When accounting goes unaccounted for
This aired last last week after the Senate voted to repeal tax credits for the ethanol industry and you tell that LO’D can barely contain his glee over the result.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
ATR is characterizing this as a three-way makeout session between Coburn, O’Donnell and Reich so they do appear be getting a tad defensive.
[via ATR]
E.D.G.E. stands for Evolve, Distinguish, Grow and Emerge – four key elements to ascend into your career as a CPA – and is a brand new, three day conference to give emerging CPAs an edge on their career development. Topics include refining your leadership skills, positioning your personal brand to get the results you want, and making the transition to a managerial role. Attendees will receive updates on tax, accounting & auditing, as well as financial/estate planning, and will have the chance to network with leaders in the profession as well as their peers.
The next generation of CPA leaders have the opportunity to refine and enhance their skills at the debut E.D.G.E. Conference, scheduled for Aug. 10-12 in New Orleans.
The three day event is the first AICPA conference geared towards emerging CPA leaders and is targeted at practitioners in public accounting and business and industry with 5-15 years accounting experience. Attendees will learn the strategies they need to distinguish themselves as leaders, how to grow their personal brand and will ultimately emerge with a leadership skill set to help further their career and steer the future direction of the profession.
“During the early stages of their careers, CPAs are often so consumed with the technical aspects of their jobs that they don’t receive training for the skills they need to get to the next levels,” said Allison Harrell, conference chair and senior audit manager, Thomas Howell Ferguson, P.A. “The E.D.G.E. Conference is structured to combine forward looking technical sessions with presentations that develop the soft skills that emerging leaders need if they want to take the next step in their career.”
With an agenda which boasts a wide range of topics covering six different focuses, attendees will receive a comprehensive educational experience tailored to their needs. In addition to technical sessions on tax, audit and accounting, attendees will get practical information on career advancement and training on how to refine their interpersonal and communication skills.
“This conference is a great opportunity for any CPA who wants to take the next step in their career but isn’t quite sure exactly how to go about it,” said Paul V. Stahlin, CPA, AICPA chairman. “I’m looking forward to meeting the next generation of CPA leaders and sharing my thoughts on the issues that are shaping the direction of the profession.”
The conference offers attendees an opportunity to learn from experts in the accounting profession and features over 30 sessions to choose from, including presentations from:
Ernie Almonte, CPA.CITP, CFF, partner, DiSanto, Priest & Co.
Tom Hood, CPA.CITP, CEO Maryland Association of CPAs
Brian Kush, CPA, CLC, president of Moxie Partners
Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, founder of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC
Paul V. Stahlin, CPA, AICPA chairmanThe E.D.G.E. Conference will be held from August 10-12 at the Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans. The cost is $620 for AICPA members, $920 for non-members, which is the early-bird price, expiring on June 26th .
Here’s video of Donny Shimamoto (who we were honored to meet last month at Spring Council) talking about why the E.D.G.E conference is a great idea for everyone from senior partners to new hires. Find out more from the AICPA.
The Hill reports that Congressman Paul Ryan isn’t interested in getting the economy all hopped up like an adolescent trying to cram for a mid-term,“I’m not a Keynesian, so I don’t think sugar-high economics works.”
And that this discussion is old hat, “We’ve sort of proven this already, a number of times. Temporary tax rebates don’t work to create economic growth. Permanent tax changes do.” [The Hill]
We were wondering about Benjamin Bankes’ employment status with the AICPA, a non-profit professional trade organization, the trade being (loosely) the CPA. They fiercely defend the CPA designation’s legitimacy as a world-recognized credential and work for their members by offering themselves up as experts for legislators who have no idea what they are unleashing with a simple tax tweak. It’s a pretty good deal; we get reasonable security that our financial experts are at a minimum trained in the skills necessary to function at the entry level and the AICPA gets the notoriety that comes with being a 360,000 strong organization with a long history of protecting the integrity of its most precious asset.
So when we found Benjamin Bankes’ picture among AICPA headshots on Flickr, we wondered what kind of employment status he enjoys with the AICPA. Independent contractor? Full-time, taxable employee? Spokespig? I mean he’s right up there with Barry, so it’s got to be a pretty secure gig.
