• Bernanke Signals ‘Extended’ Low-Rate Period May Become Longer – In other words, we’re going to start blowing bubbles. Don’t worry, it’s fun! [Bloomberg]
• America’s Newest Land Baron: FDIC – Anyone looking for “a failed condo development on a noisy freeway ramp next to a Motel 6, a Waffle House and a Do-It-Yourself Pest Control.” Sheila Bair is selling. [WSJ]
• Volcker Criticizes Accounting Proposal – Criticism like the idea for the Treasury Department, FDIC, and the Fed to oversee accounting rules is ‘terrible’. [NYT]
• Playboy CFO Resigining – Linda Havard is ‘looking forward to new challenges’ after a dozen years on the job. Tracking Viagra expenses for the founder just doesn’t float her boat anymore. [CT]
Author: Caleb Newquist
Founding editor, Going Concern.
Review Comments | 11.16.09
• 15M+ taxpayers could unexpectedly owe taxes – That’s never good. [NYDN]
• GMAC Chief Resigns – The Board was sick of “just one more round of TARP and that’s it” routine. More fun facts here. [WSJ]
• The Return of Bell Bottoms – Homebuyer credits, bell bottoms, and drugs. [Tax Update Blog]
• Battle Lines Drawn Over Who Governs Accounting Rules – FASB…it’s…all…slipping…away… [Compliance Week]
Charlie Rangel’s Name to Appear on Tax Scofflaw Website?
Maybe! The State of New York remains in a fiscal crisis and is so desperate for money that apparently all ideas are being considered. According to the Daily News, the latest bright idea from Albany is to publish the top 200 businesses and the top 200 individual delinquents on the Internet apparently to shame those delinquents into paying their share.
Everybody seems to think it’s a good idea but can’t agree on who should be handling it. The State Tax Department would prefer that they put the list up themselves but legislators in Albany smell populism:
Tax officials say they oppose the law, preferring to enact the measure administratively.
Given the fiscal crunch, the state tax department has already increased its efforts to go after tax scofflaws.
The department can’t commit to creating a list until it explores the “resources we need,” particularly in a time of fiscal crisis, Burns said.
[Assemblyman William Colton (D-Brooklyn)] said he wants it done soon. “When the state desperately needs dollars to provide services to schools, hospitals and nursing homes, we don’t have time to wait,” he said. “We need to get this program implemented.”
Well played, Assemblyman. But obviously the important question is: will Rangs have to give up his rent controlled apartments? It’s important.
Expose tax cheats’ Web of deceit – pols [NYDN via TaxProf Blog]
Deloitte Names New Partner in Charge of Southeast Region
Some leadership changes for Deloitte are being reported in the DC area, as Gary Tabach will be the new partner in the charge of the Southeast region:
Gary Tabach, Deloitte LLP’s Greater Washington managing partner, has been promoted to vice chairman and regional managing partner for the accounting and consulting firm’s Southeast region.
He is replacing Maritza Montiel, who has been named managing partner of leadership development and succession.
Tabach now oversees some 10,200 staffers in 20 offices from Baltimore to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Mr. Tabach still has to do most of the heavy lifting for his old job as he will remain the DC managing partner.
Ms. Montiel’s new position, managing partner of leadership development and succession, strikes as mysterious. That particular title gives the impression that she is “partner in charge of telling other partners that they need to lock it up or they’re fired”. If we’re in the ballpark let us know and keep us informed about any leadership changes for your office or region.
Deloitte’s Gary Tabach lands bigger regional role [Washington Business Journal (subscription required)]
Earlier:
New Deloitte Consulting CEO Plugs Magazine Lists, Shuns Facebook Fans
The SEC Is Still Putting the Dream Team Together
When tasked with protecting investors by going after the likes of Mark Cuban, the key players must be selected very carefully. Accordingly, the SEC continues to make key appointments in due course. The newest guardian of the investing public is Paul Beswick. He will serve as the head of the Accounting Group in the Office of the Chief Accountant (“OCA”).
For those of you not intimately familiar with the SEC’s enigmatic web, the Accounting Group is the portion of the OCA that likes to stick its beak into the biznass that matters most to accountants and auditors:
The Accounting group works closely with private-sector accounting bodies such as the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Registrants, auditors, and other divisions and offices within the SEC regularly consult with the group regarding the application of accounting standards and financial disclosure requirements.
