Author: Caleb Newquist

Founding editor, Going Concern.

One More Way Facebook is Working Against You

facebook at work.jpgSomehow we missed this last week but whatevs. State taxing authorities are apparently getting the swing of this whole Internet phenomenon.
We really thought the IRS had taken their game to the next level by putting videos on YouTube but States are really getting crafty by using social networking sites and Google to catch tax scofflaws.
Continued, after the jump


WSJ:

In Minnesota, authorities were able to levy back taxes on the wages of a long-sought tax evader after he announced on MySpace that he would be returning to his home town to work as a real-estate broker and gave his employer’s name. The state collected several thousand dollars, the full amount due.

This has us a little concerned. One minute you’re updating your Facebook status as “Just won $500 at my weekly poker game,” just to rub it in everyone’s face, and the next thing you know you’re filing an amended return because some jerk you met at a party, and for some reason added as a friend, happens to be an IRS agent and takes his job really seriously. Is no cash-only operation sacred?
And it doesn’t matter if you’re not into online social networking:

Now, when a tax dodger can’t be found, said Nebraska tax official Steven Schroeder, agents often turn to Google. One agent collected $30,000 of unpaid tax from a resident after a Google search found him listed as a high-ranking local marketing rep for a national firm.

Face it people. One way or another, you’re going to participate in your patriotic duty.
Is ‘Friending’ in Your Future? Better Pay Your Taxes First [WSJ]

The Enigma of Business Casual and Other Questions Recruits Ask

business casual?.jpgWe brought up recruiting yesterday which brings up many questions from the students out there who are looking to impress the firms that are coming to campus.
KPMG has some suggestions including getting a haircut and reminding everyone that “college attire does not necessarily equal business casual attire”.
This is good to know because sometimes wearing your sweats to class gets really convenient and changing clothes should typically delayed until you’re ready to go to the bar.
Since we have some the best and brightest readers we’ll put it out to them to give the co-eds some suggestions on how to land their first gig. Our only suggestions would be to show up sober and wear shoes but use your judgment as such formalities are often overrated.

Problem of the Day: Boring Repetitive Work Papers

bored.jpgA reader pointed out a problem that plagues many of you in the number crunching universe: writing work papers, emails or other documentation that are incredibly boring and repetitive.
We’ll take that a step further and put it out there that speaking styles among accountants also take on a certain, shall we say, monotony.
More, after the jump


Nearly all accountants’ writing and speaking styles include these words or phrases:
• As such
• Notes
• Pretty straight forward
• Let me know if you have any questions
• Circle back
Clearly, accountants are not English majors. Short of putting a thesaurus on everyone’s desk, we’re not really sure how this can be remedied. Inserting the occasional curse word can add some shock value but this attempt to spice things up may be short-lived depending on your co-workers tolerance for vulgarity.
The list above is obviously not a complete one. Discuss in the comments the most annoying language that you see or hear on a daily basis and if you’ve got suggestions on how to make your day to day interaction more exciting, we’re all ears.

The Solution to All Our Fiscal Problems

stupid.jpgLeave it to the French. They’ve got the solution to all our fiscal problems. Whether we have the courage to follow their example is another matter.
The solution? Our frog eating friends have decided that they will start taxing people for their stupidity:
More, after the jump

The French Foreign Ministry is proposing a very narrow law requiring citizens foolish enough to wander into international danger zones, regardless of public warnings, to pay at least part of the cost of their own rescue.

For the purposes of our country, we would call for a much wider law that would encompass all kinds of idiotic behavior. For example, Brett Favre deciding to unretire again should be levied something in the neighborhood of 100% of his new salary. If he loves playing football so much, then he’d be thrilled to pay the tax.
The invasion of Iraq kinda goes without saying.
As for state budgets, New York and California’s fiscal crises would have been non-issues had a tax been placed anyone that was elected to those states’ legislative bodies.
Plus, since the amount of stupid behavior is so vast, legions of enforcement personnel would obviously be needed, putting many of you back to work. Pending your passing of an examination of course.
Discuss, in the comments, the appropriate tax levies for your most reviled stupid behavior by your fellow Americans that would solve our budgetary troubles. The existence of this blog/post is duly noted.
Stupidity Tax May Keep Dunces Out of Trouble: Celestine Bohlen [Bloomberg]

