Obamacare Ruling May Be Bad News For Stressed Tax Code [Forbes]
In its long-awaited decision on the Affordable Care Act, the Supreme Court has ruled that Congress can require people to either have health insurance or pay a tax if they don’t. Because the High Court found that the penalty for not having coverage is a tax and not a fee or a banana, it ruled Congress has the constitutional authority to impose such a levy. In effect, the 5-4 decision written by Chief Justice Roberts concluded that Congress can tax you for failing to acquire insurance. Thus, the mandate as created by the ACA is constitutional.
California small business owner: Health care ruling means outsourcing jobs, layoffs [Washington Post]
"First of all, in my business, the first step will be to start cutting costs and that means cutting jobs. With all the requirements that the government will be instituting, I will be minimizing my risk. For many, that will begin with the investment they have in their labor force. If at all possible, I will be outsourcing those jobs that we presently do in house, such as accounting and payroll and anything else I can outsource to save labor costs. I am sure other companies will be doing the same. I predict that there will now be massive layoffs in the private sector in order to accommodate this legislation."
Is Accounting a Popularity Contest? [The Natchez Democrat]
In one small Mississippi town, it's not what you know.
Global accounting standards body itself in a tax bind in UK [The Hindu Business Line]
The International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation, parent entity of the mighty International Accounting Standard Board, made a £460,000 provision last year for a potential tax settlement with Britain’s HM Revenue and Customs, in a case that could prove highly embarrassing for the standards-setting body. In its Annual Report published earlier this month, the IFRS Foundation pointed to a £460,000 provision made for a tax settlement with the HMRC following a review begun by the UK tax authority of “all records for inward bound expatriate staff and general compliance with employment tax, i.e., income tax and national insurance obligations”. Discussions are on though the Foundation has made, at HMRC’s request, a £24,000 ‘no liability, no prejudice’ payment, pending final demand. The Foundation is not elaborating.
Switching auditors not enough to end fraud-experts [Reuters]
Making U.S. companies switch or rotate auditors every few years would not end audit failures, and regulators should consider additional measures to protect investors, former securities regulators and legal experts said on Thursday. The auditing profession has become a comfortable oligopoly and its basic product has become suspect, said Harold Williams, former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, at a forum in San Francisco. "I support mandatory rotation but I am not sanguine that it will produce the desired result."
Morgan Stanley Names Ex-FASB Head Robert Herz to Board [Business Week]
Morgan Stanley, the sixth-largest U.S. bank by assets, named former Financial Accounting Standards Board Chairman Robert Herz to its board of directors, bringing it to 14 members. Herz, who led FASB from 2002 to 2010, will join the board on July 2 and serve on the audit committee, New York-based Morgan Stanley said today in a statement. He has served on the board of Fannie Mae (FNMA) (FNMA) since June 2011.
