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Accounting News Roundup: Pain in the IFRS; More Mergers; Show Us Your Work | 06.20.14

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

Cincinnati’s biggest, oldest local accounting firms merging [Cincinnati Business Courier]
They're like the KPMG of Cincinnati.

Audit firm EY appealing HK court ruling that says China law does not protect papers [Reuters]
Audit firm EY said on Friday it would appeal a Hong Kong court's ruling that Chinese law does not protect the working papers of mainland companies and suggested the regulator in Beijing deal directly with its counterpart in the former British colony.

Auditor Says CNPC Accounting Error Understated 2012 Profit [Bloomberg]
“We find through our auditing that CNPC has problems in areas such as operations and internal management, and some managers may have violated laws and regulations,” the auditor said in the statement. “We have submitted our findings on violations to related departments for further investigation.”

Banks expect to set aside more capital following IFRS 9 accounting changes [Out-Law]
More than 50% of banks questioned believe the International Financial Reporting Standards 9 (IFRS 9) rules will increase the amount that banks have to hold to cover loans by up to 50%, Deloitte said. A total of 70% of banks expect the new provisions "to exceed current regulatory measures, potentially increasing the amount of capital that banks will need to hold", said Deloitte.

Digital pressure to fall on government: Deloitte [ZDNet]
A new report by Deloitte has singled out six industries — mainly of which contain government-owned corporations — that it believes will be subject to the next wave of "digital disruption".

Shape up or shift out, KPMG warns investment managers [Destiny Man]
Tom Brown, KPMG International global head of investment management says business models currently adopted by asset management firms will no longer fit with a diverse and maturing generation-Y client base whose wants and expectations are evolving. “We are on the verge of the biggest shake-up the industry has experienced and the message to asset managers is clear: adapt to change or your business won’t survive.

Judge lets DoJ proceed with fraud case against Bank of America [Reuters]
A North Carolina judge ruled on Thursday that a Justice Department lawsuit against Bank of America Corp could move forward, allowing the complainant 30 days to file its amended petition. The Department of Justice's lawsuit accuses Bank of America of civil fraud in the sale of mortgage securities that soured during the global financial crisis.

Conservatives Are Losing Their Way on Taxes [NRO]
Per a Heritage Foundation wonk: "It is better to give a man a fish rather than to teach him to fish, in other words."

Higher taxes do not kill jobs [Aljazeera America]
Our pal David Cay Johnston opines.

Ex-CBS Anchor Arrested for Calling His Wife 121 Times in Three Days [Gawker]
Sounds like my ex-husband, which is why he is my ex-husband.

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Accounting News Roundup: Rangel Routs Opponent in Primary; Deloitte Still Making the Rounds, Crying “Help Wanted”; 1099 Debate Continues | 09.15.10

Despite ethics cloud, Rangel easily wins primary [WaPo]
“Facing ethics charges in Washington and upstart challengers at home, Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) won a resounding victory Tuesday to keep the Harlem-based House seat that he has easily controlled for 40 years.

Rangel, the ousted Ways and Means Committee chairman who has been charged with 13 counts of violating House rules, ran an aggressive campaign for the Democratic nomination, betting that the people who have known him longest – voters in the 15th Congressional District – would send him back to Capitol Hill with a political victory before the House ethics committee tries him laternext year.”

Deloitte Will Hire 250,000 over Five Years: Across All Regions, Businesses and Levels of Experience [FINS]
Jim Quigley is still making the rounds since Deloitte announced their revenues for FY 2010 on Monday but more surprisingly, the 250k jobs over the next five years number hasn’t been corrected. Call us party poopers but adding the entire city of Lexington, Kentucky to your workforce in half a decade seems a tad ambitious but whatevs.

Anyway, FINS ran Quigs down and Julie Steinberg informs us “Deloitte is looking to hire in all regions, but it expects growth in priority markets like China and India,” which means you might think about picking up some Rosetta Stone. JQ is also quoted saying those that are “internationally-oriented, diverse in background and skill sets, and have strong teamwork skills,” will make the best candidates.

Obviously Chris Dodd Didn’t Realize He Was Referring To Himself At The Time [JDA]
“Apparently Chris Dodd is a little butthurt about the idea of an Elizabeth Warren-led consumer protection bureau, as he well should be. Who exactly do you think she would be there to protect the consumer from? Scandalous pricks like Dodd who think backdoor deals are notches in the belt of a good political career. What scares him? Warren doing more than terrorizing small financial institutions like a good little consumer protection bitch would? Surely he’s smart enough to wipe his own bloody footprints off the floor before slinking off, why is he so afraid of this suggestion and why wasn’t he smart enough to write his fucking bill so it couldn’t?”


