Going Concern

Ludacris Should Be Giving Ving Rhames Tax Advice

Caleb Newquist
March 19, 2010

In today’s celebrity tax scofflaw du jour, we learn that Ving “Why do people always have to bring up that scene in Pulp Fiction” Rhames owes the IRS over $800k from two liens, both filed by the IRS in Los Angeles.

Rhames has had trubs in the past, having liens filed against him last May as well.

It seems to that California, being in the fiscal trouble that’s it in, really needs to call on its other celebrity residents to hold some sort of Haiti-esque fundraiser for some of their fellow celebs.

Sure, it might not fix all the state’s budget problems but at least we could admire our celebrities for being financially responsible pillars of the community rather than pillars of the community when there’s an international crisis. Plus, maybe California wouldn’t have to fire more teachers.

In semi-related news, you will never, ever, EVER hear about Ludacris owing the IRS a damn thing. Not now, not ever.

“I pay more in taxes than most people would ever imagine. I guarantee you, I’m looking dead in the camera, you will never hear about Ludacris owing the damn IRS no damn money.”

Okay, financial celebrities f-ups, get on the horn and find out what the great financial mind-cum-rapper/actor of Ludacris has in store for you. Things haven’t worked out so far, so it can’t hurt to see what the man has to say.

Ving Rhames far from OK with Uncle Sam [Tax Watchdog]

Career Center

Job of the Day: Morgan Stanley Needs an Infrastructure Controller

GoingConcern
March 19, 2010

Morgan Stanley is looking for someone to join their Private Equity Finance Division to handle financial reporting, tax support and business analysis for its Fund Infrastructure complex.

The position requires seven to nine years experience and a CPA license.

Get more details on this position in New York after the jump.

Company: Morgan Stanley

Title: Infrastructure Controller – Vice President

Location: New York, NY

Description: Morgan Stanley is looking for a Fund Controller for Private Equity Finance Division to provide accounting and financial reporting, tax support and business analyses for a multi -billion dollar fund. The open position is a Vice President for the Firm’s Infrastructure Fund complex and related feeder funds

Responsibilities: Review of GAAP basis accounting closings for the Partnerships, including maintenance of books and records, valuation of publicly traded and non-public investment portfolios and cash and brokerage records; Review of quarterly GAAP basis financial statements for the Partnerships, cash flow statements, schedules of investments and footnotes; Review of quarterly reports for partners, including detail roll forward analyses of Partner Capital Accounts (PCAAs) and ad hoc investor requests; Identify and resolve partnership legal, tax and accounting issues subject to investment company accounting guidance. Work with the Partnerships’ auditors to issue year end audited financial statements; Review of accounting and reporting for the Partnerships’ general partners and leveraged co-investment vehicles which are owned by the Firm and Partnerships’ Management personnel; Review of capital calls, management fees, expense analyses, investment purchases and sales and distributions; Communicate, coordinate and work with Partnerships’ Management and the Firm’s finance, administration and operations areas (such as Investor Relations, Treasury, Tax, and Legal); Ensure proper guardianship controls over partnership assets and compliance with procedures documented as required by Sarbanes Oxley; Identify opportunities to use technology to enhance accounting, reporting and operating processes; Assist with the operations of portfolio holding companies.

Qualifications: 7-9 years of accounting experience including financial statement preparation experience and prior experience in Private Equity and/or Hedge Fund area; CPA required

See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.

News

Why Aren’t Accountants Getting Fired for Status Updates on Facebook?

Caleb Newquist
March 19, 2010

A friend of GC recently made mention of the number of people belly aching about busy season in the filterless universe of Facebook. Yes, we realize this is a shock.

Granted, kvetching about your job is a God-given right but at what point is someone just asking to get their ass thrown out? While “experts” are constantly telling you to “be careful about what you post online,” that seems to be overblown because we’re hearing and seeing people hating their jobs out in the open with no discernible repercussions.

God knows there were status updates from E&Y people re: lack of hoops during the Lehman talk.

Case in point, our friend shared this recent status update with us:

“stock options, fraud interviews, preferred equity accounting…my job is sexy.”

Now maybe this isn’t a “get your shit and get the hell out” offense but accountants have proven to be an easily rankled bunch and if the right person were to read this update, there at least might be a frank discussion about this. It’s become obvious that someone at all the major firms is doing nothing but snooping around the Internet, doing nothing but reading employee complaints.

