Footnotes: PwC Irish Eyes Are Frowning; Possible Tax Implications for Private Equity; A Real Housewife of Tax Fraud (Allegedly!) | 07.29.13

Acting Ed. note: Guess what, kids? NO COLIN TODAY! YAY!!! I'll be holed up at […]

Debt reduction talks in limbo as clock ticks toward Aug. 2 deadline [WaPo]
The White House meeting adjourned after roughly 75 minutes without agreement over how far the parties should go in cutting the deficit over the next decade or whether tax cuts and entitlement reductions should be a part of any deal. Congressional leaders will return to the White House on Monday to continue talks, administration officials announced, and Obama will hold a morning news conference before they do.

Bachmann’s Tax Attorney Job Was Collector for the IRS [WSJ]
Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann touts one job as her primary professional experience before entering politics. On the campaign trail, she describes it as being a “federal tax litigation attorney.” Others might call it tax collector.

SEC IFRS Roundtable Debrief: March of the Zombies [Accounting Onion]
Tom Selling opines on the thoughts of the undead from last week’s roundtable.

Auditors and Audit Reports: Is The Firm’s “John Hancock” Enough? [Forbes]
What’s in a name? Maybe a lot.

Tax implications of Derek Jeter’s historic 3,000th MLB hit [DMWT]
Just when you thought taxes couldn’t invade a good show of sportsmanship.

Taxes Upon Taxes Upon . . . [WSJ]
So the fondest Washington hopes for a grand debt-limit deal have broken down over taxes. House Speaker John Boehner said late Saturday that he couldn’t move ahead with a $4 trillion deal because President Obama was insisting on a $1 trillion tax increase, and the White House quickly denounced House Republicans for scuttling debt reduction and preventing “the very wealthiest and special interests from paying their fair share.” How dare Republicans not agree to break their campaign promises and raise taxes when the jobless rate is 9.2% and President Obama’s economic recovery is in jeopardy?

KPMG Achieves 22 Percent Carbon Reduction Through “Living Green” Initiative [KPMG]
You miss the bottled water, don’t you?

Groupon Financial Assumptions Upended [CFOJ]
Customer acquisition and retention — already one of its highest costs, and arguably the most important – is becoming more expensive by the day and getting a lower return. According to its S-1 filing, Groupon spent some $179.9 million in the first quarter to acquire new customers, up from $3.9 million in the first quarter of 2010. Those costs were the main reason the company lost $117.1 million in the first three months of the year.

From Prison, Madoff Says Banks ‘Had to Know’ of Fraud [NYT]
In many ways, however, Mr. Madoff seemed unchanged. He spoke with great intensity and fluency about his dealings with various banks and hedge funds, pointing to their “willful blindness” and their failure to examine discrepancies between his regulatory filings and other information available to them. “They had to know,” Mr. Madoff said. “But the attitude was sort of, ‘If you’re doing something wrong, we don’t want to know.’ ”

Why It’s Worth Paying for a Tax Pro [WSJ]
To save money last year, Anthony Fasano tried preparing his new business’s first tax return on his own. Then reality sank in. “I realized I really had no understanding of the tax laws from a business standpoint,” says Mr. Fasano, founder of Powerful Purpose Associates, an executive-coaching company he runs out of his home in Ridgewood, N.J. “I was just winging it.”

Nonprofits and International Financial Reporting Standards [AW]
Anyone who has looked at a nonprofit financial statement over the past two years might recognize the term “Fair Value Measurements” in the footnotes. This is just one example of how a joint project between the FASB and IASB has affected the reporting of U.S. nonprofit organizations. On an ongoing basis, U.S. nonprofits can expect to see changes in U.S. GAAP that will impact their reporting requirements for years to come.

Replace the Big Four with Audits by Government? More Heat in the Kitchen — and Less Light [Re:Balance]
An excellent column from Jim Peterson although I feel like he missed an opportunity to include a cockroaches metaphor.

Should Faculty be Required to Fill Out Time Sheets? [TaxProf Blog]
The billable hour goes to school.

Is Your Employee’s Cell Phone a Security Breach Waiting to Happen? [CPA Trendlines]
Not to mention the sexting!

A Question for the CFO of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters [White Collar Fraud]
Sam Antar is puzzled: “How was Green Mountain Coffee Roasters able to report income before taxes in its Timothy’s Coffee of the World Inc. subsidiary that exceeded revenues in the thirteen-weeks ended June 26, 2010?”

Trump and the Mets? Anything Is Possible [NYT]
Or running for President. Whichever.

Cheating IRS nets inmates $39 million [DFP]
Crime Pays!