Accounting News Roundup: MF Global Execs Still Clueless; The Gingrich Tax Plan; Let’s Play Chief Accountant for a Day | 12.13.11

Ed note: Good morning capital market servants. I have some business affairs to attend to for a good portion of the day and Adrienne is off (wish her a Happy Birthday, wouldja?), so posting will be on the light side. That doesn't mean you should just sit waiting for accounting gossip to fall from the sky like manna.  Email us any holiday rumors, news or your career conundrums and someone will get to it.

Top MF Global Execs Say They Don’t Know How Funds Went Missing [Bloomberg]
Henri Steenkamp, chief financial officer of MF Global, and Bradley Abelow, the firm’s president and chief operating officer, said in testimony prepared for a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing today that they still don’t know the location of the funds.

Study: Gingrich tax plan aids wealthy, adds to deficit [The Hill]
Under the Gingrich model, corporations would face a maximum tax rate of 12.5 percent and individuals would pay a flat 15 percent, both down from a current 35 percent. The Georgia Republican would also scrap taxes on capital gains, get rid of the Alternative Minimum Tax and eliminate most tax credits and deductions.  According to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, that plan would reduce revenues by around 35 percent – almost $1.3 trillion – in 2015. It would also give the top 0.1 percent of taxpayers, on average, a tax cut of either $1.9 million or $2.3 million in 2015, depending on if the Bush tax cuts were extended. In all, the wealthiest taxpayers would owe the federal government a tenth of their earnings, compared to the current 38 percent, the tax center found. 

Olympus ex-CEO faces battle to win over shareholders [Reuters]
Michael Woodford faces a tough battle to regain the top job at Japan's Olympus Corp (7733.T) and repair the damage of a $1.7 billion accounting fraud he helped uncover — few Japanese shareholders or staff can be heard calling for his return. Only 300 people have lent their names to an online campaign for his reinstatement as chief executive, set up last month by a former director, compared with the workforce of 40,000 people at the maker of cameras and medical equipment.

Regulator probes Deloitte auditing of RBS [Reuters]
"We are confident that we properly fulfilled our responsibilities as auditor, and are satisfied that our work was thorough and carried out in compliance with auditing standards and appropriate regulatory requirements," a Deloitte spokesman said.