Just wondering. It’s a damn awesome picture.
After Carl Sorabella’s wife Kathy was diagnosed with stage 4 incurable lung cancer, he notified his boss at Haynes Management that he would need to work a modified schedule to care for her. One week later, his boss informed him that his services were no longer needed.
Sorabella said he and his wife of 23 years, Kathy, learned she had stage 4 incurable cancer in late April. He said he asked his employer, Haynes Management, a real estate company in Wellesley Hills, Mass., that week for a more flexible work schedule to deal with his wife’s care.
“When I told my boss, she said ‘We were thinking about laying you off.’ I thought, ‘You can’t do that,'” Sorabella told WCVB.
Oh, but they did do that, Sorabella claims, even after he offered to work nights and weekends.
“Ultimately she said don’t worry about it and come in on Monday, and when I came in on Monday I got a letter that I would be laid off,” he said. Sorabella said the letter stated he was being laid off due to “workforce modifications.” But one week after he was fired, he says he saw a listing for his job on the company website.
Because Haynes is a small company (less than 50 employees), it is protected in such situations under the Family and Medical Leave Act. The rationale being that small businesses cannot afford to let an employee take extended leave to care for a sick relative or loved one like a large company can. Legal or not, it’s probably safe to assume that Haynes isn’t much for Employer of Choice initiatives.
Man Says He Was Fired After Telling Employer His Wife Has Cancer [ABC]
Rajina Rita Subramaniam seemed to be Down Under version of Sue Sachdeva until I got to “Michael Jackson memorabilia.”
A Sydney accountant is set to plead guilty to defrauding her employer of $45 million [USD 47.9 million] before spending the money on several beachside apartments, champagne, diamond jewellery and Michael Jackson memorabilia.
Rajina Rita Subramaniam was working as a senior accountant with the financial group ING Australia in October 2009 when she was arrested for allegedly siphoning tens of millions of dollars from the company into a number of private accounts.
Police allege that a search of ING’s Kent Street office uncovered a cache of luxury items, including 600 pieces of jewellery from Tiffany & Co, Tag Heuer, Bulgari and Paspaley Pearls, 200 perfume and make-up items from Chanel and a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne.
Court told of $45m shopping spree [Sydney Morning Herald]
Because, god, wouldn’t that be awkward?
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the US-based Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) agreed today to re-expose their revised proposals for a common revenue recognition standard. Re-exposing the revised proposals will provide interested parties with an opportunity to comment on revisions the boards have undertaken since the publication of an exposure draft on revenue recognition in June 2010.
It was the unanimous view of the boards that while there was no formal due process requirement to re-expose the proposals it was appropriate to go beyond established due process given the importance of the revenue number to all companies and the need to take all possible steps to avoid unintended consequences.
Sir David Tweedie admits that, “It is important that we get this right, first time,” and “the boards and staff have undertaken an unprecedented level of outreach to get us to this point, and why we are keen to treble-check that our conclusions are robust and can be implemented with minimal disruption.”
Maybe I’m reading too much into that statement but it sounds as though the Boards may be trying to stave off more nasty letters.
[via FAF/IFRS Foundation]
Literally.
Almost two-thirds (63%) of accountants felt their firms should do more to support health and wellbeing, according to a new survey. More than half (55%) said their stress levels have increased over the past 12 months and 68% said their jobs have made them ill, citing stress as the main cause, Sovereign Health Care reports.
Chief executive Russ Piper said higher workloads combined with pay freezes have hit morale and dented employee contentment, noting 53% of accountants said they would change jobs for a better benefits package on the same salary.
Accountants bemoan unfeeling employers [Accountancy Age]
There are a few things that you take for granted when working at a public accounting firm. First, your superiors will take you to nice lunches. This practice starts at the top and trickles down to the lowliest associates getting approval to throw steaks at interns. Second, you get a computer. It may not be the greatest piece of technology you’ve every used but rest assured, you won’t be crunching numbers using a pencil and paper. Third, you get tchotchkes. Tons of them. Pens, Nalgenes, poorly knit polos. The works. All of the firm swag your little heart desires can be yours. So it’s especially shocking to learn that McGladrey has a “McGladrey Store,” where items can be purchased. We don’t have a copy of the mail-order catalog but it’s safe to assume that there are items emblazoned with “McGladrey” in ample supply.
