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Deloitte to Slash Benefits For Non Client-Facing Staff

We specifically added the non-client-facing bit in the headline soz not to scare everyone. It's rough enough out there on the front lines as it is, we don't need to…

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Uh Oh, PwC Is Up to Something

By "something" we mean "aggressively enshittifying their product." Bet clients and prospective clients will just love that. Financial Times reports that their birdies are pointing to an overhaul in consulting…

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Apparently Shouting “Promote Me! Promote Me!” in a Partner’s Face Can Get You Promoted at Deloitte

Over in Ireland there's a case before the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) right now that may be of interest to our readers, our readers being people who are all too…

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AI Will Be EY Auditors’ New BFF, According to EY

While staff in tax at EY US will soon be spending more time with their flesh-based colleagues due to a return-to-office mandate that requires them in the office for an…

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Once Again, a Mid-Tier Firm Beat Out Big 4 on This ‘Best Companies’ List

Fortune has released its Best Companies to Work For list for 2026 and we just realized we didn't cover it at all last year. Shrug, it's all just marketing anyway.…

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News

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Friday Footnotes: PwC Partners Are Doing Great These Days; IRS Encourages Whistleblowing | 4.17.26

Footnotes is a collection of stories from around the accounting profession curated by actual humans and published every Friday at 5pm Eastern. While you're here, subscribe to our newsletter to…

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Deloitte exterior with a scissors overlay

Deloitte to Slash Benefits For Non Client-Facing Staff

We specifically added the non-client-facing bit in the headline soz not to scare everyone. It's rough enough out there on the front lines as it is, we don't need to…

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exterior of PwC building

Uh Oh, PwC Is Up to Something

By "something" we mean "aggressively enshittifying their product." Bet clients and prospective clients will just love that. Financial Times reports that their birdies are pointing to an overhaul in consulting…

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Faced With PR Nightmare Due to Email Mistake, Becker Chooses the “Fine, Everyone Wins” Option

While I'm sure a majority of our readers got their CPA review courses for free through whatever firm hired them after graduation, for those going it alone the cost of…

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Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Tax Day Used to Be a Big Party; A Tale of Two PwCs | 4.13.26

Good morning, brave soldiers of the spreadsheets. Set yourself a calendar reminder to check in with your favorite tax person some time later this week, see how they're doing. How…

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Technology

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AI Will Be EY Auditors’ New BFF, According to EY

While staff in tax at EY US will soon be spending more time with their flesh-based colleagues due to a return-to-office mandate that requires them in the office for an…

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ICYMI: According to This AI CEO You Won’t Have to Go to Work in a Year

Commence to fantasizing about what you'll do with all that glorious free time when you lose your job to AI in 12-18 months because that's the confident prediction made by…

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Another Early AI Accounting Startup Just Bit the Dust

TIL that early AI accounting platform Botkeeper has died. I found out via this CFO Brew article which pointed to a post on Botkeeper's own site. Turns out r/accounting was…

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KPMG Brings Cheating Into the AI Age By Using AI to Cheat on AI Exams

The image is upside down because Australia. This story sounds like a joke but we assure you it is not. KPMG Australia has expanded KPMG's storied cheating repertoire by being…

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KPMG Brings AI Talking Points to a Fee Negotiation, Inadvertently Opens a Pandora’s Box Filled With Stingy Clients

As reported by Financial Times on February 6, included in Friday's edition of Footnotes, and widely chuckled at by public accountants both current and former across the world since, KPMG…

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Practice Management

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Top Remote Tax and Accounting Candidates of the Week | October 16, 2025

Struggling to Find Remote Accounting or Tax Talent? We’ve Got You Covered.If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're…

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Top Remote Tax and Accounting Candidates of the Week | October 2, 2025

Struggling to Find Remote Accounting or Tax Talent? We’ve Got You Covered.If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're…

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Top Remote Tax and Accounting Candidates of the Week | September 25, 2025

Struggling to Find Remote Accounting or Tax Talent? We’ve Got You Covered.If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're…

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tax hiring season

Top Remote Tax and Accounting Candidates of the Week | September 18, 2025

Struggling to Find Remote Accounting or Tax Talent? We’ve Got You Covered.If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're…

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Top Remote Tax and Accounting Candidates of the Week | September 4, 2025

Struggling to Find Remote Accounting Talent? We’ve Got You Covered. If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're not…

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Quick Reads

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Here Are Tax and Audit Salaries at Top 25, Top 300, and Regional Firms