And maybe we’re premature on this issue. Busy season, while winding down, is still going on and warm bodies are still needed, so some gnashing of teeth on FB might be tolerable.

Maybe this is an unwritten rule in the industry that has evolved with the popularity of Facebook. We ignore your rants for all the world to hear, we take pieces of your soul, one busy season at at time.

You’re Wasting Your Time if You Attempt to Bribe an IRS Agent with Starbucks

Caleb Newquist
March 19, 2010

As we’ve recently learned, IRS Agents are a zealous bunch. If you’re out of compliance you can bet the life of your labrador that they will run you down for the overdue tax, regardless of the sum.

Now perhaps you’ve been thinking that a little bribery might take care of things if you find yourself in a bit tax trouble. IRS Agents are human(?) after all; they fall ill to the temptations of this world just like the rest of us. And because they most likely have some sort of accounting background, they are most certainly caffeine abusers and thus, Starbucks whores.

But an Agent’s first responsibility is to serve the American Taxpayer and your attempts to tempt these civil servants with sweet, venti-sized, mega-calorie caffeinated beverages WILL NOT WORK:

Kim Oahn Thi Tran, also known as Jennifer Kim Tran, faced a tax liability of more than $13,287 for the 2006 and 2007 tax years on unreported income of $30,334, authorities said.

In hopes of lowering her tax liability, Tran sent a package on Nov. 30 to IRS revenue agent Imad Hararah that contained promissory notes and a $100 gift card for Starbucks Coffee that read, “To Imad: Enjoy,” investigators said.

Agent Hararah did not fall for this ploy. Nor did he accept the $2,000 that Tran attempted to give him. Instead this presented itself as a perfect opportunity to add charges, “On Dec. 9, Tran gave the agent $1,500, authorities said. In exchange, Hararah gave her a phony document that made Tran believe that she had a zero balance for 2006 and 2007 tax years.”

Does this guy love his job or what? Not cold hard cash nor natural stimulant will distract this man from doing his job. We can only assume that his brethren are of the same cloth and soon we’ll hear about Agents turning down dates with Lane Kiffin.

Woman charged with trying to bribe IRS agent [SF Chronicle]

Are Too Many People Passing the CPA Exam?

Adrienne Gonzalez
March 19, 2010

The AICPA recently announced that it would be re-evaluating the CPA exam scoring process and we’ve been wildly speculating awhile as to what that might actually mean. Staying true to the doom and gloom, yours truly immediately thought the AICPA Board of Examiners was convinced you kids would bomb FAR horribly in Q1 and 2 of 2011 with the addition of IFRS and they were just preparing for that.

Upon further reflection, maybe the exam is too easy. Maybe requirements to sit are not strict enough (even though we’re down to 4 states that allow you to sit with 120 units last I checked). Maybe the job market is worse than anyone wants to admit — now wait a minute, what does that have to do with it?

There isn’t raw data that tells us how many would-be CPAs we have on our hands who have passed all four parts of the CPA exam but still can’t get a job, at least none I’ve seen. I’ve spoken to these people and it doesn’t seem to be getting better in the aggregate.

I believe the BLS numbers somewhat concur with this conclusion, if you can believe them. (CPA Trendlines has them)

I hear you guys bitching about it all the time. If you’re still employed and trying to take the CPA exam, you get the extra special designation of ultra-masochist but it’s not you guys the AICPA BoE is worried about, it’s the bottleneck of people who’ve passed the CPA exam trying to squeeze in 2 years in public to get a license.

Case in point, a friend of mine here in the great (broke) state of California decided to take on the CPA exam a tad later in life than some of you. We won’t hate on her for that. She worked her ass off and eventually got through it. She’s a leader of a prestigious accounting society in her community and has the credentials a lot of the kids coming out of school don’t. She can’t find a job. She’s tried every firm in town large and small as well as the surrounding area. I’ve scouted the Bay Area and can’t find anything for her either.

She’d stay more than 2 years and be more than a body filling the chair but they don’t even have a chair for her.

She’s not the only one. So maybe the AICPA BoE caught on and is going to try to change that. They can’t create the jobs so what do you think they’ll do?

