Blockchain
Last year, KPMG announced a "strategic alliance" with Microsoft, one of the many instances of a mega professional services firm teaming up with a mega technology company. Today we learn that strategic alliance will now include blockchain things:
Global accounting firm KPMG yesterday launched a suite of tools designed to help banks and other financial services firms build with blockchain in a compliant way.
A formalization of its work with distributed ledgers, the Amsterdam-based accounting firm that last year generated $24bn revenue, in turn, has expanded its partnership with Microsoft to integrate with its blockchain-as-a-service toolkit.
BaaS, naturally. KPMG head of Digital Ledger Services says, "We're bringing our own pre-existing process expertise and regulatory expertise to the table in combination with our blockchain expertise." With all the excitement about how revolutionary blockchain is, you can always count on accounting firms to take the sexy out. Which is fine! It's just that is sounds like boring ol' consulting stuff:
KPMG's Digital Ledger Services are designed to include "full life-cycle support" of blockchain application development, which means the firm is offering a range of services, from business case development to systems and operations integration.
The support combines management consulting and risk consulting with regulation "as the backbone" of the work, according to the firm.
This is your blockchain future, business world: more consultants.
Non-GAAP worries
If you'd like a good example of a company putting the "adjusted" in adjusted earnings, look no further than Perrigo:
Quarter after quarter, the Dublin, Ireland-based maker of generic drugs relied on one-time expenses and novel terms like “organic net sales” to highlight a string of profits on its own adjusted terms. In its full-year 2015 report, Perrigo listed $1.09 billion in adjusted profit. The word “loss” was used sparely, despite a net loss of $33 million using non-adjusted accounting that adheres to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, known as GAAP.
It was the biggest percentage disparity last year between adjusted and GAAP figures among companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The graph accompanying the Bloomberg story is a thing to behold: Perrigo's largest GAAP gap occurred in Q2 2016, around the time the SEC issued new rules on reporting and presenting adjusted figures.
Perrigo is the perfect non-GAAP poster child, reporting "record" profits based on non-GAAP numbers, excluding recurring "one-time" events every period and paying bonuses to its executives based on those adjusted results. It's an impressive display.
Elsewhere: Non-GAAP Measures: Worth the Hassle?
Happy September 15th!
Hey, look at that! Today is do or die for all your extended 1065, 1120, 1120S and 1041 returns. Hopefully all of you do and none of you die. As usual, Joe Kristan has your last-minute procedures.
I remember my last September 15th working as a CPA: It was the day that Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. Those were good times. Haha, not really.
Has Donald Trump released his tax returns?
Nope! But Vice News filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the IRS "demanding that the agency turn over all audits of Trump's tax returns from 2002 onward." Vice requested "expedited processing" since, you know, the election is going to be here soon and FOIA requests aren't always handled speedily.
Elsewhere, Donald Trump Jr. said Sr. won't release his "12,000-page tax return" because "that would create … financial auditors out of every person in the country asking questions that would detract from [his father’s] main message." Let me be the first to say that we would welcome more auditors for, obviously, selfish reasons.
Previously, on Going Concern…
I wrote about KPMG kicking an annoying client to the curb.
In other news:
- Impeachment Vote on IRS Head Delayed by Deal to Hold Hearing
- Who benefits from tax subsidies for home ownership?
- What It Feels Like to Ride in a Self-Driving Uber
- "The Wi-Fi kiosks in New York were designed to replace phone booths and allow users to consult maps, maybe check the weather or charge their phones. But they have also attracted people who linger for hours, sometimes drinking and doing drugs and, at times, boldly watching pornography on the sidewalks."
- Man arrested for speeding in DeLorean at 88mph
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