Recruiting firm Brewer Morris has released its 2025 US CPA salary guide and should you want to read the whole thing you can request it from them here. Perhaps you,…

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Friendly Reminder Not to Work Yourself to Death For This Profession

Saw this on the bird app yesterday and thought its message would be worth passing along what with 20 days remaining until April 15 and nerves as strained as ever…

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Accounting Firm Abruptly Nopes Out of Tax Season Early (UPDATE)

Ed. note: An earlier version of this article's headline stated the sheriff is investigating. The Alexander County Sheriff's Office informed us they are not investigating, only fielding calls from the…

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This Deloitte Office Has Eliminated Trash Cans at Desks to Make Staff Get Up Off Their Asses

Boston Business Journal wrote an article about Deloitte's new office in Boston and for some reason they chose to lead with this: You won’t find trash cans at the desks…

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The IRS Decided to Troll Tax Pros For 10/15

We realize the decision to run maintenance on IRS systems likely isn't made by anyone who understands deadlines but surely someone who does could inform the IT department of these…

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Top Remote Accounting Freelancers: February 3, 2024

Looking to staff up for a season or hire a freelancer for a project? Accountingfly is ready to partner with you! Gain full access to a pool of highly skilled…

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10 Essential Project Management Principles for Accounting Firms

Every accounting firm struggles with project management, with smaller practices that are rapidly expanding taking the brunt of the damage. As your firm adds new clients, takes on more work,…

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6 Ways Email is Secretly Destroying Your Accounting Firm

Email: The word itself sounds innocent, doesn't it? Kind of like "snail mail," but faster, sleeker, and without the slimy trail. But don't be fooled—email is secretly a sinister beast,…

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Don’t Grow Your Accounting Firm Out of Business! Break Up With These Unscalable Practices Now

Business growth is always a high priority for accounting firms, especially small-to-midsize practices. Take care, though, because growth can be a double-edged sword. If your firm expands too quickly or…

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PwC’s Dennis Nally Reminds Everyone That Audits Aren’t Designed to Detect Fraud, Wants to Meet the Pope, Isn’t Interested in Joining You for Hot Yoga

The Financial Times published an interview with PwC International Chairman Dennis Nally over the weekend and we learn a few interesting things about DN that you probably didn’t know. For starters, he’s very aware that his firm is in a tussle for title of the largest professional services firm ON EARTH, “We’re in a real dog race to continue to sustain our leadership position as the largest professional services network in the world,” he told the FT. Of course this gives us the impression that Denny doesn’t believe that P. Dubs has relinquished the Biggest of the Big 4 title, as some other CEOs have claimed.

And as you might expect, there are various softening questions thrown around, including:

1) Leaders he admires – he wants to meet The Pope because “[Nally] seems impressed by the feat of co-ordination.”

2) Feats of strength – He practiced hot yoga to “strengthen his golf swing” but gave it up because “I found that you had a tendency to over-workout your muscles.”

Despite those little tidbits, Helen Thomas manages to get under Nally’s skin a little when she asks if “auditors should rightly find themselves in the line of fire” when fraud or “disingenuous” accounting occurs:

Mr Nally crosses his arms across his monogrammed shirt, for the first time looking a touch defensive. “There are professional standards out there [and] an audit is not designed under those standards to detect fraud,” he says, pointing out that detecting fraudulent behaviour rests on other indications including a company’s governance, management tone and control systems. “The reasons it has been done that way is because, while we always hear and read about the high-profile fraud, the number of those situations that you actually encounter in practice is very de minimis.

Notice that he doesn’t directly address the “disingenuous” accounting. Examples which might include, say, AIG and Freddie Mac, but rather addressed fraud which is easy to fall back on, since the expectations gap is so blatant (something he has mentioned before).

His statement also appears to indicate that he feels situations like Satyam are immaterial, unless by “de minimis” he intended to mean “rare in occurrence.” But, then again, I suppose semantics are also de minimis.

The man who would be biggest [FT]

Comp Watch ’11: Ernst & Young Keeps ‘Em Waiting

If I seemed impatient about hearing from the Black and Yellow, it’s because I was. Fortunately, someone answered the call:

As of now, we haven’t heard ANYTHING regarding raises/bonuses etc. On our performance management internal website the status of my annual review just changed from “Leadership Review/Roundtable” to “Release to Compensation” so hopefully we will be getting some news soon!