PwC Better Bring Their ‘A’ Game to This Year’s Oscars

OSCAR_INSIDER_hmed.hmedium.jpgWe’re not sure how long PwC has been counting the votes for the Oscars but we read some news this morning that made us pause with concern.
Apparently the Academy of Arts & Motion Pictures Sciences thought it was a good idea to change the voting rules for the Best Picture category back to the “preferential system” which was last used in 1945.
Our concern lies with the fact that this change in voting method might not mix well with the desire for routine that is forever embedded in the double helix of accountants, specifically auditors.
More, after the jump


The most common set of instructions that an auditor receives, as some of you well know, is “Do what they did last year”. This mantra, if not cast aside for the 2009 Oscars, could quite possibly be responsible for a material misstatement of epic proportions.
It’s far too early to speculate what films could be affected (maybe not) but we are concerned that since the awards are only six months away, the auditors don’t have much time to have at least a half a dozen meetings to discuss the ramifications of this decisions, let alone start planning, GASP, new procedures.
Best Picture voting gets a makeover [Variety]
Academy Makes Big Changes in Best Picture Voting [The Wrap]

Countdown to the End of Tax Season or Just the End?

tax man.jpgFor lots of you tax trolls out there, you might be seriously reconsidering your career choice at this particular moment. Oh sure, there are probably some of you who are so deranged that the excitement you feel at that this time of year is only rivaled by the stretch from mid-February to April 15 but you all need committed.
For the rest of you, the milestone of two weeks until the September 15th deadline is either the light at the end of the tunnel or simply just another day wandering in the darkness since you’ll be crawling across the ultimate finish line on October 15th.
So we’re calling on brave/insane tax soldiers out there to sacrifice a few moments of their chargeable time to let us know how it goes with two weeks to go until 9/15. Hours you’re working, the latest on post-deadline layoff rumors, nightmare clients, whatever moves you.
UPDATE: One source at a Big 4 firm describes it this way:

For me, it has been very reasonable. For others, it is miserable. The unreasonable requests are piling on to a teammate of mine. His senior gives him 40 hours of work and expects him to finish it in one night. They have no clue and shit rolls down hill. It’s amazing how poorly accountants gauge time. Sad.

Preliminary Analytics | 09.01.09

KenLewisNOPEb.jpg
• BofA Seeks to Repay a Portion of Bailout – “Repaying this would mean BofA would no longer be considered an ‘exceptional’ aid recipient — a designation that has put it under a microscope by Congress and regulators, with its pay packages subject to review by the federal ‘pay czar'”. Ken Lewis isn’t going to take it anymore. [WSJ]
• Madoff Liquidator May ‘Claw Back’ Charities’ Fake Profits – ‘Picard has an obligation to the bankruptcy estate to collect all the assets he can find and in theory he has to treat everyone the same way.’ Most thankless job ever. [Bloomberg]
• Warning Signs: I Started Looking And The Bubble Burst… – Deloitte. Start listening. [RTA]
• Icahn Pares Yahoo Stake With Sale of 12.7M Shares – Deal is done. Might as well work on GTFO. [NYT]
• Corporate failures forecast to rise – “Insolvency specialists are forecasting a second wave of corporate restructurings to break in September as bankers and investors face problem investments.” [FT]
• IRS to Mine Payment Data on Mortgages – “The Treasury inspector general said in a Monday report that tens of thousands of homeowners who paid more than $20,000 in mortgage interest in 2005 either didn’t file a tax return or reported income that appears insufficient to cover their mortgage interest and basic living expenses.” GASP. Someone living beyond their means? [WSJ]

Review Comments | 08.31.09

allen_stanford_1110321c.jpg• Allen Stanford to undergo heart tests: lawyer – What lengths is this guy willing to go to in order to get released from prison? [Reuters]
• Disney Buys Marvel In $4B Deal – The trickiest thing we foresee is reconciling comics sex with Disney sex. [NPR]
• Least Informative Announcement – Citi isn’t too concerned with telling you what they sold, who they sold it to, for how much, or what they made or lost on the deal. They just thought they would do us all the courtesy of letting us know that something happened. [Floyd Norris/NYT]
• Women, Testosterone, and Finance – “If they discriminate based on testosterone levels, isn’t that the same thing as discriminating based on gender (obvious extreme examples aside…i.e. Vera de Milo types)??” [Accounting Nation]
• AIG’s New CEO Will Do Unspeakable Things To Andrew Cuomo. You Don’t Even Want To Know. [DB]

