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Accounting News Roundup: Debating the Audit Business Model; Tax Cheats in Prime Time; What Do I Have to Do to Put You in This Tax Reform Today? | 04.14.11

In Financial Crisis, No Prosecutions of Top Figures [NYT]
It is a question asked repeatedly across America: why, in the aftermath of a financial mess that generated hundreds of billions in losses, have no high-profile participants in the disaster been prosecuted?

Obama Challenges Republicans With Deadline for Deficit Deal [Bloomberg]
President Barack Obama set a June deadline for a bipartisan deal to cut the federal deficit and offered a path to get there that was designed to contrast with a Republican proposal he called unfair to the elderly and overly generous to the wealthy. Obama’s plan, outlined in a speech yesterday at George Washington University, would cut $4 trillion in cumulative deficits within 12 years through a combination of spending reductions and tax increases that draws heavily on recommendations from the chairmen of his bipartisan fiscal commission.

McKenna to Debate GT’s Bailey [The Summa]
The annual conference of the Ohio Region of the American Accounting Association is hosting a debate between Francine McKenna (journalist/commentator on the audit industry) and Andy Bailey (Grant Thornton). It is scheduled for Friday, May 13, 2011, in Dublin (Columbus), Ohio.

The American Tax Cheat [CNBC]
Tonight at 9 pm!

Audit Committee Priorities Remain Risk, Compliance, and Technology [IIA/Norman Marks]
“Eating a good breakfast” is nowhere to be found.


President Obama, GOP still differ on tax reform details [The Hill]
If you can believe it.

Obama, Ryan, and the Parameters of the Budget Debate [TaxVox]
Howard Gleckman explains just how much talking needs to happen, “Imagine for a moment you walk into a dealership to buy the vehicle of your dreams. The salesman asks what you want to pay. You say $50. He counters with $50,000. The good news is you have begun a negotiation. The bad news is, you’ve got a lot of talking to do before you can drive that honey off the lot.”

Paul Ryan Practically Threw a Fit During President Obama’s Speech

Mr. Ryan sat in a front-row seat in the George Washington University auditorium Wednesday while Mr. Obama unveiled his plan to constrain growing levels of federal debt. Mr. Ryan grew visibly annoyed during the speech, shaking his head in disgust. He feverishly took notes, and when Mr. Obama finished he stood up and bolted from the auditorium. The only person apparently running faster towards the exit tugged on Mr. Ryan’s sleeve near the doorway and reached out to shake his hand. “Hi, Mr. Chairman, Gene Sperling,” Mr. Obama’s director of the National Economic Council said to Mr. Ryan in what appeared to be a conciliatory gesture. “Oh, I thought you were a reporter,” Mr. Ryan said, explaining why he didn’t immediately turn around when his name was called. [WSJ]

LECG Throws in the Towel; Won’t Continue to Meet Nasdaq Listing Standards

DoD will officially be April 21, 2011 according to the company’s press release. Obviously whomever’s left will be celebrating the high holiday the night before.

LECG Corporation (NASDAQ: XPRT) announced today that it is terminating its listing on the Nasdaq Global Market as of the close of business on April 21, 2011. The company has previously received notice from Nasdaq that it has failed to maintain a minimum bid price of $1 per share. In light of its current financial condition, the company does not anticipate the minimum bid price for its common stock returning to a level of excess of $1 per share. In addition, in light of its current financial condition and certain publicly-disclosed recent asset sales, the company does not anticipate being able to continue to meet other Nasdaq listing standards in the future. Further, in light of recent resignations, a majority of the members of the Company’s board of directors do not qualify as independent. Following the termination of its listing on Nasdaq, the company intends to terminate its public reporting obligations under the Exchange Act as soon as possible.

[via Francine McKenna via ZH]

Earlier coverage of LECG Implosion:
LECG Fire Sale Continues; San Fran Forensic Accounting Group Joins FTI Consulting
WeiserMazars Moves into Chicago as Part of Acquisition of LECG Units
LECG Selling Off Practice Groups to FTI, Grant Thornton, WeiserMazars

A Friendly Reminder for Anyone That Is Interested in Winning an iPad, Flight Voucher, Other Stuff

Five short days until the end of tax season. Can you feel it? Yeah, me neither. Although if you were to win something better than average – say, an iPad – you might end up feeling something. Excitement perhaps. Shock could be another one. You might trade hate for love as it relates to a certain smug, rimless spectacled, mock-turtleneck-wearing CEO. Whatever. At least you won’t be devoid of emotion for a change.


