When accounting goes unaccounted for
With 14 days to go until the release of the most anticipated game of this decade, PwC has pushed out a bit of thought leadership-slash-economic analysis titled "Vice City, everywhere:…
Last Friday, 42-year-old Ian Brinksman was picked up by the feds for allegedly passing top secret national defense information to another individual. Though that individual wasn't named by any reports,…
Oh no, hackers have swiped oodles of slides! PwC has confirmed that a third-party vendor it uses for employee records has been breached after a "cyber extortion group" said they…
Wow, Big 4 are really rushing out revenue numbers this year aren't they? First we got Deloitte in late September, EY two weeks later, and now PwC has just dropped…
...such as "support whistleblowers" and "punish people who do stuff that will give Australian Financial Review an easy 9 months of negative headlines." So KPMG Australia is still in its…
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…
With 14 days to go until the release of the most anticipated game of this decade, PwC has pushed out a bit of thought leadership-slash-economic analysis titled "Vice City, everywhere:…
Well we knew this would happen eventually. An article published today in Accountants Daily is all about how small firms over in Australia are struggling to hire talent. Now, if…
Ed. note: This article was originally published on October 29, 2026. On November 2, 2026, both CBIZ and Grant Thornton announced the transaction had completed. We didn't think this deserved…
Hey. Put down the fun size candy bar and read some news. In this news briefFar Be It From the SEC to Hinder Technological InnovationGT + CBIZ 4EverKPMG Gets Some…
Last month a pitch arrived in our editor inbox, the title of which was "Going Concern, meet the startup helping accounting firms turn old Slacks and emails into free money."…
Oh no, hackers have swiped oodles of slides! PwC has confirmed that a third-party vendor it uses for employee records has been breached after a "cyber extortion group" said they…
Did you catch Bill Gates' recent chat with Ezra Klein? I didn't, thankfully my washed colleague regularly reads NYT and sent it to me via Slack. Many people are stuck…
Rather than dropping a strongly worded letter on the topic of the IRS's position on AI in tax practice and dropping the topic there to focus on other pressing matters,…
As corporations everywhere shove AI down our throats and businesses wrestle with the conflict between rushing to integrate AI to not be left behind and having to pay for it…
Last month a pitch arrived in our editor inbox, the title of which was "Going Concern, meet the startup helping accounting firms turn old Slacks and emails into free money."…
Cash flow, automation, fraud protection. Your firm can deliver all three. Finance leaders would like some help with the accounting. Not a little help, either. BILL asked 354 finance decision-makers…
Spend and expense management is one of the most in-demand CAS services—and one of the most underutilized. There’s still plenty of room to get into the game. Clients are drowning…
That's the headline from INSIDE Public Accounting based on the results of their 2026 Practice Management Report: The report draws on survey responses from 605 North American accounting firms, spanning…
Back in June the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) issued its first solid AI guidance in the form of a bulletin titled Introductory Guidelines for Responsible AI Use in…
Via @Reuters: Investors settle with KPMG over Silicon Valley Bank collapse
Factory farm accountants sounds terrible tbh
The IRS is using Artificial Intelligence to select tax returns for audit and they are fighting in federal court to keep their algorithm a secret.
A major legal battle just unfolded in federal court over how the IRS targets complex partnerships. Tax Analysts, a nonprofit tax
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Cash flow, automation, fraud protection. Your firm can deliver all three. Finance leaders would like some help with the accounting. Not a little help, either. BILL asked 354 finance decision-makers…
Spend and expense management is one of the most in-demand CAS services—and one of the most underutilized. There’s still plenty of room to get into the game. Clients are drowning…
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…
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,…
Mr. McConnell said he concluded after the latest negotiations that the administration had “expressed a fundamental unwillingness” to agree to significant spending cuts.
“But after years of discussions and months of negotiations, I have little question that as long as this president is in the Oval Office, a real solution is unattainable,” Mr. McConnell said in a Senate floor speech. [WSJ]
For those of you that haven’t nailed down the CPA yet, hopefully you’re not amongst those receiving nastygrams from the IRS for not complying with the new ID requirements.