I learned of this “store” because Mickey G’s is rolling out a “Work Smarter” initiative so that the firm’s employees can maximize their time doing “high-value” work. What “high-value” entails is not entirely clear but presumably it doesn’t involve doing “research on blogs.” ANYWAY, McG boss C.E. Andrews emailed the troops to encourage them to take an online training to learn a few “Work Smarter” tips and to get the creative juices flowing so that they can submit their own “Work Smarter” ideas to the brass. For the first 25 employees that manage to throw out ideas that aren’t completely awful, they will receive “$50 to spend at the McGladrey Store.”
After the training, you will probably find yourself full of good ideas on how McGladrey can Work Smarter. Don’t keep them to yourself! Share them through our Lean thinking website and be eligible to win prizes. The first 25 people who submit an actionable idea will win $50 to spend at the McGladrey Store.
Our tipster in this matter, expands with some details:
[T]his “lean fundamentals” initiative seems irritating similar to KPMG’s “Next Step” program that I’ve seen come across your website. The dangling carrot of $50 in McGladrey bucks (cash value: 1/100 of a Monopoly bill) is particularly patronizing. Just another example of the cheapskate culture that seems to ooze from the brass at Mickey G’s these days…unless of course we’re talking shelling out for putting green-sized cakes and headlining golf tournaments that take place during the freak show of the PGA season (aka the”Fall Series”).
Unfortunately, Oanda doesn’t have a exchange rate for “McGladrey bucks” so there’s no way for us to confirm this valuation at this time. Regardless, it’s still not obvious if the $50 is enough to get you a stress ball, let alone a chance to take Natalie Gulbis out for drinks. We’d love to see a product list with prices in order to confirm/disconfirm some of our suspicions, so do get in touch with any particulars.
The woman who throws a small hissy-fit at 3:05 makes it all worth it.
Earlier:
So You Think Your CPA Can Dance?
This one is for you, ladies of the night.
A 2005 audit by the New York Division of Taxation found gentlemen’s club Nite Moves owed over $125,000 in sales tax on door admissions and private lap dance sales. The club argued that dances are a performance, not a taxable “service.” We’ll leave that one alone.
A New York State appellate court ruled last Thursday that private lap dances are not a dramatic or musical art performance, despite Nite Moves’ claims to the contrary. It is unclear whether any state taxation authorities partook in said private lap dances to make this determination.
In this case, the burden of proof rested on the club, who did not provide enough evidence to satisfy their claim, according to the five judge panel that made the ruling. “In short, petitioner was denied the requested relief due not to the nature of its business but, rather, because of the inadequacy of its proof,” they said.
The club’s lawyer, Andrew McCullough, plans to appeal the decision. “We brought in the foremost expert in the field,” he said. “She is the one in this country who has made a complete and detailed study of the art of exotic dance and if they are not going to believe her I don’t know who you believe.”
That expert had not actually seen Nite Moves’ dancers but other, similar exotic performances. As any connoisseur of naked gyrating women knows, not all naked gyrating is created equal.
Tax laws in New York State require sales taxes to be collected and paid on admission to or the use of any place of amusement except for dramatic or musical arts performances.
Maybe if the strippers wore historical costumes or mime makeup they’d have a case.
Hey, Nite Moves, you really should have called the Tax Domme, she knows all about this stuff.
New York court rules private lap dances not tax exempt [Reuters]
The Securities and Exchange Commission warned investors about the risk of fraud, accounting problems and other abuses at companies that obtain stock listings through so-called reverse mergers.
The warning on Thursday comes amid a rash of accounting scandals involving China-based companies listed on U.S. exchanges through reverse mergers, or mergers with U.S. shell companies. “Many companies either fail or struggle to remain viable following a reverse merger,” the SEC said in an investor bulletin. Investors should be especially wary of reverse merger operating companies that are “nonreporting,” meaning they are not required to file reports with the SEC, the agency said. “Keep in mind that information from online blogs, social networking sites and even a company’s own website may be inaccurate and sometimes intentionally misleading,” the SEC said. [Reuters]