Procrastination
If you prepare tax returns for a living, then you probably know that a few people are behind on filing theirs this year:
As of March 24, the Internal Revenue Service received 85.3 million tax returns, down 4.7 percent from the same point last year.
I suppose this is another area that is ripe for disruption by the Tax Prep Watsons of the world: last-minute filings.
As I mentioned last week, it seems we need a paperwork processing technology that can feed directly into Watson simply for these last-minute-shoebox client types. As long as people insist on all the paper and Intuit insists on people preparing their own returns, it seems that we’re going to need the the IBM Watson Receipt Eater 2100 more than ever. Plus, it won’t have ill feelings at all the stragglers bursting through the door on April 15th.
Tax evasion
Just when you thought it was safe to have a Swiss bank account again:
Credit Suisse Group AG, the second-largest Swiss wealth manager, faces a sweeping tax evasion and money laundering investigation spanning five countries and potentially involving thousands of account holders.
Investigators in the Netherlands arrested two people—seizing a gold bar, paintings and jewelry—and are probing dozens more suspected of concealing millions of euros in Swiss accounts, the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service said Friday. Criminal investigations are also underway in Australia, Germany, the U.K. and France and the roles of bank employees are part of the inquiries.
Entrepreneurs
Last week, Megan Lewczyk wrote about Elon Musk’s newest venture into uploading stuff to the human brain. And if you think that’s groundbreaking, he’s up to other important work as well:
On Wednesday night, the Tesla and SpaceX cofounder took to Twitter to share an unusual image: A flatulent mythical beast, surrounded by smiley faces, a rainbow, and a car appearing to vacuum up the unicorn’s gaseous emissions.
It wasn’t just a stroke of inspiration that Musk felt compelled to share with the world.
Instead, the famous entrepreneur used the image to show off a new hidden feature in Tesla’s cars: Sketch pad.
What did you do last week?
Previously, on Going Concern…
Marsha Leest wrote about happiness at work. In Open Items, someone’s curious to know if they really need a master’s degree.
In other news:
- How Uber Uses Psychological Tricks to Push Its Drivers’ Buttons
- Dow, DuPont Push Back Merger Date as Divestitures Begin
- Who’s Worth What at the White House: The Financial Disclosures
- April Fools’ pranks you may have missed.
- Banksy of punctuation
Get the Accounting News Roundup in your inbox every weekday by signing up here.
Image: Elon Musk/Twitter
