his start date was brought forward after the supermarket chain disclosed the accounting issue and suspended four executives on Monday. The earlier-than-planned arrival of the new CFO fills a vacancy in Tesco's executive suite that has plagued the retailer for months, one of a number of problems for the company, whose share price has fallen nearly 40% this year."

Most People Don’t Want to Be Managers [HBR]
Reason #1: They're happy where they are; Reason 2: They don't want to work more hours. "When survey respondents were asked why they weren’t eyeing managerial roles, the majority (52%) said they were satisfied in their current roles, and a third (34%) said they didn’t want to sacrifice work-life balance. About one-fifth said they didn’t have the necessary degree or skills."

KPMG in audit transparency drive [Telegraph]
The firm is "inviting all of its listed clients to include detailed commentary from a senior audit partner," and they're being all "aw, shucks" about it: " 'The FRC put some guidance out last year, and it wasn't very prescriptive, but it did encourage audit firms to be bold and so what we felt we would try and just go the extra mile to be more transparent,' said Tony Cates, UK head of audit at KPMG." 

No.

Cop Crashes Into Donut Shop [Jalopnik]
Runnin' into Dunkin'.

Posted in ANR