So, no news is…news, isn’t it? Last year, we started hearing Ernst & Young compensation rumors around the 15th and here we are, one week from our nation’s birthday and hardly a peep. Someone buy a partner a happy hour beer tonight or something, wouldja? Keep us updated.

Ten Most Expensive iPad Apps List Includes Becker’s Mobile Flashcards

The Most Expensive Journal recently came out with a top 10 list of most expensive iPad apps and – surprise, surprise – it looks like Becker’s mobile flashcards made the list.

The mobile flashcard set includes over 950 cards with questions on the front and brief answers on the back, which will look familiar to any of you who have used Becker’s regular flashcards.

The app works on iPhone or iPad but you don’t have the option to use it on both if you happen to own both devices; you’ll have to buy two copies of the app if that’s what you’re trying to do.

Curious to hear what your most expensive app is and whether or not you’d buy these.

Accounting News Roundup: Employers Embracing Social Networks; The Amish and e-Filing; Tanning Tax Repeal Introduced | 06.27.11

Companies Are Erecting In-House Social Networks [NYT]
As social networks increasingly dominate communications in private lives, businesses of all sizes — from tiny start-ups to midsize companies like Nikon to behemoths like Dell — are adopting them for the workplace. Although it is difficult to quantify how many companies use internal social networks, a number of corporate software companies have sensed the opportunity and offer various systems, some free to existing customers, others that charge a fee per user.

Pelosi Says U.S. Debt-Ceiling Deal Must Reduce Tax Subsidies for Companies [Bloomberg]
Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner will need the support of Democrats to get an agreement through the House, Pelosi said yesterday in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Such an agreement would have to include both spending cuts and an end to tax breaks for some industries such as oil, she said. “You can’t cut your way out of the deficit,” California Democrat Pelosi said. “You have to have revenue on the table.”

What the CFOs Want [WSJ]
CFOs at big companies are no longer content to manage just finances or operations. They want, and say they need, a prime seat at the table when setting strategy. So said the roughly 60 big-company finance chiefs at The Wall Street Journal’s inaugural CFO Network annual meeting last week. Many of these CFOs already count strategic planning among their responsibilities, a shift from the past, and one that primes them to possibly take the chief executive spot some day.

Chipotle Will Raise its Prices Regionally [WSJ]
We need a Poncho No. 8 over here.

Did Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Violate Its Code of Ethics, too? [White Collar Fraud]
This is starting to get awkward.

Must the Amish e-File? [TaxProf]
The horror!

Senate’s Snowe offers bill to repeal tanning tax [The Hill]
A bill, sponsored by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and co-sponsored by Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) was introduced on Thursday in the Senate, mirroring an effort in the House to eliminate the 10 percent tax on certain tanning services. Support for the House measure has grown since June 2 when Rep. Michael Grimm (N.Y.) introduced the bill. His legislation now has 29 Republican co-sponsors backing the effort.

Tax activists want U2’s Bono to ‘pay up’ [DMWT]
Reports of actual mud-slinging have not been confirmed.

‘Angry Birds’ Staying Power Tested With CEO Hatching Movie [Bloomberg]
And now, some important news.

One Wouldn’t Think You’d Have to Be Wary of a Tax Prep Business Called “420 Multiservices”

In the Bronx, no less.

According to an indictment unsealed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, Charles prepared tax returns at a tax preparation business called “420 Multiservices” in Bronx, N.Y., in 2006. Between 2006 and 2007, Charles, 34, Patterson, 29, Nekiya Edwards, 32, and Akmell Edwards, 33, engaged in a scheme to use stolen and other identification information, including names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers, to file fraudulent tax returns.

[…]

According to the indictment, in March 2008, Patterson was approached by agents of the IRS-CID. During that encounter, Patterson threatened the agents, stating, among other things, “I know you guys got guns, so what,” and “That’s why I kill guys like you.”

Bronx Group Charged in Tax Refund Scheme and Threatening IRS Agents [AT]

Promotion Bonus Watch ’11: KPMG

In case you weren’t satisfied with all the talk of comp from this week. The latest from the mailbag:

Hey, I am an experienced senior in a small market, yearly performance evaluationss are coming up (July 11-20 or something), but promotes are learning their bonuses, Which are in theory a function of salary adjustments between now and October, just wondering how those are looking?

Btw, Ernst & Young peeps, you better not be holding out on us. I find it hard to believe with the fiscal year ending next week that a grip of you haven’t heard any rumors about comp. Get in touch.