And, on behalf of the thousands of tax preparers who did comply with the new rules, Doug Shulman doesn’t appreciate your apathy, “The vast majority of federal tax return preparers complied with the rules. We owe it to the compliant tax preparers to make sure that everyone is on a level playing field.” [Bloomberg]
As you may have heard, Derek Jeter hit a home run for his 3,000th hit on Saturday and it has resulted in fanfare that usually follows noteworthy accomplishments by media darling sports superheroes-cum-ladykillers.
What also has become news is t ught the baseball. Sure Christian Lopez has over a hundred grand in school debt but since he’s a stand-up guy, he gave the ball to DJ because “it rightfully belonged to Jeter.” Also, if Lopez had kept it, everyone in the Bronx would have hunted him down like Osama bin Laden.
Anyhoo, after catching the ball, Lopez was whisked away by security to meet with Yankee President Randy Levine, who said, “What do you want?” Answer:
[T]he Yankees gave Mr. Lopez four Champions Suite tickets for their remaining home games and any postseason games, along with three bats, three balls and two jerseys, all signed by Jeter. For Sunday’s game the team gave him four front-row Legends seats, which sell for up to $1,358.90 each.
The Times rang up Paul Caron who reminded everyone that when Oprah gave her audience cars back in ’04, they all incurred taxes and Lopez would be no different. The Times then breaks down the value of the loot:
On SportsMemorabilia.com, an auction site, baseballs signed by Jeter were being sold for up to $600, jerseys for close to $1,000 and bats for $900.
The tickets to the 32 remaining home games (after Sunday) have a combined face value of $44,800 to $73,600, according to the team’s Web site. The tickets could be worth a lot more if the Yankees play deep into October. Steven Bandini, a tax partner at the accounting firm Zapken & Loeb, said that if the items were valued modestly at $50,000, they would probably carry a tax burden of about $14,000.
Elie Mystal, editor of our old sister site Above the Law wrote me, “[Taxing the memorabilia/tickets] [is] the kind of thing that makes people hate the Government.” Elie’s statement struck me as odd for a couple of reasons: 1) He is unabashed Mets fan and I would expect him to wish nothing but bad luck on Jeter, Lopez and the entire Yankee organization after this overt jerking off by media; 2) He is also an unabashed liberal which means that he should love the government and by virtue, love taxes. Not because taxes are lovable like puppies or grandmothers but because they build roads, fund public schools and go to pay salaries for government employees (that includes lawyers, accountants, engineers and whole bunch of people that aren’t IRS agents).
The items have value. Sorta like cash. Cash that is deposited into your bank account when your employer pays you for performing average work at your job. That cash gets there only after your employer has withheld taxes from your paycheck. Lopez was handed these tickets and memorabilia on a pinstriped platter. FREE. OF. TAX. By all accounts, he doesn’t have the income to purchase those items. If he did, he would have already paid taxes on that income. Simple.
Of course some (who are obviously unapologetically biased) might argue that these items were gifts and not taxable:
“The legal question of whether it is a gift or prize is whether the transferor is giving the property out of detached and disinterested generosity,” [Columbia Law] Professor Graetz said. “It’s hard for me, not being a Yankee fan, to think of the Yankees as being in the business of exercising generosity to others, but there’s a reasonable case to be made that these were given out of generosity.”
Right. Gifts. Gifts are what people give you when you get married. Gifts are what you give your friends when they move to the suburbs because you’ll never see them again. Gifts are what you give your friends’ (who moved to the fucking suburbs) kids because if you show up empty handed, you look like a complete dick.
These items are not gifts. The Yankees wanted the ball, Levine asked Lopez what he wanted and he told them what items would do the trick. TA-DA, we’ve got a deal. Besides, I’m guessing if Christian Lopez is the kind of guy to hand over the ball that was Jeter’s 3,000th hit, he isn’t too caught up thinking about the tax consequences of falling bassackwards into some tickets and priceless (to a Yankees fan, anyway) memorabilia.
UPDATE: Standup guy status CONFIRMED:
“Worse comes to worse, I’ll have to pay the taxes,” he told the Daily News on Monday. “I’m not going to return the seats. I have a lot of family and friends who will help me out if need be. “The IRS has a job to do, so I’m not going to hold it against them, but it would be cool if they helped me out a little on this.”