Here’s a reminder of what’s up for grabs when you sign up for the Daily Grind enewsletter:

• One Grand Prize of an iPad 2 valued @ $500
• 1 Airline Gift Card valued @ $300
• 2 Best Buy Gift Cards valued @ $100
• 20 Going Concern Prize Packs valued @ MTM

If you’re already signed up, don’t get your knickers in a twist, you’re entered automatically. Contest ends May 5th. Entry is easy – just jump over the You Survived Another Busy Season Giveaway page and sign up for the newsletter and you’ve gotta chance. Unlike certain pretend Presidential candidates.

These Videos More or Less Portray What It’s Like Being an Accountant for Celebrities

Celebrities suck at taxes. This is known. From Young Buck to Jaime Pressly, there are no shortage of talented-ish people that find themselves in a world of hurt when in comes to complying with the IRC. How any accountants to the stars manage to keep their clients from completely losing their shit this time of year is anyone’s guess.

Luckily for us (everyone out there seems to be suffering from a busy season hangover), a couple of videos we stumbled across more or less put this niche expertise into perspective:


Alan Kaufman, Rock Star Accountant from Dan Meth on Vimeo.

The question over at TV.com, however, is whether or not SNL got its idea for Mort Mort Feingold, Celebrity Accountant from Alan Kaufman, rock star accountant. You can debate that if you feel so inclined but the realism of each is what’s noteworthy here. Anyone with firsthand experience in the A, B, C, or D celebrity clients is invited to share anecdotes at this time.

Why Would Fourteen Baker Tilly Partners Give Up Equity for Salary?

This one’s a stumper.

Accountancy Age reports that 14 Baker Tilly partners are giving up their equity stakes to go on salary including “international CEO Geoffrey Barnes, head of IT advisory Richard Spooner, and six partners from the London office.” A spokeswoman told AA that this is simply a change in “remuneration” and the fourteen individuals would remain partners and there “would be no change to client services.”

Riddle me this partners out there: why would a person with an equity stake go back to being a senior manager (i.e. in terms of the compensation structure)? Something doesn’t compute there. Since we’re dealing with the international CEO and head IT advisory, maybe there’s some kind of political or solidarity motive here but the Accountancy Age report is skimpy and its editor Gavin Hinks admits that there isn’t much to go on and gets to speculating:

The big question people are asking is what does it mean? Or does it mean anything at all? There are a number of reasons a partner’s status might change. They may simply no longer want the risk of being partner. The firm may believe profits are too diluted and want fewer partners.

I personally don’t buy the first motive. If they were sick of the risk, why not just leave the firm? There are plenty of jobs out there with better compensation packages. Diluted profits is a little more plausible but the international CEO and head of IT advisory? Why would they opt out? Since the partners in question made this decision themselves, it’s unlikely that this was a punitive measure but perhaps BT had a little bit of an internal email scandal, they were given a multiple choice form of punishment and this was the least severe option? I’ve really got nothing better at this point. People with theories that are slightly above the crackpot level are invited to share.

A Young Analyst Wants to Know How to Become a Spreadsheet Rockstar

Welcome to the final-humpless-hump-day before the end of tax season. In today’s edition, an analyst and prospective CMA wants to know how to best improve his spreadsheet skills to the point where they’ll jump out of the screen a do a little jig. Aside from reading the Excel manual, how does one go about this?

Is your career in neutral (or reverse)? Do you need advice on how to cope with a hellish travel schedule? Are you frustrated with a co-worker to the point that eating them seems like a decent option? Email us at advice@goingconcern.com and we’ll recommend a nice wine.

Back to our wannabe spreadsheet sage:

Hi Going Concern,

I read your small firm accountant blog post with interest and just had to write in. The post states, “…and if you work at a firm where three years are required for promotion, you’ll really become a junior spreadsheet rockstar.”

In short, how do you recommend becoming a spreadsheet rockstar? My Excel skills are satisfactory but I certainly see room for improvement when it comes to analyzing data faster and presenting it better. What do you recommend in terms of specific exercises, resources, books etc?

About me: I’m an analyst (on the slow path to becoming a certified management accountant) at a large bank with around 40,000 staff in total and I’ve been here just over six months. It is my first full time role out of university.

Cheers,
Aspiring Spreadsheet Rockstar

Dear ASR,

So you want to be a David Lee Roth of Microsoft Excel? As a young number cruncher this is a worthy goal. This question will not make for good happy hour convos so you’ve come to the right place; we’ll get you going in the right direction.

The first resource you have at your disposal are the Excel wizards at your workplace. You’ve probably noticed who the savvy spreadsheet users are, so ask them if they wouldn’t mind walking you through pivot tables, vlookups, whatever. The trick is to figure out who actually takes pride (yes, they’re out there) in their spreadsheet skills and to ask them for a little bit of their time to show you the ropes…er, cells. More than likely they’ll be thrilled to show off their skills and bestow wisdom on a newbie. If they balk, just start rumors around the office about how they smell like mens locker room.

