Footnotes: Setting a Date for Tax Reform (Sort of); Romney vs. Reid, Round 2; Banks’ Shady Customers | 08.03.12

Tax Deal Set to Pass Senate [WSJ]
Democrats are predicting that a much-debated tax agreement will clear a crucial hurdle comfortably in the Senate on Monday, with a margin that they hope will add momentum to the deal in the House. But even with President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and a growing number of Senate Democrats backing the deal, House Democrats remained eager to test whether they could push Republicans to raise the proposed tax rate on estates.

Seven Things You Should Not Do Online at Work [FINS]
A quick refresher for anyone that has already forgotten PwC Email Hottiegate 2010 (Ireland edition).

Carlyle Finance Chief Nachtwey Leaves in Setback to IPO Plans [Bloomberg BusinessWeek]
Peter Nachtwey, a Deloitte alum, is leaving Carlyle ‘to pursue a great new opportunity’ shortly before the firm’s planned IPO, “Carlyle plans to file IPO papers late in 2011, people with knowledge of the matter said earlier this month. The stock sale may not occur until the following year, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private.”

Internal auditors next to give evidence in the Lords [Accountancy Age]
Internal auditors will take centre stage tomorrow when they appear before a House of Lords committee to give evidence on the role of auditors during the financial crisis.

The Lords are expected to probe the relationship between internal auditors and audit committees, on the one hand, and external auditors on the other. The current chief executive of the Institute of Internal Auditors, Dr Ian Peters, will appear as will Sarh Blackburn, a former president and current member of the institute.

IRS: Exclusive Montana Resort Founder Owes $15.4M [ABC News]
The co-founders of the millionaires-only Yellowstone Club also has to settle up with the state of Montana, “Tim and Edra Blixseth also owe Montana $57 million in taxes on money taken out of the Yellowstone Club and spent on luxury jets, cars and yachts that they wrote off as business expenses, according to state officials. With Edra Blixseth bankrupt, state officials have filed a warrant to go after Tim Blixseth’s assets to cover the debt.”

Firm will review auditor that overlooked Bell corruption [Los Angeles Times]
California Controller John Chiang is expected to release his review next month of the work of auditing firm Mayer Hoffman McCann, which gave the municipality a clean bill of health. The case has highlighted questions over firms that audit troubled government entities. Chiang already has issued several reports on Bell’s finances that found numerous shortcomings and red flags pointing to excessive salaries, illegal taxes and fees.

Perry Takes Up Flat-Tax Banner [WSJ]
The Texas governor said in a speech Wednesday to the Western Republican Leadership Conference in Las Vegas that he would lay out details of a flat-tax plan that “starts with scrapping the three million words of the current tax code, and starting over with something much simpler: a flat tax.”

Protests Show Capitalism ‘Nearly Broken’ [Bloomberg]
The protesters camping in London in support of the Occupy Wall Street dright and capitalism risks losing its “license to operate,” Generation Investment Management LLP’s David Blood said. Blood, who worked at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) for 18 years before starting fund manager Generation with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore in 2004, said the protesters’ message is that the financial system is “broken” and “unfair.”

Groupon Discounts IPO [WSJ]
The Chicago company and its bankers will begin meeting with investors in the next few days to sell them on a deal that values the daily deals pioneer at less than $12 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. While that would still mark one of the biggest Internet IPOs since Google Inc. in 2004, it is well below the valuations that were bandied about when the company filed to go public in June.

JetBlue Falls After Finance Chief Quits Week Before Earnings [BBW]
JetBlue Airways Corp. fell the most in two weeks after Chief Financial Officer Ed Barnes resigned ahead of the carrier’s earnings report. Barnes’s departure, effective immediately, was announced after the stock market closed yesterday. The resignation was a “personal decision” that had been planned for some time, said Mateo Lleras, a spokesman for New York-based JetBlue.

Certified Management Accountant Exam Offered in Chinese [AT]
“For nearly 40 years, the CMA certification program has been the globally-recognized credential for accountants and financial professionals in business, through an exam assessment, continuing education, and compliance with the highest ethical standards,” said Dennis Whitney, ICMA senior vice president, in a statement. “Following the success of the revised two-part CMA exam curriculum in English, we are pleased to offer the exam in Simplified Chinese.”

Citigroup to Pay $285 Million to Settle Fraud Charges [WSJ]
Wall Street’s total price tag on settlements with U.S. securities regulators for allegedly misleading investors about mortgage bonds churned out ahead of the financial crisis surged past $1 billion with a deal by Citigroup Inc. to pay $285 million. he New York company agreed to the payment to end civil-fraud charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission related to a 2007 deal called Class V Funding III. The SEC claimed Citigroup sold slices of the $1 billion mortgage-bond deal without disclosing to investors that the bank was shorting $500 million of the deal, or betting its assets would lose value.

CPA Horizons 2025: A Road Map for the Future [JofA]
Good news: you won’t be extinct.

Is Class Warfare Justified? [Tax.com/Martin Sullivan]
Maybe!

Grover Norquist defends no-tax pledge [Politico]
Aka: “Dog Bites Man.”