Returning Jeter’s Big Hit: No Good Deed Goes Untaxed (Perhaps) [NYT]
Christian Lopez, fan who handed over Derek Jeter’s historic 3,000th-hit ball, will owe IRS thousands [NYDN via DB]
Last month we told you that KPMG was kicking around the idea of loyalty bonuses for senior associates. Today we bring you the good news that the firm has officially announced the “Early Career Investment Bonus” which more or less amounts to a loyalty bonus.
This news was brought to Klynveldians this morning by John Veihmeyer and Henry Keizer (full memo on page 2). Let’s take a look at what the boys had to say:
Here’s how it works: If you are a current CSD senior associate with a 1, 2, or 3 rating you will be awarded $4,000 to be paid on May 15, 2013, provided you are employed by the firm on that date��������������������ut it gets better. By December 31, 2011 (just prior to the earnings period), you can elect to defer that $4,000 award for one year or two years and watch it grow:
• Defer the bonus for one additional year and receive $8,000 in May 2014
• Defer the bonus for two additional years and receive $12,000 in May 2015And it gets better still because next year the cycle starts all over again. And, the following year, it starts again! So a typical first-year senior can look forward to three ECIB cycles with the opportunity to “layer” up to $36,000 in total bonus payments by the end of the last cycle. Alternatively, participants who are eligible for multiple ECIB enrollment cycles can choose different deferment options for each cycle, giving them theopportunity to customize the timing and amount of their ECIB award to meet their own needs or particular life events, like a down payment on a new home.
Obviously the catch here is that you’ll have to endure the next few years of your life within the House of Klynveld. But to that end, it seems like a halfway decent opportunity. Some might see this as a suicide mission but if you do in fact make it to May 15, 2015, that’s $12,000 in your pocket. John and Hank even gave us a nice example:
As this example shows, it will take a pretty huge commitment from anyone looking to score all three of the cycles for the big payout of $36,000. SIX. YEARS. AWAY. I won’t even begin to try and tell you what can happen in that time frame. Obama will have finished his second term by then (assuming re-election, obv). Countless people you know who are gigantic losers will get married, have kids and then probably get divorced. Facebook (and many people on it) will be dead. I’LL BE ON THE CUSP OF MY 40s. Get it? This isn’t exactly around the corner, people.
All told, this is a pretty progressive idea put out by KPMG and it seems better than the Above and Beyond awards which were a total flop.
So HoK, what say you? Got any career moves planned in the next two years or you sitting tight for the $12k? Anyone feel like the firm will take the opportunity to guilt those that don’t defer the bonus? Does anyone know if this in addition to any annual incentive comp? Discuss.
OK, this is new to me. I’ll admit I don’t know everything about the CPA exam but I try to keep up on as much as I can without actually subjecting myself to that level of masochism. With the deepest respect to those of you who do subject yourselves to that as always, I assure you.
Anyway, what’s this about getting medals for CPA exam scores?! Why didn’t anyone tell me this?
From the Oklahoma State Spears School of Business:
When she received a gold medal for her scores on the Certified Public Accountant exam, Lauren Gorman saw the result that made all of her hard work pay off. Gorman, who is working on her doctorate in accounting, said the award was important in a number of ways. “Receiving the gold medal was important to me because it recognized all of the hard work and months of studying I put into the exam,” Gorman said. “My brother, Ryan Gorman, earned the silver medal on the exam, so I also enjoyed beating him and receiving the gold.” Gorman’s brother took the exam a few years ago. Out of the thousands of students who take the CPA exam, only those who complete all four parts of the exam within one or two testing windows and earn a high score are awarded medals, according to a Spears School of Business press release. Three Oklahoma State University accounting students received the honors. Lauren Gorman and Anne-Marie Lelkes earned gold medals, and Dawn Kruckeberg earned silver.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I think they are referring to the Elijah Watt Sells medals, which isn’t at all clear in the article. A gold medal means A) you studied way too hard and B) you beat out every other candidate testing that year. It also means that you took the exam back when it was paper and pencil, as I’m pretty sure they eliminated the medals post-2004, am I totally wrong?