Handicapping Firm Failure

epic-failure.thumbnail.jpgGod bless the speculative and sensationalist British media. They’ve got no problem wondering aloud about whether accounting firms will be able to survive the backlog of lawsuits out there that amount to billions in damages sought by plaintiffs.
More, after the jump


PwC has already pointed out to everyone that they were not the auditors of King Ponzi’s empire but nobody cares because, the bloody money has to come from somewhere to compensate the victims. Plus, accounting firms have deep pockets and are likely to settle when in a tight spot, using insurance coverage. The problem now is that the suits are so big that insurance coverage may not be enough to keep the partners safe.
We’ve mentioned some of the more prominent lawsuits in our firm watch series of posts if you need to get caught up.
Natch, everyone laments about Andersen when the topic of firm failure comes up as it serves as a template of what can happen when a firm gets in serious trouble:

Andersen’s collapse highlighted the fragility of a global accountancy partnership. As soon as the extent of the fraud was made public, Andersen’s international divisions and partners not involved in the scandal detached themselves from the firm, making it impossible for Andersen to survive.

We’re not really sure what the odds of another Andersen sitch are but you can definitely count on firms continuing to get sued when there’s no one left after company failures and frauds. We’d invite our readers who are partners (or have partner-knowledge) to give us an idea what the feeling is in the current secret society re: the liability risk. Bonus points for former Andersenites’ stories.
We invite the rest of you to handicap the field for chances of failure in the comments. Ours, after giving it very little thought, appear in the tag line.
Billion-dollar lawsuit could destroy top accountancy firms [Telegraph]

Today in IRS Employee Chicanery

IRS_logo-thumb-150x140.jpgYet another example that should cause the IRS to seriously reconsider its employee screening policy, a now-former IRS compliance officer is looking at jail time after he thought it would be okay to swap a bogus audit report for $1,000 and assistance in finding an apartment.
More, after the jump


Web CPA:

[Fernando] Cruz…told the woman he could “fudge” their tax records so they would have less tax liability. Cruz coached the woman on how to answer questions during an upcoming audit appointment…and instructed her to say that she did not have receipts to verify expenses. Cruz also accepted $500 in cash from the woman and was told that he would receive another $500 if he could make their tax liability go away…the woman met with Cruz at his IRS office as planned, and Cruz prepared an IRS income form with the false information she provided. Cruz also mentioned that the woman might assist him in finding an apartment in exchange for his help to the couple on their audit.

Cruz pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe in exchange for preparing a false tax audit report for a taxpayer. He could also probably be found to be so socially awkward that he needs to be banished from society, since asking for a complete stranger’s help in finding an apartment is just plain weird.
Former IRS Employee Pleads Guilty to Accepting a Bribe [Web CPA]

Chrysler Auditor Switcheroo Follow-up (UPDATE)

We’ve confirmed with a Chrysler Spokesperson that the new entity emerging from bankruptcy has appointed Deloitte as the external auditors, a role that KPMG held for the entity that remains in bankruptcy:
More, after the jump

[We] can confirm that, as a new company, Chrysler Group LLC has appointed Deloitte as its external auditors. KPMG had previously served this role for the old Chrysler, which remains in bankruptcy. The new company, Chrysler Group LLC became operational on June 10, 2009.

Basically, as some have speculated, this may be a chance for Deloitte to poach the entire KPMG team, which, we have to admit, might not be a bad idea.
KPMG did not immediately respond to our requests for comment. Deloitte got back to us with no comment.
UPDATE: Chrysler got back to us with some additional information including
• Why the change in auditors – “Chrysler Group LLC is a new company and, as such, the company has decided to appoint Deloitte as its new external auditors.”
• If Deloitte was in the field – “Deloitte has begun initial planning work for the 2009 audit.”
• KPMG’s remaining responsibilities – “We cannot address any services KPMG may be performing for OldCarco (the official name of the company that remains in bankruptcy).”
Nothing too surprising here except for the hilarious awesomeness of “OldCarco”.

Guess the Tab: E&Y Edition

Unfortunately our source didn’t know the final tab on this particular fiesta so we’ll put out for you to speculate.
Possibly a Bacardi bottle on the far left and maybe that’s Glenfiddich, second from the left, so we’re not talking top shelf but it’s also not that garbage that gets served out of the well. Plus, the receipt seems far too long for the number of bottle shown. Leave your best guess in the comments.
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