Author: Caleb Newquist

Founding editor, Going Concern.

Is This PwC Auditor Your Next American Idol?

Everyone calm down. Steve Beguhn (we’ve finally confirmed the correct spelling) has a long way to go. But dude can sing. And he’s pretty funny.

The only problem I foresee is that I’ll have to start watching the show. For those of you on Facebook (i.e. everyone) you can ‘Like’ Steve here.

What do you guys think of Steve’s chances? Leave your well wishes or your best Simon Cowell critique in the comments.

UPDATE: Just a few particulars on Steve – he’s a Senior Associate in Milwaukee, has been with PwC since Fall of ’07 and interned prior to joining the firm full time. Oh, and he’s not in the office today, so if you’re around Steve, email me.

Accounting News Roundup: Obama’s Corporate Tax Overhaul; Mayor Doug Shulman; KPMG’s Advisory Hiring Push | 01.27.11

Obama’s Proposal to Simplify Tax Code Complicated by a Mix of Tax Breaks [Bloomberg]
President Barack Obama laid the groundwork for reducing the corporate tax rate and simplifying the tax code in his State of the Union address. He also erected a political hurdle to these efforts as they could lead to higher rates for millions of businesses. Obama said in the Jan. 25 speech that he wants to rid a “rigged” tax code of “loopholes” that allow some corporations to pay less than others, and would use the savings to reduce the top 35 percent corporate rate, one of the world’s highest. He also called for “millionaires to give up their tax break” after an extension of Bush-era tax cuts expires in 2013.

Blue-Ribbon Panel: Just Tweak GAAP for Now [CFO]
The blue-ribbon panel charged with addressing generally accepted accounting principles for private companies presented its recommendations to the Financial Accounting Foundation on Wednesday, in the form of a 70-page report the FAF is slated to consider at its next meeting in February. At its core, the report urges the FAF to create a separate board to modify existing GAAP for the needs of private for-profit companies, allowing for “differences, where warranted, in measurement, recognition, and presentation, and not just disclosure” between public and private companies. However, it stops short of asking for a radical departure from current norms. “At least in the near term, the system should focus on making exceptions and modifications to U.S. GAAP,” the report reads, “rather than move toward a separate, self-contained GAAP for private companies or a wholesale reorganization of GAAP.”

University of Texas at Dallas team takes top honors in AICPA competition [AW]
The students from the University of Texas took first place this past weekend in a national case competition sponsored by the AICPA that focused on enhancing sustainability practices at a business. For winning the AICPA Accounting Competition January 21, the team from Texas, which called itself Eco Consulting LLC, was awarded $10,000. Eco Consulting was comprised of students Dariel Dato-on, Diane Henry, Jinson Jose, and Jennifer Rauschuber. The students were advised by director of undergraduate accounting John Barden, CPA.

‘I’m like a mayor of a medium-sized city’: An interview with IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman [The Federal Coach/WaPo]
Like Wasilla?


KPMG advisory recruiters talk hiring [Vault]
This explains the flurry of emails from experienced hire recruiters.

Stewart CEO Leaves To Be Missionary After Differences With Chairman [Dow Jones]
Now who’s doing God’s work?

Lawsuit alleges San Carlos bookkeeper embezzled $4.8 million [SJMN]
The guilt finally got to Georgia Engelhart, who spent the last 30 years stealing the money from Don and Carole Tanklage’s company. She admitted to the embezzlement in a letter to the couple.

New York Will Probably Make Old People’s Lives Difficult If They Move to a Low-tax State

There’s a state fiscal crisis after all. Plus, old people have all the money.

[H]igh-tax states do not like to lose high-income emigrants, and will check to make sure that former residents really have moved and are not simply pretending that their winter home is their permanent domicile.

“New York is the most aggressive, probably followed by California,” said Bob Meighan of TurboTax. “New York has a long reach and will go after retirees, in particular.”


And one more thing – keep those receipts!

David Moise [of] WeiserMazar[s], said that there are two forces at work there. “More people are leaving because of the disparity in income and estate taxes, and New York is becoming much more aggressive about examining those people because there’s much more of a need for revenue,” he said.

“The state will come in and ask for ‘clear and convincing evidence’ that a person who keeps his New York ties has really moved to Florida, or elsewhere,” he said. At WeiserMazar[s], clients have had to produce phone bills, credit card statements, apartment measurements and EZ pass receipts to prove that they no longer spend most of their time in New York.

