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Footnotes: A Lot of Laundered Money; We Need More Rich People; Apple’s Tax Strategy Brings Out the Trolls | 05.28.13

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

The Secret Service busted an alleged $6 billion money laundering dealie-o called, ironically enough, "Liberty Reserve." It's like the Federal Reserve except not sanctioned by the government for money laundering purposes, ya know. [Fox]

According to a new groundbreaking study, when the rich get richer, taxes get lower. [WaPo Wonkblog]

And, based on that study, here's some chart porn. [Business Insider]

This holiday season, you can now impress your uncle with your incredible knowledge of revenue recognition when he hands you that $50 Sears gift card you will throw in a drawer and forget about. [Journal of Accountancy]

Proposed airline tax hikes could put a damper on your summer travel [Don't Mess With Taxes]

There is some Internet fight going on RIGHT NOW over Apple's taxes [Forbes]

Bill Gates loves paying taxes. Looooooves it. [Daily Caller]

SEC Turns Its Attention Back To Accounting Fraud, Literary Criticism A criticism of the SEC that you’ll sometimes hear is that it’s mostly a bunch of lawyers, and two things that are broadly true of lawyers as a class is that they are good at close readings of dense texts and terrified of math. This means, some might say, that the agency is ill-equipped to regulate the high-tech quantitative world of modern finance. So it’s obscurely pleasing to read that the SEC’s office of quantitative research is rolling out a new program that applies high-tech quantitative methods to, basically, close reading of dense texts [Dealbreaker]

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Just Because You Support Tax Cuts Doesn’t Mean You’re a Fiscal Conservative

Since the the stench of last-minute pandering to voters is in the air today, Howard Gleckman points out over at TaxVox that while many candidates are quick to launch in with “I will cut taxes!” or “I believe in smaller government!” to catch some of the hot Tea Party action, these candidates (and many of the Tea Party types themselves) don’t really qualify as fiscal conservatives (if you go by the Wikipedia definition) who support balanced budgets and deficit reduction:

They are plainly interested in tax cuts—a core belief that appears repeatedly on Websites, position papers, and speeches throughout the movement. And while tea partiers say they favor smaller government, many in fact propose to shrink it in only trivial ways—by cutting earmarks or waste and abuse. Candidates elected on platforms supporting very large tax cuts and small spending reductions are likely to oppose aggressive efforts to reduce deficits, not back them. While some analysts see the tea partiers as the 21st century progeny of Ross Perot’s fiscal conservatism, nothing could be further from the truth.

One of Gleckman’s examples is Sharon Angle who claims to be the “one true conservative” (presumably that means a fiscal conservative) and is running for the Republican nomination in Nevada to face off against Harry Reid. Here is one of her ads:

There’s the mantra: “Limited Government!” “Lower Taxes!” As Mr Gleckman notes, Ms Angle would “abolish the Internal Revenue Code but doesn’t quite say how she’d finance government.” That’s a bit of a problem, especially since she says in her “On the Issues” page under healthcare that “the government must continue to keep its contract with seniors, who entered into the system on good faith and now are depending on that contract.”

Since this essentially represents the Tea Party’s position on healthcare we’ll agree with Gleckman when he says, “This view makes deficit reduction a challenge at best, especially when paired with big tax cuts.”

The point here is this – if you’re beating the drum of tax cuts and limited government to pander to a hot political movement but if you’re going to largely continue to spend tax dollars with the same fervor as George W. Bush, that doesn’t make you the second coming of Ross Perot.

Accounting News Roundup: Another Chinese Company’s Auditor Resigns; IFRS Blamestorming; Calpers Names Acting CFO | 03.29.11

China Century’s Accounting Firm Resigns; Says Co Faces Delisting [Dow Jones]
China Century Dragon Media Inc. (CDM) said MaloneBailey LLP formally resigned as the company’s independent accounting firm, alleging it believed irregularities in the company’s bank records suggested the documents may have been falsified. The Chinese television advertising company said the firm noted in its resignation letter that it couldn’t directly verify the company’s bank records and wasn’t able to rely on management’s representations of China Century’s financial statements. The company said it intends to seek and retain a new auditor.

‘Fatally flawed’ accounting standards inflated [Telegraph]
The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which have been described as “fatally flawed”, let RBS report a core tier one ratio for 2010 more than 4pc higher than it would have been under the UK’s old accounting rules that were replaced in 2005. The analysis comes ahead of the publication of a House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee report into UK accounting practices expected to be highly critical of the IFRS system.

BP Managers Said to Face U.S. Manslaughter Charges Review [Bloomberg]
Federal prosecutors are considering whether to pursue manslaughter charges against BP Plc (BP/) managers for decisions made before the Gulf of Mexico oil well explosion last year that killed 11 workers and caused the biggest offshore spill in U.S. history, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Government Shutdown Grows Likelier [WSJ]
Talks between congressional leaders and the White House on a deal to fund the government for the rest of the year appear to have slowed, with Democrats and Republicans loudly bickering over the fate of their negotiations. Failure to reach a deal by April 8, a milestone that appears increasingly difficult to achieve, would result in a government shutdown. In the absence of any visible signs of progress on negotiations, Democrats and Republicans on Monday ratcheted up criticism of each other.

Why Doesn’t Your Firm Have a Website? [CPA Trendlines]
Chances are this isn’t your firm but one-third of CPA firms don’t have a page on the tubes.

Monday Map: State Beer Excise Tax Rates [Tax Foundation]
Alaska, Alabama, Georgia, Washington [?}, South Carolina lead the way.

Despite pressure to reduce national debt, few in Congress use payback program [WaPo]
Try to act surprised.

Calpers Names Fong To Newly Created Acting CFO Post [Dow Jones]
The country’s largest public pension fund, California Public Employees’ Retirement System, appointed Russell G. Fong to its acting chief financial officer post effective April 4, a newly created role to coordinate financial and risk-related activities. Fong will be responsible for managing the financial progress of Calpers, including budgeting, accounting, cash management and financial planning and analysis. He will also oversee the fund’s enterprise risk management projects.

Accounting News Roundup: Debt Valuation Adjustments; Valeant: Still Weird; Counting Pages of the Tax Code | 11.12.15

Lease-Accounting Overhaul Gets Green Light, Could Swell Balance Sheets by $2 Trillion [WSJ]The FASB approved […]