ICAEW chief says audit quality remains strong [Accountancy Age]
The Brits are pretty pleased with how the auditing is going, despite what the Audit Inspection Unit’s report says. So much so, ICAEW Chief Michael Izza blogged about it, “The most important message to be taken from the work of the AIU is that there are no systemic problems with the quality of audit of UK listed companies, nor in the processes followed by the firms who carry out these audits.”

Wallace book about IRS office coming out April 15 [AP]
The next novel, “The Pale King,” from late David Foster Wallace will bet set in an IRS office and will be released April 15, 2010.

Why Congress Shouldn’t Tax 1099s [The Atlantic via Tax Update Blog]
“[N]o one is suggesting that this law will do much of anything to close America’s ‘tax gap’ (the gap between what the IRS thinks taxpayers should pay, and what they actually do). The tax gap is almost $300 billion; the new law would reduce that by perhaps a half a percent. “

Accounting News Roundup: Olympus Culture ‘Rotten to the Core’; NYC Schools Ex-CFO’s Email Use; Your Florida Tax Scam Du Jour | 12.07.11

The Culture Was Corrupt at Olympus, Panel Finds [NYT]
An outside panel appointed by Olympus to investigate its financial scandal issued a harsh report Tuesday, calling the company’s recently departed management “rotten to the core.” The panel, led by a former Japanese Supreme Court judge, also details the roles it claims were played by three former Nomura bankers in arranging a cover-up, and it says Olympus paid the bankers for their efforts. It also criticizes Olympus’s auditors, KPMG AZSA and Ernst & Young ShinNihon, for failing to expose fraud at the company.

PCAOB Warns of Audit Concerns introng> [AT]
The alert aims to help auditors identify matters that require additional attention. “Today’s volatile economic environment may affect companies’ operations and financial reporting, which has implications for audits,” said PCAOB chairman James R. Doty in a statement. “The alert reminds auditors of their responsibilities under these conditions.”

Olympus auditors trashed by investigators [Accountancy Age]
KPMG’s unqualified audit report in March 2009 was “inappropriate” and relied too heavily on outside experts’ opinion of Olympus accounting, the committee concluded. Ernst & Young was appointed auditor later that year and the investigation criticised the firm for allowing a questionable consulting fee to be treated as goodwill. “Even when we account for the fact that they [had] just assumed their position as auditor and they lacked knowledge of the past events, we cannot conclude this was appropriate,” the committee said.

Schools’ Ex-CFO Is Fined [WSJ]
The former chief financial officer for New York City schools has been fined $6,500 for using his city email account to line up his next job and manage his personal real-estate investments. An investigation earlier this year found that George Raab, who was responsible for handling the department’s roughly $20 billion operating budget, had started planning his “exit strategy” from the Department of Education less than a year after he started in October 2008.

IRS Backs Off On Penalties Against Billionaire Leon Cooperman [Forbes]
As detailed in a U.S. Tax Court settlement filing, Cooperman still is required to pay nearly $14 million plus interest to cover what the IRS said was a non-tax deductible contribution. But Cooperman, who said he had acted in good faith when he followed bad advice from tax advisers, doesn’t have to pay the $5 million the IRS originally demanded in accuracy-related penalties. His bill now for penalties: a mere $29,191.


South Florida residents in $120M tax fraud bust [SFBJ]
They are accused of filing more than 380 false tax returns for 180 clients from 30 states. They requested more than $120 million in fraudulent tax refunds. Most of the tax returns were filed for the 2008 tax year, and the forms reported personal debt obligations as both income and federal tax withholding. Holding seminars in Florida and Tennessee, the defendants told prospective clients about a “redemption theory” where they could ask the IRS for refunds to cover their outstanding personal debt, according to federal authorities. The clients paid $750 for the preparation of the tax return and agreed to share 10 percent of their tax refund with the defendants.

FASB, IASB Chiefs Agree New Convergence Model is Needed [JofA]
The heads of the U.S. and international accounting boards that have been working to resolve standards differences agree that their current convergence process should be replaced by one that is more manageable and effective. FASB Chair Leslie Seidman said Tuesday at the AICPA National Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments that side-by-side convergence is not the optimal model in the long run. Hans Hoogervorst, chair of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), spoke immediately after Seidman at the conference in Washington and echoed her sentiment.

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Accounting News Roundup: Workers vs. Owners; KPMG Quits Liberty Tax Audit; Fraud and Strippers | 12.11.17

Tax Plans May Give Your Co-Worker a Better Deal Than You [NYT] The tax bill […]