Low-tax states attract budget-conscious Americans [Reuters]

Accountant Helps Truth or Consequences, New Mexico Live Up to Its Name

As you might expect, it doesn’t have a happy ending.

Police say a Pueblo accountant suspected of setting fire to his ex-wife’s home committed suicide during a brief standoff with authorities outside of Truth or Consequences, N.M.

Pueblo Police Sgt. Mark Duran says 50-year-old Myron Todd Thomas immediately became a suspect in an arson fire early Tuesday at his ex-wife’s home. Police issued an alert to law enforcement in New Mexico and elsewhere.

Sierra County (New Mexico) sheriff’s deputies and New Mexico police contacted Thomas north of Truth or Consequences, about 380 miles south of Pueblo Tuesday afternoon.

Against a Picturesque Backdrop, Jim Quigley Talks Deloitte’s Hiring Spree, Obama’s Tone and Igniting the Entrepreneurial Spirit

Quigs sat down with Fox Business’s Liz Claman and hasn’t even tweeted about it!?!? Whoever his ghost tweeter is, they need to be replaced immediately.

Sidebar: has anyone noticed JQ’s new spectacles? Thoughts on the visible breath, scarf choice and Liz Claman’s interviewing technique are encouraged.

Jim Turley Wasn’t Impressed with the State of the Union

The Ernst & Young Global CEO chimed in di-rectly from Davos.

President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address failed to convince executives and economists at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting that he’s serious about taming the U.S. budget deficit.

Hours after Obama used the speech to propose a partial freeze on government spending, delegates at the conference in Davos, Switzerland, said the U.S. is lagging foreign counterparts in cutting a budget deficit of more than $1.2 trillion.

“There is an unwillingness to deal with the real gorilla in the room,” said Martin Sorrell, chief executive officer of advertiser WPP Plc. James Turley, CEO of Ernst & Young LLP, said, “we need a heck of a lot more action on it” and that Obama’s speech “lacked details.”

Should a Big 4 Loverboy Request a Transfer to Avoid a LDR?

Welcome to the Bachmann 2012 edition of Accounting Career Emergencies. In today’s edition, a Big 4 acceptee’s beloved is moving across the country while he’s stuck with his job in New York. Does he request a transfer, stick it out or simply choose love over money?

Does your career need a wake-up call? Got the busy season blues? Jealous because you’re not in Davos hobnobbing with great minds like yours? Email us at advice@goingconcern.com and we’ll remind you why you’re stuck in a broom closet somewhere in Iowa.

Back to our ockquote>Hi Caleb,

I graduated from a west coast college and moved to the New York after graduation with a few friends. I ended up going back to school out here (NY) and am getting my Masters in Accounting in June. I went through the accounting hiring process this past Fall and did much better than I expected, receiving offers from a few mid-tier firms and two from the Big 4. I ended up accepting an entry level audit position in a New York Big 4 office and am starting in the Fall (2011).

However, my girlfriend, who I am serious with, is getting transferred for work to the city I was born and raised in on the West Coast. I had always planned on working in New York for a few years and transferring/moving back closer to my family. Now I wish I had gone through the interview process for the specific west coast office where my family lives but I have already accepted my offer for the east coast office.

I know there are a lot of politics in the Big 4 and I don’t want to be viewed as a problem child/uncommitted by asking if I could transfer to the west coast before even working a day at the firm. And if I start in the New York office and want to transfer: first, I have no idea how long I would need to work there for for a transfer to be appropriate (both to ask for one as well as how long it would possibly take), and second, a long distance relationship would be stressful and not ideal (duh).

So, my two options seem to be:
a) Ask my HR contact at my firm or my manager I interviewed with about my situation and see what they can do.
b) Suck it up and work (a while? how long?) at the New York office until it’s an appropriate time to transfer.

Thanks in advance,
Lost but in Love

Dear LbiL,

I never thought I’d actually delve into relationship-cum–Big 4 career advice but luckily for you I have a similar experience so here goes nothing.

I know the LDR situation all too well, so we feel your pain. It can be good if you like space but it can be bad, well…obviously. What’s missing from your story is your better half’s side. Is her company requiring her to move to the west coast or is this her choice? If it’s the latter, did you discuss the potential ramifications of such a move? You say, “I wish I had gone through the interview process for the specific west coast office where my family lives but I have already accepted my offer for the east coast office,” but this is meaningless since we get the impression that you accepted your Big 4 dream job (with the intention to work in New York for “a few years”) prior to your girlfriend’s transfer.