If asking a fellow working stiff isn’t an option, then it might be worth your time to see if your internal training curriculum offers advanced Excel courses. An employer of your size may have some decent options but if they don’t, look around for some external classes and submit the cost for reimbursement. I’d be surprised if an employer such as yours wouldn’t be willing to spring for a little self-spreadsheet improvement.

If you’re more of a self-study type, jump over to our British sister from another mister site, AccountingWEB UK, and check out all the tips they have to offer. That’ll keep you busy for awhile.

One other thing you can practice and learn on your own is using key shortcuts. This will allow you to cruise around Excel quicker and it will make you more productive. Lifehacker has a few that will get you started but if you’re stumped it’s a simple as asking Google. Rock on.

GE Responds to Hoax Tax Press Release in Least Hoaxy Way Possible

Earlier this morning, the Associated Press ran a story based on a hoax press release that stated General Electric had opted to give back its “refund.” You may recall there was a fair amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth after a New York Times article made the company look like huge international conglomerate attempting to minimize its legal tax obligation (talk about nerve). As you may be aware, the “refund” is actually a “deferred tax benefit” and we can’t think of any company that would simply give those back after some pesky article from the Times. Anyhoo, the AP has bit of egg on its face and GE is once again a punching bag and has re-reiterated the fact they DID NOT GET A REFUND.


Of course the last time GE went on a PR offensive, they got schooled by Henry Blodget. On Twitter. So instead of wading back into that scary end of the pool, they shuffled out a spokeswoman to simply say, “It’s a hoax and GE did not receive a refund.”

This is really a missed opportunity for GE, in our opinion. Jeff Immelt could have seized this opportunity to have a sense of humor about the whole thing, acknowledge the efforts of the Yes Men (the hoaxers) and say, “You know, we’re a big company with the best tax law firm right here, in-house, and sometimes people hate on us *cough*The Times*cough* because they do such a good job. And maybe we employ a bunch of Treasury Department alums too. I mean, we’ve got the money. Why wouldn’t we do it? These Yes Men guys, they’re okay. They’re trying to be funny in sort of an Onion sorta way and we’re cool with that. I read The Onion once. It seemed pretty humorous.”

Or something.

“Yes Men” claim hoax GE tax press release [Reuters]

Five Tax Apps to Brighten Up Your Tax Season

Since IRS humor isn’t going to get us through the last few days of tax season, might as well turn to technology for some much-needed usefulness.


Let’s start with an app from the fine folks at the IRS themselves. IRS2Go lets you track the status of your refund and, if you’re of the tinfoil hat persuasion, may make you feel like you’re being watched by TPTB. Not using an iPhone? Try the Android version. To date, IRS2Go has been downloaded more than 250,000 times.

You knew it was inevitable that they’d come out with a tax app for iPad, which the TurboTax people have released just in time for April 18th. One small complaint from users is that the iPad version doesn’t let you log in to update or change current TurboTax info but other than that, this app allows you to prepare and e-file your taxes all without putting down your iPad. Make sure you deduct that $529 you spent on the thing while you’re at it.*

Also from TurboTax, SnapTax is a free app for iPhone and Android (what’s with the BlackBerry hate here?) that lets 1040EZ filers snap a pic of their W-2 to file. The application states it will do all the work for you and is free to try but $19.99 to file.

H&R Block’s free Tax Central app won’t do your taxes for you but it can help you find an H&R near you, estimate your tax bill and help you get together the documents you’ll need to file. It also features a nifty tax glossary in case you forget what AMT is. Tax nerds will enjoy the tax quiz!

Do you live in constant fear of both BPA-tainted receipts and an IRS audit? Stop filing your receipts away in a lead box and try TAX Organizer, which sorts your expenses and organizes your receipts on your device.

*Nothing on this site should be considered tax advice. If you’re really considering deducting your toys, please consult a tax professional.

Accounting News Roundup: IRS Dodges Budget Cuts; Accountants Need Hugs This Month; Sitting All Day Will Probably Kill You | 04.13.11

Tyco Gets Takeover Offer of $30 Billion [WSJ]
France’s Schneider Electric SA has made a preliminary bid for approximately $30 billion for Tyco International Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter, hoping to draw the Swiss-based conglomerate to the negotiating table. “The board is studying the proposal,” said one person familiar with the matter. The tentative bid “was a surprise,” this person added.

