Hi! Welcome back to another Monday, here’s some news to start you off. If you have a tip, have seen a story you think we’d like, or have a meta comment to make about the current state of the profession, get in touch via email or text.
Former auctioneer Billy Long is now former IRS commissioner after just two months on the job. Citing anonymous sources, Washington Post suggested without saying outright that his departure on Friday was related to DHS requesting confidential taxpayer data:
The Internal Revenue Service clashed with the White House over using tax data to help locate suspected undocumented immigrants hours before Trump administration officials forced IRS Commissioner Billy Long from his post Friday, according to two people familiar with the situation
The Department of Homeland Security sent the IRS a list Thursday of 40,000 names of people DHS officials thought were in the country illegally and asked the IRS to use confidential taxpayer data to verify their addresses, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Johnson called it fake news: “The Trump administration is working in lockstep to eliminate information silos and to prevent illegal aliens from taking advantage of benefits meant for hardworking American taxpayers,” she said in a statement to WaPo. “Any absurd assertion other than everyone being aligned on the mission is simply false and totally fake news.”
1,386 aspiring professional number-crunchers of Canada passed the May 2025 Common Final Examination (CFE), reports Canadian Accountant:
The waiting is over for 1,386 aspiring chartered professional accountants who received word yesterday that they had passed May 2025 common final examination (CFE). CPA Canada President & CEO Pamela Steer congratulated the successful writers, noting “This is an important milestone on your journey to join the profession and an accomplishment you should be proud of,” and “Your dedication, hard work and perseverance will make you welcome additions to the profession.”
Gevorg Grigoryan, a chartered professional accountant and CPA program coach and mentor, notes “that a total of 1,386 candidates passed this CFE, which is slightly less than 1,403 in May 2024. However, there were fewer writers overall, so I believe the pass rate is consistent year over year.”
Their CPA exam is like how ours used to be, large numbers of people gathering twice a year to sit for a multi-day examination. It’s a beast for sure, congratulations are well-earned.
KPMG Salt Lake City’s OMP Erika Whitmore wrote about alternate CPA pathways for Utah Business:
Now, Utahns interested in becoming a CPA can forego the extra cost of school beyond their bachelor’s degree and go straight into the workforce, spending two years working under a CPA and passing the exam to earn their license. This removes a key financial barrier to becoming a CPA and overall, helps Utahns and businesses in Utah to thrive.
This alternative pathway sustains quality by having people engage more quickly with technology that’s shaping the profession’s future. It’s a win-win and Utah deserves credit for its leadership as it is poised to become just the 3rd state to enact this reform.
Um…just the 3rd state? That’s not what MNCPA’s oft-updated map says.
She then goes on to attack the “tired narratives” about the profession, like this:
Another tired narrative is that public accounting doesn’t offer enough career opportunities or compensation to attract new talent. This couldn’t be further from the truth: salaries for CPA candidates are rising and demand for skilled professionals is higher than ever. We also know that recent graduates increasingly value flexible work arrangements, career advancement and purpose-driven work — and public accounting delivers on all those fronts.
OK except salaries lagged for years and years and years while CPA numbers fell and firms only started doing something about it when it became critical in the last couple years. So it’s verifiably true that compensation contributed to the situation the profession is trying to fix now and it’s disingenuous to pretend otherwise. Just sayin.
Deloitte and KPMG in Australia did not have a good year, reports AFR:
Deloitte’s and KPMG’s annual revenue fell amid lower private and public sector demand for advisory services, but leaders at the big four firms predict a return to growth after two years of contraction.
Deloitte Australia’s revenue was down 8 per cent to $2.55 billion, while revenue at KPMG Australia was 4 per cent lower at $2.13 billion. Both have cut staff numbers to offset the effect of the lower income on partner profits.
Partner profit was down 7% at Deloitte while KPMG tightened the purse string enough to increase average pay for their nearly 700 partners by 10%. Both firms lost staff last year, with Deloitte shedding 7.5% and KPMG 6.6% YoY.
Also in Australia and also involving KPMG, Accountants Daily continues to cover details of a federal raid related to “large scale tax fraud” allegedly committed by a former KPMG employee. What exactly was the play here? Like how did he think this was going to work?
“Earlier this year KPMG became aware that an employee had concealed his provision of unauthorised tax services, in a personal capacity, to individuals and entities that we understand were not KPMG clients,” a KPMG spokesperson said.
“KPMG promptly terminated the individual’s employment and is assisting authorities with their inquiries.”
The former KPMG employee, who was not a registered tax agent, allegedly used the company’s credentials to access online ATO services and lodge tax returns he wasn’t authorised to on behalf of so-called “clients.” He redirected almost $1 million in tax refunds to bank accounts under his name.
Oh, see for a second there I thought maybe he was just freelancing. But nah, he was scamming, got it.
Meanwhile, a former partner at PwC Australia, whose name you may recognize as one of the partners thrown under the bus during the firm’s recent tax scandal, got in trouble for getting creative with R&D credits:
Former PwC partner Richard Gregg has been deregistered by tax authorities for making false client claims that caused a tax shortfall of more than $11 million and led to fines for those clients of more than $800,000.
The Tax Practitioners Board, which oversees the country’s 80,000 tax agents, said Gregg made “false or misleading statements in applications for the [Research & Development Tax Incentive] for multiple clients”.
“On 27 June 2025, after completing an investigation, the Tax Practitioners Board decided to terminate the tax agent registration of Mr Richard Gregg as he ceased to meet the tax practitioner registration requirement that he be a fit and proper person,” the board wrote in a termination notice on Monday.
He’s banned until 2029. PwC settled the defamation suit he brought against them for them dragging his name into that tax scandal thing so he should be alright.