Assuming you’ve talked this over with your g/f, she certainly has an opinion on the matter. If she can’t live with you being so far away, that sounds a bit needy (but maybe you like that). If she’s indifferent (i.e. she says, “do what you want” or “I don’t want you moving because of me”), perhaps she’s passive-aggressive, incapable of emotional intimacy or a little freaked out about the seriousness of the situation and doesn’t want to held responsible if things go wrong. If the two of you have actually sat down, talked it over and she says, “I’ll support you in your choice, whatever that may be,” you have a winner. But remember, ultimately it is your decision.

Now, then. Your firm. Odds are, they won’t be impressed with your request for a transfer straight out of the gate but situations similar to yours have surely come up in the past, so hopefully they’ll be sympathetic. Problem is – as you mentioned – transfers do involve the intricacies of the Big 4 bureaucracy so you’re looking at a slow process and they could just say, “no” or “right now we need you here but we’ll continue to work on it.” That being said, if moving back to to the left coast is really what you want to do, then you’ll never know unless you ask. Sooooo, ask the question (being prepared for “no”) and then go from there. If your firm isn’t accommodating you and you’re still head over heels in love, you can always quit and hitch it west. I hear they have accounting jobs out there. It may not come to that but we’d be remiss if we mention it as an option. Good luck.

Accounting News Roundup: State of the Union Disappoints Tax Wonks; Tui Investors Not Thrilled to Have PwC Back; Hope for Tax Reform in 2012 | 01.26.11

Obama’s State of the Union: What I Heard, And What I Did Not [TaxVox]
Howard Gleckman levels with us, “[W]e are policy wonks here at the Tax Policy Center, and from a wonk point of view, the speech was disappointing.”

CNN Fact Check: 16,500 IRS agents to police health care? [CNN]
The short answer: no.

No Audit At All: Deloitte and Bear Stearns [Forbes]
Francine McKenna takes a closer look at the lawsuit that was given the green light earlier this week.

IRS slaps lien on Goldman derivatives partnership [Reuters]
A Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) partnership that specializes in selling derivatives to U.S. municipalities owes $1.55 million in unpaid federal taxes. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service filed a federal tax lien against the Goldman partnership earlier this month for an unpaid balance of taxes from 2009. Although the tax assessment is a drop in the bucket for Goldman, which earned $8.35 billion in 2010, it’s another dose of unwelcome attention for a partnership that has already attracted unwanted scrutiny over its dealings with municipalities and state agencies.

Yahoo CFO Says Revenue Headwinds ‘At Their Worst’ In 1Q [Dow Jones]
Translation: you people shouldn’t expect much, “[Tim] Morse said he had previously cautioned investors about the impact of the search deal and suggested that Wall Street analysts had perhaps gotten ahead of the curve. ‘Some of the (financial) models I’ve seen out there were a little odd,’ he said.”

TUI saga continues: PwC reinstatement ‘unacceptable’ [AWUK]
In the latest twist of the TUI Travel saga, PIRC is opposing the appointment of PwC because it was the incumbent auditor when “fundamental flaws in internal controls” led to the discovery by KPMG of reporting inaccuracies. In a circular to shareholders, PIRC said: “The company is now seeking to reinstate PwC as auditor of the continuing entity which we regard as unacceptable.”


Baucus: Tax reform bill ‘hopefully’ in 2012 [On the Money/The Hill]
Maximus sounds tepidly optimistic.

UK not planning competition probe into auditors [Reuters]
Don’t hold your breath if you’re expecting anti-trust hearings.

How Will the Senate Screw Up the 1099 Repeal Bill This Time?

The upper chamber is making yet another run at repealing the 1099 requirement that was part of the healthcare overhaul despite miserable failures in the past.


The Hill reports that the new bill has 52 co-sponsors which lead you to believe that this time, repeal will be a cinch:

Senators reintroduced bills that would eliminate the 1099 requirement for businesses to report annual purchases of at least $600 from each vendor. Most Democrats, including the Obama administration, support repealing the provision, but lawmakers have clashed over how to offset the $19 billion in lost revenue.

A bill introduced Tuesday by Sens. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) and Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) authorizes the Office of Management and Budget to identify unobligated federal funds to cover the cost of repeal.

“It’s a bad policy; it hurts businesses and it should be repealed, enough said,” Johanns said in a conference call with reporters.

