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Friday Footnotes: KPMG’s Idea of a Fun Summer; IRS Eats Their Homework; Downsized GT Downsizes | 5.13.22

a beautiful young cat

Junior KPMG auditor ‘should not lose his home’ for misleading regulator, says tribunal [Financial Times] A former junior KPMG auditor should not receive a fine so large it could force him to sell his matrimonial home, a tribunal has said. The UK accounting regulator asked the industry tribunal to fine Pratik Paw £50,000 and ban him from the profession for four years for his part in the deception of its inspectors during a review of KPMG’s auditing of UK outsourcer Carillion.

Months after remote-work offer, PwC’s D.C. office is ‘buzzing’ [Washington Business Journal] This article is behind a serious paywall but the sentence we can read without a subscription got a laugh out of me: “We’re not requiring them to be in offices X number of days a week, but they are choosing to be here,” a PwC executive said Thursday.

What every CPA should know about disrupted supply chains [Journal of Accountancy] Finally, that ‘disruption’ we’ve been hearing so much about all these years makes an appearance: “I think we’re going to be in a very disrupted environment for a few years,” said Kimberly Kirkendall, CPA, the president of International Resource Development. “And in this disrupted environment, the finance-accounting team’s ability to say what the company can and can’t support financially — that’s going to be a critical part of all these decisions.”

COVID-19 has negatively impacted how auditors work [Phys.org] Duh? COVID-19 has disrupted financial statement auditing globally and impacted group dynamics in an industry vital to the health of the economy, according to a new study. The researchers contend that based on prior research, coaching and the review process of an audit begin to break down when there is less trust and more distance between a coach and junior or between a reviewer and preparer. They also note it is unclear whether a virtual meeting can sustain a sense of connection. “When team members trust each other less, they don’t share knowledge as much, or they don’t truly work together, and ultimately that can lead to time and cost over-runs or negatively impact work quality,” said Tim Bauer, one of the study’s authors and a professor in assurance at the University of Waterloo. “So for a business, audit or otherwise, the question is, how will you build that trust or identity within a work team if your members are mostly interacting through screens and are ‘out of sight out of mind’ as soon as Zoom is turned off?”

KPMG Tackles CPA Exam Inequities with Paid Summer Study Program [Bloomberg Tax] KPMG LLP will pay some of its new hires to spend their summer studying for the CPA exam, before they launch their Big Four careers, in a bid to help more accountants from diverse backgrounds to not only earn their credential but earn it faster.

An Outdated Stereotype? Accounting Compared with Competing Professions [The CPA Journal] The popular accountant stereotype portrays a person who lacks creativity, sitting alone crunching numbers. Those within the profession know that this portrayal is inaccurate and that the accounting profession encompasses a wide variety of skills, both technical and personal. What does the evolving face of accounting look like today, and how can we spread the right message about our profession? This article discusses the results and implications of a recently published academic study that compared leading career models’ portrayal of accounting to competing professions and provided evidence concerning the required level of skills needed in contemporary accounting work.

A whole new world? The metaverse and what it could mean for you [Deloitte] Deloitte explains the metaverse like you’re 5.

r/accounting was in fine form this week:

State False Claims Acts: “Knowing” Why They Matter for Tax Professionals [National Law Review] Like the federal government, many states have adopted False Claims Act (FCA) provisions that exclude tax matters from coverage. The federal model makes clear that matters under the Internal Revenue Service are not covered by the law, and in the vast majority of cases, states also explicitly exclude tax from coverage. However, there is a growing number of states seeking to extend FCA liability to tax cases in which “knowing” causes of action apply to any person that knowingly conceals, avoids or decreases an obligation to pay the state.

Accenture, PwC and EY ranked as top cloud professional service providers [ARN] Accenture, PwC and EY have been ranked as the world’s top cloud professional services providers respectively, based on an analysis of their capabilities and strategies by IDC. Ranked in the IDC MarketScape Worldwide Cloud Professional Services assessment, the three global systems integrators sit above other ‘leaders’, of which sits Mckinsey, Deloitte, Capgemini, Infosys, HCL and DXC Technology.

Report: IRS Destroyed 30 Million Paper Tax Documents [CPA Practice Advisor] An audit by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has found that the Internal Revenue Service made an intentional decision “to destroy an estimated 30 million paper-filed information return documents in March 2021.” TIGTA says the agency did this because of it’s inability to catch up on backlogs of paper-filed returns.

US sanctions ban provision of accounting, consulting services to Russia [Journal of Accountancy] Expanded U.S. government sanctions against Russia in response to the war in Ukraine include a ban on accounting and management consulting services by U.S. citizens. The sanctions announced Sunday “prohibit U.S. persons from providing accounting, trust and corporate formation, and management consulting services to any person in the Russian Federation,” a White House statement said.

Learners and employers call for more innovative accounting education [Accounting Today] Educators aren’t fully meeting the needs of students or employers when it comes to teaching accountants and finance professionals, according to a new international analysis from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Accounting Firm Embraces Hybrid Work for Hundreds of Employees in Dallas Move [CoStar] “GT touting itself” LOL: An accounting firm touting itself as one of America’s largest audit, tax and advisory firms plans to significantly downsize its office space in downtown Dallas as it embraces a hybrid work model for its more than 400 employees, giving them a place for client meetings and “meaningful collaboration,” the managing partner of the Dallas office said.

Contracted Accountant Sentenced to Prison for Second Embezzlement Conviction [DoJ] According to information presented to the court, Walter Tymoczko was an independent contractor performing accounting work for a local company. From October 2018, until October 2019, Tymoczko embezzled funds from the company by utilizing an Inuit QuickBooks payroll program. Tymoczko used the program multiple times to transfer funds from the victim’s bank account to his own bank account and a family member’s bank account for a total of $73,206.77. The Court was further advised that Tymoczko has a previous federal felony conviction for embezzling from various clients.

Photo by Omar Ramadan

2 thoughts on “Friday Footnotes: KPMG’s Idea of a Fun Summer; IRS Eats Their Homework; Downsized GT Downsizes | 5.13.22

  1. After seeing Terra Luna / UST crypto blow up with losses of $60 billion of paper money, it has me thinking if there will be more career opportunities in auditing in the crypto space soon.

  2. We used to be on two floors in the Atlanta GT office. Now we are on one floor. We could just ditch the lease and pay annual “don’t have a lease” bonuses from some of the savings. Would a client rather visit our office or a Braves game, Hawks game, or a golf course? Yes, your thought is correct; I don’t have a lake house.

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