Category: News

Accounting Student Turned Stripper Not Too Familiar with Independent Contractor vs. Fulltime Employee Issues

The following post is republished from AccountingWEB UK, a source that delivers topical, practical content to accountants and accounting professionals.

Forget Patmore, a former accountancy and finance student is starring this week in what must surely be the employment and tax case of the year.

Lapdancer Nadine Quashie allegedly earned more than £1,000 a night dancing at the Stringfellows (NSFW) club London and is now trying to pursue an unfair dismissal through the Employment Tribunal after being fired in December 2008 following allegations of drug use and dealing.


On behalf of the club, Caspar Glyn argued that the dancer was not entitled to rights under the tribunal as she was self-employed. “To take off your clothes and be paid to do that, it is a curious, unusual situation… which is perhaps in itself unsuited to an employment relationship,” he told the tribunal.

Aiming another blow below the belt, he added that Quashie should be disqualified from having her case heard because she had misrepresented her tax affairs – in spite of having studied accountancy and finance at Thames Valley University for a year.

She took two years off her studies to hold a full-time position as women’s rights officer for the student union, but instead of returning to the course she turned to lapdancing.

She has told the tribunal that conditions at the club effectively meant dancers were employees and she should be entitled to a full tribunal hearing. Like other dancers, she was required to give up 25% in commission, with an additional £85 deducted for nightly fees.

While Stringfellows insisted she was self-employed, Quashie said she did not learn of her self-employed status until another dancer told her of the situation five months after she started working there.

This case has everything for employment and tax advisers, HMRC investigators and retired colonels from Tonbridge. In addition to the lurid claims of private, late night sessions with Peter Stringfellow and his friends, it presents a classic challenge for the badges of employment tests and some messy tax implications for all sides.

Purely hypothectically, how would you advise the participants in such a case? Back at the central London tribunal, meanwhile, judgment in the case has been reserved.

Vault’s Best Accounting Firms To Work For (Continued): Cube Farms, Selectivity, Tolerance for Stupid Questions

This morning we rolled a few more Vault rankings that gave you an idea of why they could be decent place to hold down a job.

Round two involves more categories for the bestest of the best, kicking off with your office digs:

Offices (don’t need a key for the john, “nap” rooms, The Onion and porn aren’t blocked)
1. Marcum
2. Kaufman, Rossin & Co.
3. Elliott Davis
5. Deloitte
7. Rothstein Kass
8. PwC
16. Moss Adams


Satisfaction (with relative lack of sexual harrassment? This seems unfinished.)
1. Armanino McKenna – San Ramon, CA
2. Berdon – NYC
3. CBIZ & Mayer Hoffman McCann – Cleveland, OH
5. Deloitte
13. Moss Adams
15. PwC
17. Rothstein Kass

Selectivity (ratio of hotties?)
1. PwC
2. Dixon Hughes – High Point, NC
3. Marcum
5. Deloitte
13. Rothstein Kass
14. Moss Adams

Formal Training (aka watching PowerPoint presentations to be followed up by heavy drinking)
1. Kaufman, Rossin & Co.
2. Marcum
3. Elliott Davis
10. Rothstein Kass
14. Deloitte
16. PwC
20. Moss Adams

Informal Training (aka your direct superior rolling their eyes at you before answering your question)
1. Marcum
2. PwC
3. Kaufman, Rossin & Co.
5. Deloitte
12. Rothstein Kass
15. Moss Adams

Best Accounting Firms for Comp, Treatment by Managers, Green Initiatives, Hours and More

Catching our breath from our series of Vault posts from last month, we return with their latest offerings – Best Firms to Work For. Now, if you’re confused as how this is different from their featured column, this series looks at specific areas where firms thrive (methodology here). No prestige debate here. These are some of the areas that factored more heavily into Vault’s featured ranking.

There are several lists so we’ll break them up into two posts. Each list features 20 firms so we’ll share the top three in each and point out where some notables rank.

Starting with everyone’s favorite:

Compensation
1. Marcum – Melville, NY
2. Goodman & Co. – Virginia Beach, VA
3. Elliot Davis – Greenville, SC
10. Rothstein Kass – Roseland, NJ (#1 last year)
17. Deloitte – NYC
18. Moss Adams – Seattle
20. PwC – NYC


Treatment by Managers
1. Kaufman Rossin, & Co. – Miami
2. Marcum
3. Elliot Davis
10. Rothstein Kass
14. Deloitte
16. PwC
20. Moss Adams

Culture
1. Kaufman, Rossin & Co.
2. WithumSmith+Brown, PC – Princeton, NJ
3. Eide Bailly – Fargo, ND
8. Rothstein Kass
13. PwC
14. Deloitte
20. Moss Adams

Business Outlook
1. Marcum
2. Kaufman, Rossin, & Co.
3. Goodman & Co.
6. PwC (#1 last year)
9. Deloitte
11. Rothstein Kass
18. Moss Adams

Green Initatives
1. Goodman & Co.
2. Kaufman, Rossin & Co.
3. Rothstein Kass
4. PwC
6. Deloitte
14. Moss Adams

Hours
1. Marcum
2. Kaufman, Rossin & Co.
3. Elliott Davis
10. Rothstein Kass
16. Moss Adams
19. Deloitte
20. PwC

Dive in. Debate. Debunk.