The measure has 52 co-sponsors including 12 Democrats: Sens. Mark Begich (Alaska), Michael Bennet (Colo.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Manchin, Ben Nelson (Neb.), Mark Pryor (Ark.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Jon Tester (Mont.), Mark Udall (Colo.), Mark Warner (Va.).

With such an overwhelming show of bipartisan support the only issue now is who will get the credit for saving small business as we know it?

Both parties have seized on the 1099 requirement to score political points. Republicans are posing repeal of 1099 as part of their promise to chip away at the reform law, while Democrats are touting it as a sign of their willingness to improve the current law.

Just for the sake of spiteful mischief, we’re hoping this goes nowhere (any and all theories on how they manage to do that are encouraged). Stay tuned!

Senators introduce bipartisan 1099 repeal bill [On the Money/The Hill]

Someone Would Like to Qualify Plante & Moran’s Fortune Ranking

From the mailbag:

The firm would be a great place for a new hire and/or intern. They offer competitive starting salaries along with a great support system and culture. I don’t know exactly how Fortune determines their ranking. If they surveyed newer staff and partners, they are going to look great every time, which seems to be the case.

There are some serious compensation issues for managers. How does a base of [70k-ish] sound (with potential bonus up to a staggering 8%)? How about a [marginal raise] over a 2.5 year period while [being promoted] that same time frame? The partner:staff ratio is so upside down that it is no wonder why they try and keep managers’ salaries so low. Some of the senior partners are a joke to try and rationalize with. I did my best, but couldn’t convince them what market salary was for a manager. I told them good luck.

Earlier:
The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: Plante & Moran #26 (2011)

A Mountain of Hate Mail Gets FASB to Backtrack on Fair Value

If the drinks at Davos weren’t already free, we’re pretty sure Stephen Schwarzman would be buying.

From the Journal’s man on the accounting beat, Michael Rapoport:

Accounting rule makers took a key step Tuesday to reverse a proposal that would have required banks to value their loans based on the ups and downs of the market. The Financial Accounting Standards Board agreed that companies could continue to carry a variety of financial assets and liabilities at amortized cost, an adjusted version of their original cost, as they do now. That would reverse a proposal the board introduced last May that would have required bank loans and other financial assets to be carried at “fair value,” based on market prices.

What happened, you ask? What caused the FASB to fold like a cheap lawn chair? Remember all those nastygrams that were sent to Bob Herz? It sounds like the FASB took those personally:

FASB indicated the overwhelmingly negative reaction to its proposal, from companies and investors alike, played a big role in prompting the board to change its mind. The board received more than 2,800 comment letters on its fair-value proposal, most of them opposed to the move, and heard more opposition at a series of public roundtables before it began reconsideration of its proposal for fair-value changes.

So the bankers win this round. Oh, wait…they win every round.

Accounting Board Backs Off ‘Mark to Market’ Push [WSJ]

The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: KPMG #86 (2011)

Wrapping up our review of the mother of all employer lists, is everyone’s favorite four-letter word, KPMG. Since we’ve had about all we can stand of this, let’s get right to it.


KPMG – Previous rank: #88. How does the firms make up for the lack of sherpas? They appeal to employees’ desire to give back, reports Fortune, “Employees of the U.S. branch of the auditing firm get 12 paid hours to volunteer each year and can leave at 3 p.m. Fridays in the summer [Ed. note: while keeping in mind the needs of clients].”

Stats of note:
• New Jobs (1 year): -1,043
• % Job Growth (1 year): -5%
• % Voluntary Turnover: 15%
• No. of Job Openings at 1/13/2010: 5,000
• Most common salaried job: Senior Associate – $73,300
• % Minorities: 27%
• % Women: 48%

Compared to last year’s stats, new jobs and percentage job growth have improved while voluntary turnover jumped 3%. Average salary for the most common job was down from $78k last year, number of job openings nearly doubled and percentage of minorities and women were unchanged. So a slight improvement for KPMG this year in the F100BCTWF and nary a mention of the possibility of more free flesh in the future.

Annnnd so, that wraps up the coverage for this year’s Fortune rankings. The biggest takeaways being the ascension of Plante & Moran and Ernst & Young’s massive drop while the other three amigos managed to improve slightly but they all managed to extend their streak of years on the list. Look for a flier boasting this arbitrary victory in an office near you.

Earlier:
The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: Plante & Moran #26 (2011)
The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: Deloitte #63 (2011)
The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: PwC #73 (2011)
The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: Ernst & Young #77 (2011)
The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: KPMG #88