Prior to the computerized exam, the AICPA would award gold, silver and bronze medals to the top three performers on the CPA exam. When the exam went computerized, thereby allowing more flexibility in testing, they changed it to give the award to 10 of the highest scores in the country each year. To qualify, candidates must score in the very very high 90s on the first attempt (no retakes). Winners receive a plaque and the recognition that comes with being a bad ass high performer (even though no one asks what you got on the exam anyway).
So really… what medals are we talking about? Oh, duh, the Oklahoma State Society of CPAs issues them. It would help if the article mentioned that, I got all excited for a minute there.
Anyway, congratulations and all that.
Obama Seeks Grand Bargain on Deficit [Bloomberg]
“Now is the time to deal with these issues,” Obama said at a White House news conference yesterday before resuming talks with congressional leaders on reducing deficits and raising the $14.3 trillion U.S. debt ceiling before the government exhausts its borrowing authority on Aug. 2. “If not now, when?”
Amazon Backs End to Online Sales Tax in California [NYT]
Amazon said Monday that it would back a California ballot initiative that would ro law that forces more online retailers to collect sales tax. Amazon’s decision to support the proposed referendum pits the world’s biggest online retailer against the state government, which is looking for ways to raise additional revenue to cover budget shortfalls.
High-Speed Tax Rewrite Falters as Lawmakers Bicker Over Basics [Bloomberg]
Republican congressional leaders and President Barack Obama discussed a rewrite of the tax code over the past week and couldn’t resolve even the basic outline of what it should look like. They disagreed on revenue targets, the progressivity of the code, international taxation issues and the treatment of large businesses that aren’t currently taxed as corporations, according to two Republicans familiar with the talks.
Alleged Ponzi Scheme Accountant Settles SEC Complaint [Dow Jones]
In 2009, Philadelphia-area investment-fund manager Joseph S. Forte pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud and money laundering, all linked to a Ponzi scheme he admitted to the year before. He is serving a 15-year prison sentence. Monday, the SEC said it has filed and settled a civil action against accountant John N. Irwin and his consulting firm, Jacklin Associates Inc. Both agreed to settle the Commission’s charges, without admitting or denying allegations. The complaint claimed Irwin and the firm participated in Forte’s scheme by recruiting investors for it.
Millennials frustrated with weak economy, scarcity of jobs [AW]
Dennis Nally can’t hire everyone now, can he?
KPMG Names Marc Moyers to Head U.S. Private Equity Group [KPMG]
Moyers takes over for Shawn Hessing.
PwC Sends Partners, Staff and Interns to Belize to Boost Financial Literacy Among Students and Teachers [PwC]
Don’t get jealous. It’s probably not too nice down there.
Cantor outlines $353B in Medicare, Medicaid savings [The Hill]
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Monday proposed changes to Medicare and Medicaid he said would save $353 billion over the next decade. Cantor made the proposal in talks at the White House. His plan was immediately criticized by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who said it would lead to benefit cuts.
Time was, a CFO functioned as the main consiliere to the CEO. Finance issues? The CFO is on it. Accounting irregularities? Done. Taking the flak from analysts on the earnings calls? It’s not all glitz and glam, now is it? Nowadays, after some not so solid decisions were made in the recent past, another member of the C-suite has successfully curried favor with the boss. Someone who would ordinarily be fetching the CFO’s 3 pm pick-me-up. That is, the Chief Risk Officer:
Citigroup Inc. (C), American International Group Inc. (AIG) and UBS AG (UBSN) are among other companies raising the profile of risk executives. The derivatives meltdown that sparked the 2008 Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapse and an 18-month recession catapulted the role from obscurity to contention for future chief executive officers. “The person sitting in the risk chair now is reporting to the CEO so the caliber has to be higher,” said Neil Hindle, who runs the CRO search practice at Egon Zehnder International in New York. “There has been a real increase in power over the last two years.” That’s evident in the compensation, which can reach $10 million at large financial institutions now, compared with $500,000 as recently as 2001, Hindle said. Five years ago, a CRO typically reported no higher than the CFO, he said.