BREAKING: California Manages to Approve a Budget Before Electing a New Governor

Which is significant because A) neither of the current candidates has cyborg abilities that would allow them to go back in time to fix anything and B) some people were getting antsy:

“You’ve got to get things moving. You’ve got to patch something together to keep operations going,” said John Moorlach, an Orange County supervisor.

Having a state budget in law is “extraordinarily important,” added Mayor Chuck Reed of San Jose, California’s third-largest city.

Yeah, after 100 days, you figure you should slap something together. A sorry-ass $87.5 billion budget for one of the largest economies on EARTH is better than no budget at all, amiright?

California budget approved 100 days late [Reuters]

Some People Are Really Excited That MarcumStonefield Is the Auditor of Fuqi International

That or it’s because they managed to not have an adverse opinion.

Fuqi International, Inc. (FUQI) gained more than 14 percent this morning. After the close yesterday, the seller of precious metal jewelry in the People’s Republic of China filed an 8-K form with the SEC where it disclosed that:

“The principal accountant’s reports of Stonefield on the financial statements of it as of and for the years ended December 31, 2008 and December 31, 2007 did not contain any adverse opinion or disclaimer of opinion and were not qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope or accounting principles. During the years ended December 31, 2008 and December 31, 2007 and through October 1, 2010, there were no disagreements with Stonefield on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure, or auditing scope or procedure, which if not resolved to Stonefield’s satisfaction, would have caused it to make reference thereto in connection with its reports on the financial statements for such years.”

That emphasis is the orig. Supposedly that justifies the stock being up ~17%. Personally, we feel that it’s pretty snooze-worthy but maybe people get really amped when a Chinese company actually complies with the regulations.

Or maybe everyone is gaga over the MarcumStonefield marriage. Could be anything, really.

There Are Some Cranky McGladrey Mofos in Minneapolis

Last week McGladrey announced the promotion of 21 lucky ducks to the big kids’ table. Mining the comments, you would find some indication that even with the 21 newbies, the number of partners is probably a net negative due to “laid off and departing partners.”

We received a tip recently that seems to echo these thoughts, telling us that a number of managers and partners have left the Minneapolis office, including a “head partner.”

We asked around and discovered through another source that this “head partner” was a gentleman by the name of Will Roche, a veteran of the firm:

I am not saying but just saying no one in is happy in Minneapolis. Will Roche was forced out after 34 years

And through another non-McG source we were able to confirm that Mr. Roche is no longer with the firm. So! Maybe it’s a simple case of out with the old, in with the new at Mickey G’s? If that’s the case, is C.E. Andrews next? Dude is pushing 60. Discuss below.

Local CPA Ups Ante on Client Service

What have you done for your clients lately? Worked through the night to meet a big deadline? Great job. Attended a bar mitzvah? That’s nice. Saved them oodles of dough by navigating a tricky divorce? You’re a rock star.

But until you’re willing to part with a kidney (or better), you’re a basically a chump compared to Jeff Waters.


You see, Jeff likely does everything that most CPAs do – bend over backwards for idiot clients; helps them deal with nosy IRS agents; explains why an incompetent Congress is likely to bungle the estate tax and so on and so forth.

But when his clients, the Fitzgeralds, were in one day chit-chatting about 1099s, a more serious problem (failing kidney serious, not heart attack serious) came up:

The week before standing in Waters’ office, the Fitzgeralds were told a kidney was available for [their daughter] Kelly, but at the last minute, the transplant had to be cancelled because the kidney turned out to be damaged.

“I thought, any problem I have pales in comparison to something like that,” Waters remembers. “I told (Fitzgerald), ‘I can’t even imagine you’re here today doing taxes when something like that happens.'”

Fitzgerald told him, “Well, we just learned to never get our hopes up. We just need to find another B positive donor.”

“That’s when it clicked,” Waters said. “I knew from my LifeSource Donor Card that I was B positive.”

And you can take it from there. Of course Jeff gave his kidney away. All he had to do was put on a cape and re-re-convince some pushy medical staff, “Waters says medical staff repeatedly told him not to feel pressured to go through with the transplant,” and like we said, he went under the knife and made it happen.

We realize not everyone is jumping at the opportunity for voluntary surgery and some are bound by religious whathaveyous but just think about it. Do you really need two kidneys?

