Author: Caleb Newquist

~ Annnnnnnd we’re back! We’ve gotten the all clear from the Google gods so peruse as you normally would. Sorry about yesterday and we really appreciate your patience. There are various theories as to who the culprits are and we’re utilizing enhanced interrogation methods to find out. Now, then. Who’s ready for Irene?

Hurricane Irene Tracker [NYT]
The heavy stuff won’t be coming down for quite awhile.

Evacuations, Transit Shutdown Eyed in City [WSJ]
As Hurricane Irene barreled toward the East Coast, New York City officials prepared for the possibility of evacuating hundreds of thousands of residents in low-lying areas and a full shutdown of the city’s transit system. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaking at a news conference from City Hall Thursday evening, said he could make a decision by 8 a.m. Saturday about evacuating the public from parts of the nation’s most populous city.

Tax Tips for Harvey Golub (and Other Millionaires) [WSJ]
Step 1: Fire your accountant.

Ex-Lehman Officers Seek $90 Million to End Lawsuit [WSJ]
Former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Richard Fuld and other directors and officers are seeking the release of $90 million in insurance funds to settle a potential multibillion-dollar lawsuit brought by shareholders of the failed investment bank. The pending settlement, filed Wednesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, would end a class-action suit that began in June 2008—about three months before Lehman filed for Chapter 11 protection.

Groupon Has ‘Never Been Stronger,’ Mason Says [Bloomberg]
“When I read some of the press this weekend, I realized a rational person could read this stuff and wrongly conclude that we’re in trouble,” Mason wrote in a memo sent to employees yesterday and obtained by Bloomberg News. “The irony is hopefully clear: We’ve never been stronger.”

For Some in G.O.P., a Tax Cut Not Worth Embracing [NYT]
In a turning of the tax policy tables, Democrats are increasingly hammering on Republicans who oppose the president’s proposal to extend for a year a payroll tax cut passed last year with bipartisan support. That tax cut — which reduces workers’ contributions to Social Security this year to 4.2 percent of wages, from 6.2 percent — expires in December. The White House would like to extend it for another year. But Republicans in Congress are balking, arguing that such a cut adds needlessly to the nation’s budget deficit, and should be replaced with an overhaul of tax policy instead.

Jobs Quits as Apple CEO [WSJ]
Apple said Mr. Jobs submitted his resignation to the board of directors on Wednesday and “strongly recommended” that the board name Mr. Cook as his successor. Mr. Job been elected chairman of the board and Mr. Cook will join the board, effective immediately, the company said. “I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know,” Mr. Jobs said in his resignation letter. “Unfortunately, that day has come.”

Management Faces Task of Keeping Momentum [WSJ]
The executives who will now run Apple without Mr. Jobs will face big tests of whether they can still excel in highly competitive businesses that often have small profit margins. “Can they hit the next home run?” asks Charles O’Reilly, a professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. “Because if they don’t, they’re in a bunch of bad businesses.”

Grant Thornton CEO on Mandatory Audit Rotation [CFOJ]
Nusbaum: “There’s a natural inclination among accounting firms for anything like mandatory firm rotation to raise the hair on the back of our necks and make us very nervous, because we don’t want to give up clients. We have a lot of clients and of course we always think we’re doing a great job with them. But I think we as a profession have to be open minded and look at all the ways we can improve audit quality. But it’s a difficult decision. The PCAOB is in the unique position to see how all the firms operate, to see how we do audits, what we do well and what we do poorly and how we can improve.”

Trust No One, Particularly Not Groupon’s Accountants [Grumpy Old Accountants]
The grumpies start really digging into Groupon.

Warning to budget mavens: ‘Tax expenditures’ may yield less than expected [WaPo]
Don’t forget, there are 180 tax expenditures in this tax code, which are really tax earmarks, which are really spending by any other name, and you get rid of those and start picking them off, and you can save billions and billions of bucks.

Buffett’s $7 Million Sacrifice Is Only a Start [Jonathan Weil/Bloomberg]
Whenever the leadership class feels nervous, you can count on some of them to offer the less-moneyed masses a bone to demonstrate they care. Warren Buffett says his idea of “shared sacrifice” is higher taxes on the super-rich. Only for him, this wouldn’t cost much.

Americans renounce citizenship over taxes [WFP]
Ohio-born Julie Veilleux spent the first eight years of her life in the United States but has lived in Canada for nearly 40 years. She became a Canadian citizen in 1995 and was told by the citizenship judge she was no longer an American. But Veilleux is among thousands of Canadians who could get caught up in a U.S. tax dragnet called the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative, or OVDI. It’s an amnesty program that promises reduced fines and penalties for Americans living abroad who catch up on unfiled tax returns. But it still threatens penalties of $10,000 or more for every bank account, RRSP or other savings account not declared from 2003 to 2010.

A Value-Added Tax Fuels Big Government [WSJ]
President Obama is now talking about a “balanced approach” to deficit reduction that includes a “revenue component” achieved by “tax reform.” Among the tax reforms getting attention is a value-added tax, or VAT. Similar to a sales tax […], the value-added tax has become a significant part of the revenue systems of Europe and also has been adopted by over 100 other nations. The VAT is believed to be a magical device that can stuff government coffers with money without untoward economic political consequences. It is no such thing.

The GOP will raise taxes — on the middle class and working poor [WaPo]
America’s presumably anti-tax party wants to raise your taxes. Come January, the Republicans plan to raise the taxes of anyone who earns $50,000 a year by $1,000, and anyone who makes $100,000 by $2,000. Their tax hike doesn’t apply to income from investments. It doesn’t apply to any wage income in excess of $106,800 a year. It’s the payroll tax that they want to raise — to 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent of your paycheck, a level established for one year in December’s budget deal at Democrats’ insistence. Unlike the capital gains tax, or the low tax rates for the rich included in the Bush tax cuts, or the carried interest tax for hedge fund operators (which is just 15 percent), the payroll tax chiefly hits the middle class and the working poor.

Biden Says He Didn’t Go to China ‘to Explain a Damn Thing’ About Economy [Bloomberg]
Some media had suggested the purpose of his trip to China was to “explain our economic situation,” Biden told U.S. troops at Yokota airbase in Japan today. “I didn’t come to explain a damn thing.”

Amtrak taps KPMG for fast-rail plan [BG]
Amtrak, the taxpayer-supported passenger railroad, has hired KPMG LLP to assist in developing a business and financial plan to have 220-miles-per-hour service between Washington and Boston by 2040. KPMG will lead a team of consultants that will help identify funding sources and maximize private investment, Amtrak said.

Iowa Priorities [Tax Update]
JK: “When Iowa really cares, it can move quickly.”

PwC US Appoints Dean Simone U.S. Risk Assurance Practice Leader [PwC]
Dean-o had been running both the Industrial Products and Risk Assurance prior to announcement.

America is GE’s tax haven [Reuters]
GE’s disclosures show that over the last decade it paid much lower tax rates in America than offshore, just the opposite of the Washington political mantra. Even more puzzling, the U.S. corporate giant chooses to take more of its profits in other lands despite the higher tax rates there. Given that GE […] has a roughly 1,000-person tax department dedicated to paying as little as possible in taxes, what the disclosures show is that something other than tax policy is driving GE’s business decisions.