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Uh Oh
Tax watchdog launches new probe into current and former PwC partners [Financial Review]
The country’s tax watchdog is investigating current and former PwC partners for potential code breaches, prolonging the firm’s pain from its long-running scandal over the leaking of government information. The number of individuals and the nature of the Tax Practitioners Board’s inquiries are unclear, but the new probes are expected to be completed by next year. The regulator is also investigating senior figures from other major firms, according to people not authorised to discuss ongoing inquiries.
EY accused of misleading watchdog over NMC Health audit [Financial Times]
NMC administrators said in the High Court on Monday that EY partners had led the regulator to believe that its auditors could access key documents — a complete list of the risky transactions on NMC’s accounting system — when they could only view them on a device controlled by NMC staff. A partner who led EY’s audit work on NMC for three years acknowledged during the trial that what EY told the FRC had been “incorrect and misleading”, lawyers for the administrators told the court.
People & Talent
EY keeps spot as region’s largest accounting firm despite 35% reduction in recent years [Crain’s Cleveland Business]
Ernst & Young continues to hold its place as Northeast Ohio’s largest accounting firm despite its operations in the region shrinking over the past several years. EY reports 252 CPAs and 1,052 staff in Northeast Ohio as of Sept. 1, according to Crain’s 2025 Largest Accounting Firms list.
I created a brand new job at Deloitte: corporate influencer. This is why your company needs one too. [Business Insider]
Lara Sophie Bothur of Deloitte Germany tells BI:
I joined the Big Four firm Deloitte in February 2021 as a business analyst in the innovation consulting division. A year later, I’d transformed that consulting role into something entirely new: I became Deloitte’s first corporate influencer. The job developed very naturally. Around eight months in, a partner who knew that I had a background in marketing suggested I help on a campaign for the innovation team.
Barry Melancon appointed chair of Baker Tilly International [Consultancy.uk]
Baker Tilly International has appointed Barry Melancon as its new chair. The appointment takes immediate effect, with Melancon having already served as chair elect since his arrival at Baker Tilly International, earlier in 2025.
If your firm is hiring, you’ll want to check out this week’s top remote accounting candidates. Why? Because they’re hand-picked, hand-screened professionals with a variety of skills and experience so you’re sure to find someone to fit your needs. With 10/15 behind us, NOW is the time to start thinking about tax hires especially! Don’t get caught in a scramble come January.
Rumor Mill
Let’s Clear The Air – November Layoffs
byu/Lucky_Cod_7437 inPwC
Sustainability or Something Like That
Eating better: the bet of PwC, Post, Arendt and Sodexo [Delano (Luxembourg)]
“As part of our Sustainability strategy, we are proud to participate in the AlimenTerre Festival by offering our employees screenings of hard-hitting films,” explains PwC Luxembourg partner and CFO&CAO, Anne-Sophie Preudhomme. “These documentaries question our consumption patterns and remind us of the urgent need to take action to eat more responsibly. Our aim is not to convert, but to show that a diet that is less meaty, more sustainable and just as tasty is within everyone’s reach.” The screenings are accompanied by tastings and events focusing on waste and plant-based alternatives.
Industry Trends
Accounting firms hop into business advising [CFO Magazine]
In a survey of nearly 2,800 tax and accounting professionals from around the world, 93% of respondents said their firms are now providing business advisory services. That’s up from 83% in Wolters Kluwer’s same survey last year.
Audit firm numbers decline [ICAEW]
The number of statutory audit firms registered with recognised supervisory bodies (RSBs) fell by 6.9% in 2024. While new applications to become registered auditors increased by 25.5%, that growth was outpaced by the number of voluntary surrenders in the same period. Overall fee income also experienced a slowdown. After experiencing 11.9% growth in fee income in 2022 and 11.1% in 2023, UK Big Four audit firms’ fee income increased by just 1.2% in 2024. Growth was better outside of the Big Four, with fee income increasing by 9.8%. However, that was still slower than previous years – fee income grew by 18.5% in 2022 and 13.2% in 2023.
Private Equity
DSWD Announces Strategic Investment from 119th Street Capital [Business Wire]
Bringing in private equity will surely help with that people-first approach.
Since its founding in 2009 by Joseph DeMarco, John Sciaccotta and Rick Wilkens, DSWD has been built with a focus on combining high touch service with a people first approach that makes clients and colleagues feel like family.
Tax
As the IRS Phases Out Paper Checks, Vulnerable Taxpayers Must Not Be Left Behind [National Taxpayer Advocate]
Writes Erin Collins:
As I highlighted in my 2022 Annual Report to Congress, paper processing – including paper refund checks – has long been the IRS’s “kryptonite,” causing operational delays, inefficiencies, and increased vulnerability to theft. Paper refunds are more susceptible to loss, theft, and fraud, and once compromised, they can trigger a long and stressful resolution process for the affected taxpayer. In fact, Treasury checks are 16 times more likely to be lost, stolen, returned, or altered than electronic payments. I strongly support efforts to modernize and digitize payment delivery wherever feasible. Yet modernization must be equitable and avoid any unintended negative consequences. I believe this change can be a win for everyone if implemented with care, communication, and compassion.
AI
Deloitte AI debacle seen as wake-up call for corporate finance [CFO Dive]
The event is a reminder for companies that AI is “smart but not infallible,” according to Nikki MacKenzie, an assistant professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Scheller College of Business. “We’re constantly hearing about how ‘intelligent’ AI has become, and that can lull people into trusting it too much,” she said in an email. “Whether consciously or not, we start to over-rely on it.”
Circling back to a post by @LoganGrafTax.
— Nicole Davis (@wifemomcpa100) October 17, 2025
A longtime client I’ve worked with forever asked me for the last five years of business tax returns. My first thought? Oh great, he’s leaving. So I sent everything without question. But nope. He just wanted to plug the data into AI…