Wheaton Accountant Does Taxes, Donates Kidney for Client [Wheaton Patch]

Universal Travel Group, Who Appears to Be ‘Partially a Fraud,’ Has Gone Through a Shocking Number of Auditors, CFOs

Yesterday, Henry Blodget wrote about Universal Travel Group’s auditor – Goldman Kurland Mohidin, LLP – quitting two weeks after Bronte Capital’s John Hempton issued a ress explained that the whole damn company was a fraud.

This, of course, resulted in a reactionary measure by UTA, who denied all the allegations immediately and announced that they were looking to sue Hempton because, seriously, who likes getting their feelings hurt?

So that’s the backstory. A little bird suggested to us that maybe we should look into the company’s past to see just how many auditors they’ve burned through and maybe check out how many CFOs they’ve gone through also. WELL!


Auditors
First we went back to the 10-K filed on March 31, 2008 and discovered that on June 23, 2006, the company dismissed Moore & Associates, Chartered:

On June 23, 2006, we dismissed the firm of Moore & Associates, Chartered (“Former Auditor”), which had served as our independent auditor until that date. The Former Auditor was our auditor prior to the acquisition of control of our Company by Xiao Jun.

On June 23, 2006, we retained Morgenstern, Svoboda & Baer, CPA’s, P.C. to serve as our principal independent accountant.

This seemed to be a pretty good call on UTA’s part since it turned out that Moore & Associates was issuing bogus audit reports. No cause for concern at this point.

The relationship with Morgenstern, Svoboda & Baer appeared to be going on swimmingly but ultimately, for reasons unbeknownst to all, it didn’t work out. MS&B resigned on June 30, 2009 to make way for Acqavella, Chiarelli, Shuster, Berkower & Co., LLP:

On June 30, 2009, our prior independent registered public accounting firm, Morgenstern, Svoboda & Baer CPA (“Morgenstern”) resigned and on the same day, we appointed Acqavella, Chiarelli, Shuster, Berkower & Co., LLP (“ACSB”) as our new independent registered public accounting firm.

Similar to their predecessors, ACSB & Co. was humming along just fine, getting ratified in the recent preliminary proxy statement filing until they were up and fired on September 1st:

On September 1, 2010, our current independent registered public accounting firm, Acqavella, Chiarelli, Shuster, Berkower & Co., LLP (“ACSB”), was dismissed and on the same day, we appointed Goldman Kurland Mohidin (“GKM”) as our new independent registered public accounting firm.

Anyone weirded out yet? Does appointing a new auditor the same day that the previous quit strike anyone as panicky? Maybe that’s just us. Anyway, so GKM spends four weeks on the job until:

On September 29, 2010, we received a letter dated September 28, 2010 from our current independent registered public accounting firm, Goldman Kurland Mohidin, LLP (“GKM”), informing us that they had resigned as our independent registered public accounting firm effective with the commencement of business on September 27, 2010. No reason was given as to the cause for their resignation.

Windes & McClaughry Accountancy Corporation is new auditor and has not quit at the time at the time of this writing. They way things seem to be picking up, however, it could be any minute. So for those of you not counting, that makes five different auditors going back to June 23, 2006. Probably not a record but it certainly puts the auditor musical chairs at Overstock.com to shame.

CFOs
The CFO situation is less exciting but there’s enough going on that should make any investor run screaming for the hills. Xin Zhang was appointed CFO as of July 12, 2006. After an eternity (by UTA standards anyway), on February 17, 2009, UTA appointed 27 year-old Jing Xie as CFO. Now maybe this Jing is a financial wizard but this seems, at best, fishy.

Xie lasted exactly six months, resigning on August 17th and Yizhao Zhang was appointed to the big chair the same day, again because there was no time to waste.

Yizhao was on quite a roll but then he resigned on August 16th for “personal reasons” (freaked the hell out?) and the company promoted the crafty veteran Xie back to his old position (on an interim basis). This rivals the CFO shuffle that was going on at Lehman.

So quite the riddle. Quite the riddle indeed. Maybe Hempton and Blodget are on to something with this whole “it’s a complete sham” notion. Or maybe UTA is just a bunch of jerks. Theories are welcome at this time.

Auditor Quits At Universal Travel Group (UTA) — The NYSE-Listed Company That Looks Like A Fraud [BI]

Vault Accounting 50: #41 – #50 (2011)

Wrapping up our series of posts on the Vault Accounting 50, we roll out the final ten.

