Footnotes: E&Y Says Alleged Spy Was ‘Welcomed’ by Express Scripts Execs; The Carolina Panthers’ Financials; The Future of UK GAAP | 03.07.13

Sokol Resigns From Berkshire After Investing in Lubrizol [Bloomberg]
David Sokol, once a candidate to succeed Warren Buffett as the head of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), resigned as it was disclosed he helped negotiate a takeover while buying stock in the target company. Sokol, 54, bought about 96,000 Lubrizol Corp. (LZ) shares in January before recommending the company as a takeover target, Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman and chief executive officer, said yesterday in a statement. Sokol had initiated confidential talks with Lubrizol the month before. Berkshire agreed to buy the firm for $9 billion on March 14.

GE-Whizzes: Everyone’s Looking for an Edge on Taxes [WSJ]
GE isn’t the only corporate giant striving to pay as little as possible under the tax code. Wall Street firms, battered by losses during the financial crisis, wrote down their tax bills using a variety of methods and claimed benefits against other tax bills.

House of Lords Skewers Auditors; Over To You, Congress [Forbes]
Wish granted.

Tax Court: Woman Can Deduct Funds Withdrawn by Abusive Boyfriend [TaxProf Blog]
The Tax Court yesterday held that a women could deduct funds withdrawn from her businesses by her abusive boyfriend as theft losses.

Too many accounting bodies, bemoan Lords [Accountancy Age]
With six primary regulators of auditing and accounting in the UK, the Lords described their overseeing of the industry as “fragmented and unwieldy”, saying there is patent overlapping of jurisdiction and function. One unified regulator was held up as the gold standard and the committee seemed to be calling for outside powers to swoop in and break up the squabbling crew.

Sister act: Alabama tax prep sisters each face 129 years in prison [AW]
A couple of sisters looking at a Madoff-esque sentence.

Taxpayer Suggestions for Improving the I.R.S. [Bucks/NYT]
A Q&A with a regular Joe…er…Herb who sat on the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel.

KPMG Sued For Giving Tom Hicks “Clean Audit” a Year Before $525-Million Loan Default [Dallas Observer]
GPS alleges that KPMG “was well aware of the desperate financial condition of Hicks Sports” — specifically, the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars — when it was hired to conduct the ’08 audit.

IRS Says It Will Start Processing Delayed Income Tax Returns on Feb. 14 [Bloomberg]
The Internal Revenue Service said it will start processing on Feb. 14 tax returns claiming itemized deductions, including for home-mortgage interest, charitable donations and state and local taxes. The delay also affects tax filers claiming deductions for college tuition fees and for teachers’ out-of-pocket expenses. In all, about 9 million households filed returns claiming itemized or other affected deductions before Valentine’s Day last year, the IRS said in a release.

Verizon sees $600 million accounting change charge [Reuters]
Verizon Communications Inc plans to report a $600 million charge for the full year 2010 due to a change in the way it accounts for retirement benefits, following the lead of rival AT&T Inc. Like AT&T, Verizon said Friday it is looking to make its financials easier to understand by changing its pension accounting to recognize gains and losses in the year they are incurred, rather than amortizing them over time.

Fed changes accounting rules [FT]
Paging the Fed basher, “The US Federal Reserve has changed its accounting rules in a way that means it will never have to report negative capital on its weekly balance sheets unless it suffers catastrophic losses. The Fed’s accounting is in the spotlight because of the possibility that it could suffer losses when unwinding its programme of quantitative easing that overwhelms its capital base of $53bn.”

Lieberman’s Legacy on Accounting [Floyd Norris]
Stock options, anyone?

Time for Smaller Companies to Learn XBRL [AW]
Drag them kicking and screaming.

Why Small Business Owners Need a Blog [BBW]
When a website simply isn’t enough.

Ways and Means expected to discuss 1099 provision in a hearing next week [On the Money/The Hill]
“As each committee begins its oversight of the Democrats’ health care law, Ways and Means will be having a hearing next week to examine the impact that the law is having on employers,” a Ways and Means spokesperson told The Hill on Thursday night. “Given the strong concerns about the 1099 mandate that have been voiced throughout the employer community, we would expect that employers will raise the issue and reiterate their calls for repeal.”

Twitter Is a Great Tool. What Happens When It’s Wrong? [BBW]
Pitfalls to real time.