Can a Tax Senior from a Local Firm Make the Jump to Big 4?

Welcome to the I-still-don’t-know-who-Casey-Anthony-is edition of Accounting Career Emergencies. In today’s edition, a tax senior was just laid off from his local firm because of a “lack of work.” Can he jump to a regional or a Big 4 firm without any trouble?

Is your latest raise an insult? Need some rumors debunked? Thinking of giving it all up for your dream of creating the world’s best burrito? Email us at advice@goingconcern.com and we’ll give you the best average advice you’ve ever gotten.

Back to ranks of the funemployed:

Dear Going Concern,

I’m a tax senior and was just laid off from a local accounting firm with about 50 employees due to a “lack of work.” The firm has been losing clients and a lot of the staff has been sitting around lately with nothing to do.

How difficult would it be to move from a small, local firm to a larger, regional one or the Big 4? Thoughts?

Sincerely,

A Loyal Reader

Dear Loyal Reader,

Sorry to hear that you got the axe. That’s never a good feeling. If lots of other staff are sitting around twiddling, they’ll probably be joining you before you know it. But forget about them; you’re thinking about your options which is good, so let’s try and sort this out.

You’re a senior associate, so that’s a plus. Most firms, regardless of size, are hurting for seniors so that puts you in a good spot. You’re also in tax which requires a more specialized knowledge base than audit, so that’s a benefit too. Depending on what kind of clients you have served (I’m guessing individuals and small businesses), your best bet is start with the regional firms in your area. Odds are your experience will match up better with a regional firm, so they’re more likely to take an interest in you.

As for making the jump Big 4, this is a little trickier. I’m not saying it can’t be done, as I made the jump myself but it’s really dependent on your experience. If you’ve mostly prepared run-of-the-mill 1040s, chances are they won’t give you much of a look. On the other hand, if you have a lot of work in a specialized area (e.g. transfer pricing or M&A) on your résumé that will catch their eye.

Bottom line is that if you can find a firm that offers services and has clients that match up your experience, you’ll be a good fit. Good luck.

Taxes Are the Reason Eric Cantor Walked Out on Joe Biden

The deficit talks led by Vice President Biden faced a dispute over whether to include the Pentagon in any spending caps or deficit triggers, but the office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Friday that taxes were the only reason the talks collapsed Thursday.

“There were some disagreements on defense, but the issue is being greatly overblown to distract from Democrats’ push to raise taxes,” spokesman Brad Dayspring said. “The tax issue was the sole reason the talks reached an impasse, but it’s important to recognize that the group made great progress in identifying trillions of dollars in spending cuts that can serve as a blueprint for a potential compromise,” he said. [The Hill]

India Is Still Balking at This Whole Convergence to IFRS Thing

In May, IASB member Prabhakar Kalavacherla threatened India by telling a conference in Mumbai “to put it in one sentence, we strongly encourage adoption as against convergence,” suggesting that India could totally contribute to the rule-setting if it will just go ahead and adopt IFRS now. That sort of attitude is hilarious and why watching the IFRS “condorsement” plan getting burped up around the world is so much fun. Really? Adopt first, ask questions later?

India isn’t buying it, although looking to the U.S. and Japan for answers isn’t going to help matters either.

The Economic Times has the story:

The government is planning to introduce additional changes to global accounting standard, IFRS, to make it more palatable for Indian companies, overriding the international opposition to amendments already made. Such a move will extend the eventual migration by Indian companies to the global standard and also insulate local firms from any short-term capital market shocks that may arise due to erosion in valuations.

However, any changes to the Indian version of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) will take time as the government will initially look at some of the revisions being suggested globally, specially by the developed markets of US and Japan, before finalising the road map, secretary, ministry of corporate affairs D K Mittal told ET on Thursday. “We have to see how IFRS will meet our requirements. Our markets are different, our standards are different,” he said.

Quote of the convergence! “Our markets are different, our standards are different.” I’m sorry, maybe I’m confused on how this convergence thing is supposed to work (entirely possible as I’m not an accountant and therefore not required to understand what’s happening here) but couldn’t each country getting IFRS shoved down its throat say the same? That’s why global economies are (read: were) such a beautiful thing; different markets breed different standards, and market participants have the option to say whether or not they find a particular country’s financial standards appealing. With forced adoption of a single arbitrary standard, determined by an entity with questionable self-interest at work, you take away investors’ ability to put their money where their mouth is.