Mr. Beswick will continue to support the Office of the Chief Accountant’s work related to oversight of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) until a replacement is named for his prior position.
Administrative matters simply do not appear to be at the top of the Commission’s to-do list. Understandably, there have been far more pressing matters, such as training employees, developing SIMS for personal finance education (with Bust Out while you wait) and appointing 20-something Chief Operating Officers. Your continued patience is appreciated.
Paul Beswick Named SEC Deputy Chief Accountant in Charge of Accounting Group [SEC.gov]
Caption Contest Reminder: Auditing Is Craptacular
Just a friendly reminder to submit your best captions for the audit room outside the ladies’ rain closet. Jump over the to the original post to submit your caption.
We’ll take submissions through the end of tomorrow, so get your team together and come up with something that will impress us. Your productivity starts waning this week anyway.
And while you’re at it, if you’re an auditor that works in ridiculous conditions, send us your pictures of your dungeon, closet, or your client-provided school desk.
Hungarian Actresses Are Not Immune from Tax Troubles
The last thing you want if you’re a celebrity is money troubles. Whether you’re punching your shiesty accountant, simply spacing your tax liabilites, or just spending too much, it’s downright embarrassing. You’re a celebrity, for crissakes!
What’s worse if you’ve got money trubs because you lost scratch to Bernie Madoff. Sure if you’re Kevin Bacon, you can get by on the Footloose royalties but what about people who seem to be famous for no discernible reason? Unless being a “Hungarian actress” and “socialite” qualify as reasons.
Tax Girl has the details on Zsa Zsa Gabor’s trubs because of Berns:
The 92 year old actress has been liened by the Internal Revenue Service for $118,000 for the years 2001 and 2002; the lien has been filed against one of Gabor’s mansions in California. Gabor’s lawyer, Chris Fields, says that the tax bill is part of the fallout from the Madoff scheme.
Luckily for Zsa Zsa, her ninth husband, Frederic von Anhalt, whored out his own name: “Anhalt has reportedly received millions of dollars by selling the Anhalt name by adopting, along with Zsa Zsa, several men.” There’s no cause for concern, as he’ll be picking up the bill. Celebrity embarrassment has been avoided!
Why FvA gets paid to adopt his own wife and a bunch of dudes isn’t entirely clear. Annnnnd in case that’s not weird enough for you, TG points out that Fred also claimed to be the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby. So now an asston of pharmaceuticals are likely relevant in some way. The awesomeness has reached a new level.
It’s a Tax Lien, Dahling [Tax Girl]
More KPMG Leadership Changes
Just a brief update on KPMG leadership moves that we’ve been following.
Late Friday we learned that the office managing partner (“OMP”) of the New York office has been promoted to serve as the Vice Chair of Market Development. Our understanding is that all the OMPs across the country will report to this position and it will focus on 21 key markets in the U.S.
The former head of the New York Financial Services will move up as the new New York OMP. No word on who will fill the leadership role in NYFS.
This appears to be the first instance where the OMP was promoted to a national position as opposed to a “client-facing role”.
Continue to keep us updated with the latest on the comings and goings of the grand poobahs and discuss your thoughts on the progress of the restructuring in the comments.
Earlier GC coverage of KPMG Leadership Changes and Restructuring:
Another KPMG Shake-Up
KPMG Shake-up Continues
Rumor Mill: KPMG Restructuring Plans
(UPDATE 2) KPMG Atlanta Shake-up Makes Us Wonder
Preliminary Analytics | 11.16.09
• Study Suggests Accounting for Contingencies Needs Help – Environmental liabilities aren’t reflecting the actual cash paid. [Compliance Week]
• Bankruptcy Rise Slows With Thaw In Lending – “Now corporate failures have slowed, as companies once on the verge of default have found a new life. These companies are now refinancing their balance sheets with new debt, pushing out maturities on existing loans or using distressed-debt exchanges to avoid a bankruptcy filing.” [WSJ]
• GM to begin repaying government loans – “[GM] reported a positive operating cash flow of $3.3bn, but cautioned that this would not be repeated in the fourth quarter and that its cash reserves would be ‘materially lower’ at the end of the year.” [FT]
• Xtremely restless: Recession intensifies Gen X’s ‘middle child’ syndrome, urge to job hop – Let’s just blame everything on the recession, shall we? [CT]
• Should paid sick days be the law? – Or maybe going to work sick should be against the law. [NYDN]
CNN Says that Big 4 Business Is Blowing Up
That’s not necessarily verbatim but they’re definitely buying what the Big 4 bigwigs are selling.
