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Accounting News Roundup: Swiss Firms to Get PCAOB Oversight; Some Married Gay Couples Refuse to Lie on Tax Returns; ADP Founder Dies | 04.05.11

Swiss Accounting Firms to Get U.S. Oversight [WSJ]
The agreement between the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and Swiss authorities, announced Monday, allows the PCAOB to review Swiss audit firms whose clients trade in the U.S., including multinational companies with operations in Switzerland. The PCAOB conducts regular inspections of the audit firms under its purview to assess their performance and their compliance with accounting rules and professional standards.

Discover names Graf as new CFO, replacing Guthrie [BBW]
Discover Financial Services on Monday named R. Mark Graf its new chief financial officer, replacing Roy A. Guthrie, who is retiring from the position after six years. Graf, 46, will also hold the titles of executive vice president and chief accounting officer for the Riverwoods, Ill.-based credit card company beginning April 11. He most recently worked as an investment advisor with private equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners in New York.

Married Gay Couples ‘Refuse to Lie’ on Tax Forms [Bucks/NYT]
Some same-sex married couples are refusing to file their federal tax returns separately this tax season, as part of a movement demonstrating that they’re no longer content to quietly comply with the federal law that does not recognize same-sex marriage. And in some cases, these taxpayers will pay Uncle Sam more when they do so.

The Curious Case of the Fed Analyst Fired After Asking Too Many Questions [JDA]
A very interesting and thought-provoking post from AG (sans f-bombs).

Ventry Presents Americans Hate Paying Taxes Today at Seattle [TaxProf Blog]
From the abstract: DUH.

The Gnome of Nebraska: Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, and Self-Dealing [Forbes]
Francince is not impressed with the whimsical, folksy investing advice from O-squared (or cubed, if you prefer).

“Bloomberg Thinks He’s Stopping People from Smoking” [ATR]
Loosies are the new black market gold mine in Manhattan.


Henry Taub, a Founder of a Payroll Firm That Became a Global Giant, Dies at 83 [NYT]
Henry Taub, a founder of the payroll company that grew into the global giant Automatic Data Processing, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 83 and lived in Tenafly, N.J.

AICPA: Financial Instruments Compromise Potentially Flawed [JofA]
Although we recognize the need for convergence, the current proposal does not address many issues and may not be conceptually sound,” FinREC said in a letter to FASB. “Due to the short comment deadline, we do not have sufficient data to provide adequate input, which makes it difficult to determine whether this proposed Standard would work in practice.”

Posted in ANR