GAAP has obviously failed. The evaporation of capital in the United States over the last 3 years proves it. But the whole Adopt-or-Else plan isn’t necessarily any better either.

In my humble opinion, it just makes the IASB look desperate and India look awesome. For now.

ANR: China Stacking the Deck for Government-Designated Accounting Firms; Amazon Wants a Deal with Texas on Sales Taxes; PwC Buys PRTM | 06.24.11

China tells firms to favour govt-designated accounting firms [Reuters]
China has told companies to favour government-designated accounting firms as their auditors for sake of “fair and orderly competition” in the sector, according to a notice published by the Ministry of Finance on Friday. The notice came as a string of accounting problems and stock plunges has hit publicly traded Chinese firms in overseas markets and sparked deep concerns across auditing quality in China. According to Ministry of Finance notice, large and medium-sized companies should prefer accounting firms that are allowed to provide auditing for H-share listed companiesricans See Debt Threat, Reject Tax ‘Scare’ [Bloomberg]
Americans say that the $14.3 trillion U.S. debt threatens the economy and that entitlement programs may go broke even as they dismiss as “scare tactics” the arguments offered by Republicans and Democrats who are debating a solution. Their sentiments in a Bloomberg National Poll suggest that the public is open to the recommendations of the majority of President Barack Obama’s debt commission. Members of the group, which included current and former members of Congress and White House officials, called for revenue increases and spending cuts that would have shaved deficits by $3.8 trillion over the next decade.

Tax Dispute Stalls Debt Talks [WSJ]
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) said he was backing out of the talks for now because the group had reached an impasse over the question of whether tax increases should be included in the deal. The only other Republican in the group, Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.), soon followed suit, agreeing that only the highest levels of leadership could break the logjam between Democrats’ demand that the budget deal include tax increases and Republicans’ adamant opposition to that demand.

Tax Break for Mortgage Debt Is Ready for the Wrecking Ball [Bloomberg]
Forty-nine percent of respondents in a Bloomberg National Poll said they were willing to abandon the mortgage tax break if it meant lower overall tax rates. Only 45 percent opposed the switch. That’s a sharp contrast with polling patterns of prior years, when the public showed 2-to-1 support for keeping the mortgage deduction. The Bloomberg poll of 1,000 adults conducted June 17-20 has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Let’s Make a Deal, Amazon Tells Texas [NYT]
In the middle of a fight with Texas tax collectors over book sales in the state, Amazon offered Thursday to invest $300 million in five or six warehouse and distribution centers in the state, employing 6,000 people, if lawmakers would let the company operate for four-and-a-half years without collecting sales taxes.

The NBA Salary Cap Gives No-Tax Dallas and Miami an Unfair Advantage [TaxProf]
Relatively decent teams.

IRS Increases Mileage Rate to 55.5 Cents per Mile [AW]
Up from 51¢.

Factbox: Big Four audit firms on approach to risk in China [Reuters]
The string of accounting scandals in China is prompting the “Big Four” audit firms to be on alert, fearing a blow up at a Chinese company could cause big reputational risk. Reuters asked all four firms about their approach to working in China and whether the recent scandals have prompted them to review their procedures when taking on work for Chinese companies looking to list on exchanges.

PwC to Acquire PRTM [PwC]
“The PRTM team will provide our firm with significant capabilities in the areas of operational strategy, execution and business model innovation,” said Dana Mcilwain, PwC Vice Chairman and U.S. Advisory Leader. “We are especially pleased that the PRTM team of highly talented, globally-oriented professionals have chosen to continue their careers at PwC.”

Mitt Romney Unable to Resist the Siren’s Call That Is the Taxpayer Protection Pledge

In a political move akin to etching your name in to the conservative, low government Book of Life, GOP Presidential nominee Mitt Romney has signed the Grover Norquist’s sacred Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

It’s not a terribly surprising move, as this play will cater to the tax-hating Tea Party crowd as well as the tax-hating-rich-people-not-so-unlike-Mitt Romney crowd.

“By signing the Pledge, Governor Romney keeps the faith of the American taxpayer by taking tax hikes off the table as President,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. “Politicians in Washington should be focused on reducing government spending.”

Of course what this move also does is protect Romney from any sternly worded letters or other communication from Americans for Tax Reform that would place him the squarely in the camp of that taxpayer Judas, Tom Coburn. Regardless of some people having the audacity to deem the Pledge meaningless.

[via ATR]