Category: Review Comments

• Court: Parents Who Cash in IRA to Pay for Kid’s College Not Subject to 10% Penalty – They’re going to be working until they’re 90 anyway. [TaxProf Blog]
• 7 Audit Lessons (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the IRS) – See? It’s possible. [Tax Girl]
• SEC Surpasses $2 Billion in Fair Fund Distributions in 2009 – Just think what they would have paid out if they were doing a good job. [SEC.gov]
• KPMG staff face Thai grilling on Lehman sales – Thailand has laws? [FT]
• Happy Thanksgiving! Please don’t work on Friday. We’ll be back on Monday. Unless of course, the humble servant writes another letter.

• AICPA Objects to ‘Reckless’ Behavior Bill – Barry Melancon, on the Hill, earning the dollar. [Web CPA]
• Accused Ponzi schemer Petters’ case goes to jury – The effectiveness of the cocker spaniel defense will live and die on this trial. [Reuters]
• Sarbanes-Oxley For Everyone: To Be Or Not To Be? (With Postscript) – One GC contributors point of view on small company SOX compliance. [RTA]
• Sarbanes Oxley Logic and the Paper Tiger – And another. [Accounting Nation]
• ‘Bought’ Isn’t the Same as ‘Place in Service’ – Section 179 and depreciation discussion. Go tax people! Go! [Tax Update Blog]

• Judge Allows CIT to Borrow Up to $500 Million – They promise not to mess it up this time. [DealBook]
• EADS Braces Itself for Insider-Trading Trial – Someone that isn’t you knew those Airbus A380s weren’t going to be ready. [WSJ]
• Being A Bank CEO Worked Out Pretty Well For Jim And Dick – Failure pays. [DB]
• Macy’s Promoting Blenders Signals Reluctant Consumer – Or maybe people really do want blenders. [Bloomberg]

• Rangel Says House Democrats Will Renew Tax Breaks – Renewal of Chuck’s leases on rent controlled apartments are another story. [Bloomberg]
• ‘Botax’ In Senate Health Bill Upsets Plastic Surgeons – An additional 5% tax on those calf implants. [NPR]
• Losing Altitude – CFO pay fell in ’08. Cue the trombone. [CFO]
• Bagel Company Owner Indicted for Stealing Withholding Taxes – This would never happen at David’s. [Web CPA]

• Don’t forget to submit your questions for our weekly CPA Exam post, >75.
• Pa. Woman Can’t Re-Sue Ernst & Young for $103M – Tragic conclusion. [ABC News]
• ‘Cheat’? I Don’t Think the Word Means What They Think It Means – Tragic ignorance.
[Tax Update Blog]
• Singer Aaron Carter Owes IRS Over $1 Million – Tragic boy. [Web CPA]
• Is Wall Street Comprised Of A Bunch Of Crackwhores Who Can’t Help Themselves, Crying Out For Help? John Mack Says Yes – Tragic whores. [DB]

• Petters, on witness stand, denies knowing of fraud – Swindler? Not guilty. Swashbuckling? Guilty as charged. [AP]
• Grant Thornton LLP offers 10 year-end tax planning tips – Just not for this guy. [Press Release]
• Hopes Rise for Cadbury Bidding War – “Hopes of a bidding war breaking out for Cadbury PLC rose, pushing up the company’s shares, after U.S. rival Hershey Co. and Italian-based Ferrero SpA said they might bid for the U.K. confectioner.” [WSJ]
• Is Google the Next AT&T?– “Google would let you make and receive Internet-based calls that ‘bypass the per-minute billing on your smartphone.'” [The Atlantic]
• CFOs High-five on 404 Rollback Bill – Because CFOs don’t do fist-bump blow ups. [CFO]
• Lots of voting to be done: NPOs/Govts, CPA Exam, and Craptacular Captions. Thanks for pulling the lever.

• IRS Hails ‘Historic’ Response To Amnesty For Offshore Bank Accounts – Scare tactics work. [NPR]
• SEC in talks with IRS about preserving tax breaks for LIFO – Wouldn’t be so good for the likes of ExxonMobil if the breaks went away. A study says it would increase XOM’s tax liability by $9 billion. Lobby much? [CFOZone]
• Sheep Dogs and Stewardship — Why Groom the Next Generation? – “The demands on the recruiting directors of the banks and law firms and accountants are not different. They manage their personnel pipelines because, as a senior Big Four partner put it in a moment of candor, ‘the only reason we hire new staff is so we can re-stock our need for managers.'” [Re:Balance]
• Bill Belichick, Moneyball Savant? – Pats fans, turns out Belichick knows what he’s doing. [TaxProf Blog]
• The Football Plays We Don’t See – No, he really does. [Tax Update Blog]
• President Obama Establishes Interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force – No less than 23 government agencies, offices, and departments will be involved. How’s that for a dense bureaucracy? [SEC.gov]
• Don’t forget to vote in our two polls from today: Non-profits/Govts and ditiching the bad boss for less scratch. Plus today is the last day to submit a caption for the water closet audit room.

• 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]

• 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]

• Porsche confirms big annual loss – So you file a stupid lawsuit against Crocs? They don’t have any money, you dolts. [BBC]
• More on The Tax Treatment of the Sale of Human Body Parts – There’s a market people. [TaxProf Blog]
• Balloon Boy Parents to Plead Guilty – “Our long, national, helium induced nightmare is almost over.” [ATL]
• The Goldman Sachs Foundation’s torrid 2008 – Team Jehovah’s foundation lost a lot scratch doing their share of the Almighty’s work. [Felix Salmon/Reuters]
• Economists See Fed Raising Rates Near Midterm Elections – Annnnd unemployment will still be near double digits. Enjoy, incumbents. [WSJ]

• Reminders: Kindly vote in our caption contest poll and take our short November survey ($50 AMEX gift card people, get on it).
• Tax Havens Suddenly Not All the Rage – Thanks IRS. Our dreams of having a Swiss bank account are totally dashed. What’s the point if we’re still paying taxes? [Tax Girl]
• Benmosche Says He Is ‘Totally Committed’ to A.I.G. – That thing this morning? Never happened. [DealBook]
• Citigroup stands by deferred tax asset valuation – Last we checked, banks are not in the habit of saying, “GD, you’re right. We totally jacked that valuation up. Thanks for letting us know.” [Reuters]

• Tax Code as Swiss Army Scalpel – “It’s hard enough for the IRS to just correctly determine and collect the tax. Pelosicare is one more step in the transfromation of the IRS from a tax collector to a super-agency that shoves aside the cabinet officers nominally in charge of public policy.” [Tax Update Blog]
• ‘Unreasonable’ IRS Demands Squash Bunnymen Tour – Those wankers at the IRS have ruined November. [Web CPA]
• Ex-Managers of Bear Fund Not Guilty – Took the jury less than two days, DOJ. Try harder on the next one. [WSJ]
• GM Chairman Says IPO Timing Uncertain; Paying Debt More Important – Patience. We’ll get back to losing money for everyone just as soon as we can. [WSJ]
• Don’t forget to take our latest survey and that it’s the last day to submit captions.