IRS Spared From Budget Cuts as U.S. Agency Seeks Revenue From Tax Cheats [Bloomberg]
The Internal Revenue Service avoided a $603 million budget cut proposed by House Republicans, preventing changes that could have cost the government $4 billion in uncollected revenue. Under the proposed spending bill released today, the IRS budget for fiscal year 2011 would be $12.1 billion, or 0.2 percent less than in fiscal 2010. That level would subject the IRS to the same across-the-board funding cut as all domestic, non-defense agencies.

National Hug-an-Accountant Month [HuffPo]
FINALLY!

Who Cheats on Their Taxes? [Economix/NYT]
There was a study – with a chart! – that shows that a person’s relative importance makes them less likely to cheat on their taxes. So yes, doctors and lawyers rarely underreport their income. Somehow accounting and finance professionals didn’t find their way onto the list since they probably would have bucked the trend.

Taxpayer With Tax LL.M. Lacked Substantial Authority for Tax Return Position [TaxProf Blog]
Having just let lawyers off the tax cheating hook, the TaxProf hands us a rebuttal.

Intacct Joins Forces With the White House, SCORE, the AICPA and the Walmart Foundation [Intacct]
Intacct, a leader in cloud financial management and accounting software, the AICPA, and a whole slew of others joined the FLOTUS at the WH in to announce a initiative that will help US military personnel and their families become entrepreneurs.

81 Cents on the Dollar: Gender Pay Gap Persists [FINS]
The wage gap between men and women shrunk quickly in the 1980s and 1990s, but has been stuck near its current level for about a decade. For all jobs in 2010, the median wage for full-time women workers was 81.2% that of men, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.


The Most Dangerous Thing You’ll Do All Day [Yahoo]
I know those Herman Millers are comfy but try to get up every once in awhile.

DOJ Asked to Probe BCS Under Antitrust Law [WSJ]
A group of law and economics professors and practitioners has asked the Department of Justice to investigate college football’s Bowl Championship Series under antitrust law. In a letter, a copy of which was provided to The Wall Street Journal before it was made public, the 21 signatories—who include Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago and Andrew Zimbalist of Smith College—assert that the BCS is a cartel that “secures market access and revenue” for its favored members.

Inventor of Veg-O-Matic, Pocket Fisherman Said ‘Forget it’ to Company’s Tax Bill

When I was in college I had a roommate who had an odd taste in television. Sure, he liked some sports, Adam Sandler movies and free soft-core porn like the rest of us but what he really enjoyed, what he absolutely relished in, was infomercials.

He recited Ron Popeil demonstrations like he wrote the script. He even took the human interaction down to the psych level (it was his major, after all), telling me that he thought Ron was belittling Nancy for her perpetual doubt about the capabilities of any invention that Ron’s brain could muster. I always thought that Ron was simply too passionate about his products and was simply bringing that passion out in responding to Nancy. That, plus his machines have the noise-making capability of a bulldozer, so he had to yell over them. This usually resulted in a shouting match between myself and my roommate and then we probably got blind drunk.


Anyway, I bring all this up because ol’ Ronny has himself a tax issue in California with Ronco Inventions, LLC and it’s Robert Snell’s tax delinquent scoop du jour:

According to public records, Ronco Inventions LLC owes the state $170,392 in delinquent taxes — or three easy payments of $56,797. Ronco is famed for products such as the parody-worthy Veg-O-Matic, the Pocket Fisherman, and rotisserie ovens. Popeil has turned the infomercial into an art form thanks to catch phrases — “Set it, and forget it!”, “But wait, there’s more!” — and studio audience members who clap like their lives depend on it.

Since Ron is the brains of Ronco, it’s likely that he treats tax issues much like he treated Nancy: with spirited indifference. Which now leads me to wonder if she’s the one in charge of the accounting department. Judge for yourself:

Official: You Can Blame the South for the Income Tax

As you may have heard, 150 years ago today Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter which began the Civil War. This war turned out to be a pretty big deal as the Union victory effectively ended slavery. But what you may not be aware of is that it also led to the first income tax in our fair land.

From our friend and tax maven-cum-historian Joe Kristan (who somehow has time to post with less than a week to go in tax season):

The consequences of the war, surely unintended by the operators of this gun, included the end of slavery, a horrific death toll, and the first Federal income tax. While the tax was repealed after the war, the idea stayed alive; the federal income tax came back in 1913, and is still with us. So while you struggle with your 1040, save a word of “thanks” for General P.G.T. Beauregard and the rest of the Confederates who attacked Ft. Sumter.

Funny thing – lots of people in the South manage to have no tax liability so aside from LOSING THE WAR the whole thing is probably NBD.