And as always, if you’ve got anything newsworthy on these firms, get in touch with us at tips@goingconcern.com:

41. Marks Paneth & Shron LLP – New York, NY
42. Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP – New York, NY
43. Margolin, Winer & Evens LLP – Garden City, NY
44. Stonefield Josephson, Inc. – Los Angeles, CA
45. Blackman Kallick – Chicago, IL
46. Aronson & Company – Rockville, MD
47. Schneider Downs & Co., Inc. – Pittsburgh, PA
48. Burr Pilger Mayer, Inc. – San Francisco, CA
4 Drury & Company, L.L.C. – Bethesda, MD
50. Frank Rimerman & Co. LLP – Palo Alto, CA


Vault’s buzz with the occasional commentary from us:

Marks Paneth & Shron LLP – “Good advertisements on LIRR”; “Slow advancement” [wonder if the ads were discussed with WeiserMazars?]

Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP – “No red tape”—“nimble enough to act on good ideas and make things happen”; “Too many mergers—a consolidation of small firms”

Margolin, Winer & Evens LLP – “[H]as nearly 200 employees in its offices in New York City and Long Island. The firm was founded in 1946, but the bulk of its growth came in the recent years—headcount almost doubled between 2001 and 2006.”

Stonefield Josephson, Inc. – “Founded in 1975, the California-based firm serves U.S. and international clients from offices in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, East Bay, Silicon Valley and Hong Kong.” [Recently joining team Marcum.]

Blackman Kallick – “Fun, young, energetic”; “Managers get mixed reviews” [And a decent Twitter feed that doesn’t overdue the hashtags, like some firms we know.]

Aronson & Company – “Reznick rival”; “Burns out employees” [Pretty good nonprofit blog.]

Schneider Downs & Co., Inc. – “Quality people (people who used to work there are easy to work with)”; “Unknown”

Burr Pilger Mayer, Inc. – Good size for the area but require tax and audit diversity”; “A copy of Armanino McKenna”

Watkins, Meegan, Drury & Company, L.L.C. – “Hitting the accounting scene in 1975, Watkins, Meegan, Drury & Co. has developed from an accounting firm with just three CPAs to one with three offices in Bethesda, Md.; Tysons Corner, Va.; and Annapolis, Md.”

Frank Rimerman & Co. LLP – “California’s Frank, Rimerman + Co. was founded in 1949 by a pair of Franks: Frank Rimerman and Robert Frank. When Frank Rimerman retired, his son Thomas Rimerman took over as the firm’s managing partner. Tom Rimerman is also known for his trailblazing stint as chairman of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; as head of the AICPA, Rimerman outlined a bold agenda to revamp financial reporting practices, passed a Uniform Accountancy Act, created a non-CPA affiliate membership within the AICPA and established federal financial management reforms.”

Earlier Posts on the Vault Accounting 50:
Vault’s New Accounting 50 Ranking Has Plenty of Surprises
Vault Accounting 50 Rankings: Digging Into The Top 10

More Merger Mania: WeiserMazars, Marks Paneth & Shron Walk Away After ‘Serious’ Talks

Last Friday we learned that Marcum and Stonefield Josephson were now super-accounting friends. The MarcumStonefield deal was just the latest combinatio in what has been a busy year for consolidation by CPA firms.

Eisner and Amper joined forces, as did Weiser and Mazars while RubinBrown and Wipfli among others have also been active.

With our interest piqued, we did some digging and discovered a rumor of another merger, this time between WeiserMazars and New York-based Marks Paneth & Shron.


A source with knowledge of the discussions told GC that MP&S has been looking for various buyout options, including discussing a possible merger with Eisner earlier this year. When it was clear that the EisnerAmper deal was happening MP&S started looking for other options, which included WeiserMazars.

Our source indicated that the deal was very close to being finalized saying that it “sounded like” MP&S’s management committee had approved the deal.

We checked in with both firms to find out the latest on the situation and discovered from an MP&S spokesperson that the deal wasn’t happening. Officially, this is what the firm had to say:

It’s our policy not to comment on specific discussions. In general, we can say that we are always looking for approaches that will enable us to anticipate and serve the evolving needs of our highly valued and sophisticated client base — and also allow us to provide new opportunities and challenges to our people. Occasionally that means exploring partnerships, collaboration and even mergers with other best-of-breed organizations with complementary capabilities, expertise and values. However, no such discussions are currently in progress.

A short time we heard back from Doug Phillips, the Managing Partner at WeiserMazars who provided us with this statement through a spokesperson:

After much serious and detailed discussion, the managements of WeiserMazars LLP and Marks Paneth & Shron LLP have concluded that we cannot agree on a set of merger terms that we are prepared to submit to the partners of each firm to vote on. We have therefore concluded our discussions for the time being.

We continue to have the greatest respect for Marks Paneth & Shron and its partners. A combination is just not the right move for both firms at this time.

So there you have it. There was little wining and dining but ultimately it wasn’t love. That being said, it sounds like both firms are on the hunt, so we’ll keep our ears open. If you have information or hear rumors of any potential merger, email us at tips@goingconcern.com with the scoop.