If you saw the asinine CNN piece that came out on Thursday entitled “Accounting grows in shrinking economy“, you know what we mean.
The title itself should cause you to throw up in your mouth. Certainly the author of this gem, Kevin Voigt, isn’t talking about growth in revenues but he still manages to make a case for accounting industry stre trong>just that:
[T]he firms have emerged from the worst with balance sheets that would be enviable to most companies: Ernst & Young and Deloitte finished the 2009 fiscal year with flat growth, while PWC revenues were down 7 percent.
Getting nauseous yet?
Then there’s this:
[T]he Big Four firms continued to add to headcount through the recession. For example, PWC will end the year with 163,000 employees worldwide, an increase of “3 or 4 percent” from last year, Nally said. “There is a core element of what we do that continues regardless of the economy — public companies need audits, tax services need to be provided,” he said.
First, we notice that Dennis Nally conveniently left out that the ‘core element’ of services being provided is being done so with far fewer people. He makes it sound like that if you’re working in the audit or tax practices, your job is safe. We all know that’s not true.
Further, we’ll point out that E&Y did not add to their global headcount. That’s according to E&Y’s own press release for their revenue results.
It’s also interesting to note that the words “layoff” or “reduction in force” are nowhere to be found in the article. Voight manages to sneak it in with some subtlety:
Ernst & Young has kept hiring young college graduates, in part, because it wants to ensure an unbroken pipeline of talent after the crisis, Turley said.
“In a typical year, you would see 15 to 20 percent of our workforce hired away, not by our competitors, but by companies that need financial or tax or other financial talent … that process was curtailed this year because most in the marketplace weren’t hiring,” Turley said.
As a result, Ernst & Young and other Big Four firms have had selective culling of staff in some markets for performance-related issues. “We work in a high performance environment, and for those whom that environment doesn’t fit we’ve encouraged them to leave,” said Quigley of Deloitte.
“Culling of staff”? Interesting choice of words. Then Jim Quigley lies says that Deloittians were “encouraged” to leave the firm. That’s rich. Any former Deloitte people out there that would describe their experience differently?
The article also hints that — because Jim Turley said that typically, ’15 to 20 percent of our workforce hired away’ — the Big 4 had no choice to but to engage in the “selective culling of staff…for performance-related issues.”
To top it all off, Tim Flynn wasn’t even interviewed for this piece. In fact, KPMG is only mentioned ONCE in the whole article but Voight refers to the “Big 4” throughout. From the sounds of it, TF wasn’t in Singapore for the APEC and thus, probably not available (probably caddying). Just as well, if we were T. Flynn, we wouldn’t want our name included in this travesty anyway.
So gives us your thoughts on the latest Big 4 campaigning in the MSM. They make everything sound like it’s business as usual but as the discussion in our Exodus post indicates, the people on the front lines probably have a different opinion.
Accounting grows in shrinking economy [CNN]
Also see: CNN Lies: Accounting Industry Stronger Than Ever, Explosive Even [JDA]
GC Weekend: Update on Ernst & Young Layoffs
We received more details late yesterday on the E&Y layoffs. The latest cities reporting layoffs are now Minneapolis and Milwaukee.
We also learned that there were approximately ten layoffs in the tax practice last month in the Chicago office. These were all at the associate and senior associate level.
Check back to the original thread for the latest and continue to keep us updated.
Review Comments | 11.13.09
• Fix the Tax Code Friday: Targeted Enforcement – Top three targets: 1) offshore accounts; 2) pass-through entities; 3) high wage earners [Tax Girl]
• Securities Regulators to Talk Financial Literacy With Students – And the regulators might learn something. [SEC.gov]
• 2 Programmers Are Charged With Aiding Madoff – Bor-ing. Family members next time please. [DealBook]
• BYU Sweeps 2009 Deloitte Tax Case Study Competition – See? Caffeine isn’t necessary. [TaxProf Blog]
• Hard Times and Bad Behavior – Are you shoplifiting? [Financial Armageddon]