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Friday Footnotes: EY Hits Back; Some CFO Drama; A New PCAOB Agenda? | 12.4.20

EY hits back at German audit watchdog over alleged misconduct [Financial Times] EY has lashed out at Germany’s audit watchdog for prematurely reporting suspected criminal misconduct by its partners to prosecutors in an escalating battle over the Big Four firm’s audit work at defunct payments company Wirecard.

New Jersey Society of CPAs Announces 10 CPA Exam Fee Lottery Winners [NJCPA] The New Jersey Society of CPAs has awarded 10 members with $750 each towards their CPA Exam fee costs. The aspiring CPAs are either Student or CPA Candidate members of the NJCPA and were selected at random in November from a pool of more than 70 entries.

Threats to licensing remain a concern for CPAs amid pandemic [Journal of Accountancy] Groups that have been lobbying for years against professional and occupational licensing can cite economic uncertainty related to the pandemic as a reason to relax professional standards for the purpose of opening up more job opportunities.

Interviewing a Deloitte Vacation Schemer [The Boar] Even though we speak the same language as the people of England, I went into this thinking the article was about some intern at Deloitte vacay-ing it up in Florida with no mask on or something. No such luck, “schemer” means something different over there: “The Boar Finance decided to share the virtual experience of these interns and interview Alexander Ray, a Tax Consultancy vac- schemer and graduate job offer holder at Deloitte.” Soooo… winter intern then?

Tax Refunds For Nonprofits Tied Up in IRS Mail Backlog [Bloomberg Tax] IRS’s pandemic-induced document backlog means that some nonprofits trying to get refunded for a now-defunct tax are struggling to get help from the agency.

Netflix Sued by Activision for Poaching CFO [Hollywood Reporter] Netflix is facing another executive poaching lawsuit, this time from gaming giant Activision Blizzard over the departure of CFO Spencer Neumann. Activision claims Netflix induced Neumann to breach his employment contract while the CFO was actively involved in negotiations with the streamer on the gamer’s behalf. This marks the third major entertainment company, following Fox and Viacom, to allege Netflix is illegally poaching employees.

U.S. Audit Watchdog Could Ramp Up Oversight Under New SEC Leadership [Wall Street Journal] Regulatory experts said new leadership at the SEC could influence the PCAOB’s agenda, which is expected to eventually reflect the goals of a new administration. Those could include elements such as mandatory audit-firm rotation or stricter rules for auditors.

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