After Google, PwC India declares a company-wide holiday for its employees this Friday – offers time off for a ‘well-deserved’ break [Business Insider India] After Google, PwC India has introduced a ‘Pens down Day’ on Friday, turning into a Three-Day Weekend for its employees. With the ‘Pens down Day’, PwC has asked its employees to take an off and take a ‘well-deserved break’. In an email to its employees, the company said, “We hope the clear three-day weekend will give you the time to recharge and spend time with your loved ones, on activities you have not been able to focus on or simply in whatever way you’d like to unplug”. But the ‘off day’ will be deducted from the employees’ earned leaves. Employees who already have prior meetings scheduled for the day will be able to take up a day off on another day this month.
What women need to rise in the accounting profession [Journal of Accountancy] Women are underrepresented as partners and top executives in the accounting profession. Changing that requires pulling three levers: talent acquisition, retention, and promotion. Each lever has to be operating, and none can be missing to help women — particularly women of color — advance in the field, speakers at an ENGAGE 2020 panel advised on Tuesday. The session, sponsored by the AICPA Women’s Initiatives Executive Committee (WIEC) and the National Commission on Diversity and Inclusion, started with statistics that illustrate the challenge: Roughly 23% of CPA firm partners were women in 2019, up slightly from 22% two years earlier, according to the 2019 CPA Firm Gender Survey. Very few of those partners are minorities. “Our profession is still overwhelmingly led by male leaders,” said panel moderator Rosie Brammer, CPA, who works at Beemer, Smith & Munro LLP.
Coronavirus Impact Drops Americans’ Financial Satisfaction to 2015 Levels: AICPA index [Business Wire] As Americans continue to endure the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, financial satisfaction continues to fall from its recent all-time high. The AICPA’s Q2 2020 Personal Financial Satisfaction index (PFSi) measures 15.2, a 55 percent (18.5 point) decrease from the previous quarter. This is the PFSi’s largest quarterly drop in the history of the index. The previous record decline was a 16.3-point drop in Q4 2007. The average Americans financial satisfaction is now similar to levels seen in early 2015.
KPMG’s Dallas office names Kim Kesler first female managing partner in 105-year history
[Dallas Morning News] KPMG, one of the largest accounting firms in the world, is ushering in a new era of leadership at its Dallas office. The firm named Kim Kesler as the next managing partner of its Dallas practice, effective Aug. 1, making her the first woman to hold that title in the company’s 105-year history.
IRS Launches New Enterprise Digitalization Office [Nextgov] The nation’s tax collector, the Internal Revenue Service, is in the midst of a years-long modernization plan that, as of Tuesday, includes a new office focused on digitizing the case management process. The agency announced the launch of the new Enterprise Digitalization and Case Management Office, which will replace and elevate the Enterprise Case Management program established in 2015.
Tax Court’s Stance on Time Limit for Collection Petition Upheld [Bloomberg Tax] The 30-day time limit for filing a collection due process petition is jurisdictional for the U.S. Tax Court, and a law firm fighting the ruling failed to prove the time limit is unconstitutional, the Eighth Circuit held Friday.
Raytheon overtakes GE as most lucrative auditing client [Boston Business Journal] Of the 100 largest public companies in Massachusetts, PwC audits 30 of them, including the one that paid out the highest fees last year.
BDO audit split likely to see other accounting firms following suit [The Telegraph] BDO is understood to have indicated to the accounting watchdog that it will ringfence its audit business.