Granted, if you’re someone like Dave Viniar, you’ve got very little to worry about since you’re irreplaceable. But if you’re slightly lower on the intellectual scale, you best watch for that CRO buzzing right by you on the meeting that you weren’t invited to. Next thing you know, CFOs will be picking up their shirts and dry cleaning.
Chief Risk Officer Rises to $10 Million Job [Bloomberg]
“We don’t believe that we ought to be raising taxes right now on people in this recession and in this economy, and they do,” the majority leader added.
“That is just an irreconcilable difference, and if the president wants the debt ceiling, we’re not going to go along with that if they want to raise taxes, and it just is what it is.”“That is just an irreconcilable difference, and if the president wants the debt ceiling, we’re not going to go along with that if they want to raise taxes, and it just is what it is.” [The Hill]
Not unlike the overachiever that sits in the front row of class waving their outstretched […]
Taxes are difficult. Given. Even for the professionals that deal with them every day, it can be an exhausting mental exercise that will inevitably lead to mistakes. Example: Back in 2003, Indiana’s Department of Revenue (“DOR”) sent a $1.1 million refund to Aisin USA Manufacturing for its 2001 return. Aisin filed an amended return to show this refund only to have the DOR inform the company that a “clerical error” had been made and the company actually owed over $600k. Aisin wasn’t exactly thrilled with this and, citing the statute of limitations, told Indiana to drop dead. Surprisingly, this seemed to work:
The company then received a letter from DOR stating, “Your recent explanation and/or payment, with respect to the specific liability number referenced above, is satisfactory. No further action is required on your part for this liability.”
Then, not unlike the girlfriend who decides to change her outfit the moment you’re working out the door, the state took it back:
[I]n 2007 and 2008, the DOR notified Aisin that they actually did have to pay the disputed sum.
The state gave the company a break, cutting the amount due by about $70k but begrudgingly added, “Aisin’s continued wrongful retention of this amount d[id] not represent the action of a responsible corporate citizen.”
Long story, short – the DOR sued Aisin to get the taxes due in trial court because it hadn’t jumped through all the hoops necessary to submit the case in tax court. The Court of Appeals wasn’t impressed by this but ultimately the Indiana Supreme Court said everything was kosher and ruled in favor of the state and is now going back to Superior Court.
So, there are lots of lessons here. It appears that Indiana’s DOR can 1) make really bad mistakes; 2) decide those mistakes are NBD; 3) can change their minds and conclude that, mistakes or not, you owing them money is a BFD; 4) don’t feel the need to follow their own rules.
And they ultimately win the right to continue a battle over half a million bucks that has been going on for almost ten years. Seems about right.
Indiana Department of Revenue Rivals the Ministry of Silly Procedures in Tax Refund Case [Tax Foundation]
Zoeller v. Aisin USA Manufacturing, Inc. [Justia]
Apparently, things like “mobility” and “skill development” are important too. If you can believe that.
Having a competitive compensation base is really important. It’s [also] about how to create an environment where people want to be. This millennial generation is not just looking for a job, they’re not just looking for salary and financial benefits, they’re looking for skill development, they’re looking for mobility, they’re looking for opportunities to acquire different skills and to move quickly from one part of an organization to another. How you manage that sort of talent and how you deal with their expectations is very different from what’s been done in the past.
So I guess that means that none of the London recruits will be stuck at the Embankment Place dump. That doesn’t sound like an environment where anyone would want to be.
First, if you hate your inventory counts, can you only imagine what it’s like to have to keep tabs on tank after tank of frozen bull semen? Count your blessings, people.
A woman in Ohio pleaded not guilty last week to stealing a tank of bull semen valued at $110,000 from her employer. Authorities say 45 year-old Karen Saum planned to use the semen to extort money out of her employer – the rightful owner of the sperm – to start her own business. I can only imagine what kind of business she planned on starting with the seed money.
Detectives said a tip led them to Saum’s garage, where they found the stolen semen. Just a tip.
Det. James Hollopeter told WHIO TV that Saum used her knowledge of the company’s internal workings to lift only the high quality semen. “She knew where this semen would have been located,” he said. “It was actually locked in an interior closet because it was more valuable that some of the other that they had out.”
Right. Because everyone knows you don’t leave the good shit lying around where any old creepy criminal can get their paws on it.