Oh, and if anyone has a lead on a public accounting gig in the top half of California for my qualified little friend here, do get in touch.

Accounting News Roundup: GOP Says Healthcare Bill Will Expand IRS ‘Tentacles’; Jonathan Weil Counts Some of E&Y’s Bodies; RIP Jerry York | 03.19.10

Caleb Newquist
March 19, 2010

• GOP targets IRS in latest health battle [The Hill via TaxProf]
The GOP is still fighting the health care bill tooth and nail and this may be the most effective strategy we’ve seen so far. Forget about debating coverage, preexisting conditions, etc. etc. Just name drop the IRS and a large group of people may change their minds about the whole thing.

“This is a vast expanse of power,” said Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. (R-La.) during a Thursday call organized by Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee. He said the IRS provisions in the healthcare bill “dangerously expand, in an ominous way, the tentacles of the IRS and its reach into every American family.”

On the surface this appears to be the typical GOP “the IRS is eeeevilllll” pandering but the real concern should be that the Service already has a lot to do. The Hill reports that if taxpayers are required to purchase health care insurance but fail to do so they could face fines. The IRS would be responsible for administering and collecting these fines.

Add that to this small task, “The IRS retrieved $2.35 trillion in 2009 by processing 236 million tax returns. It also is working to reduce a $345 billion gap in the taxes it collects and should collect.” Not to mention they’re trying to update systems, answer more phone calls, getting into high speed car chases. There’s always a lot going on.

And in case Rep. Boustany needs caught up, the Service is already auditing more people and trying to collect every ~~dime~~ ~~nickel~~ penny it can.

• Lehman’s Auditor Goes Blind From the Cooking [Bloomberg]
Jonathan Weil is not buying what Ernst & Young is selling. He reports that E&Y spokesman Charlie Perkins denied that the firm had “mischaracertized [the Bankruptcy Examiner’s] findings,” and characterized it this way, “[B]y E&Y’s twisted logic, it would be possible for a company to lie in its financial statements about its off-balance-sheet liabilities, and still manage to account correctly for them in the same financial statements. Imagine that.”

Weil takes off the gloves and digs up some old bodies, namely: partners recently sentenced to prison time for tax shelters; Bally’s (including vice chair Randy Fletchall); HealthSouth; Cendant (man, he’s going way back). Weil then thinks out loud, “With that kind of track record, it’s a wonder anyone would accept anything this firm says at face value again.”

• Jerry York, Iconic CFO, Dies at 71 [CFO]
Served as CFO for IBM, Chrysler. Adviser to Kirk Kerkorian and board member at Apple.

Quote of the Day: Mary Schapiro Is Being Coy | 03.18.10

Caleb Newquist
March 19, 2010

“It is safe to assume that we are looking at the conduct of a number of firms.”

~ Mary Schapiro, to a House appropriations subcommittee, not specifically naming Lehman Brothers or Ernst & Young.

(UPDATE) Ernst & Young Doesn’t Care if You Missed Murray State Upsetting Vanderbilt

Caleb Newquist
March 19, 2010

From an upset Ernster on the Left Coast:

EY Blocks all Websites with “sports” because of March Madness. People in my SoCal office are all ticked off. This sucks. First it was pandora and now it is sports websites. What is next? Lunch breaks? Bathroom breaks?

Music, sports, food, bodily functions. That seems like the right order, doesn’t it?

Since our source sounds pretty upset, this must not be an annual ritual for E&Y. It’s also not clear if this some kind of punishment for everyone showing up hungover today or if it is somehow Lehman Brothers related. Let us know if you’re blacked out at we’ll send you updates.

UPDATE, 6:43 pm: Turns out this was just temporary, THANK GOD:

It turns out there was an internal webcast about Lehman Bros so they shut down all sports websites during the webcast because it was interferring with the webcast. Sports websites are back up but there were a lot of people who were ticked off and went home to work.

Damn you Lehman Brothers! We knew it! So now the question is, what was said on the webcast? Anyone take copious notes?

DWB
KPMG

KPMG’s Layoffs in Advisory May Have Made Room for Some Auditors

Daniel Braddock
March 19, 2010

Happy Hangover Thursday, folks. Hopefully the green food coloring washed off easily this morning.

I was out networking with my Irish brothers last night in midtown New York, quite a few blocks north of my normal after-work locale. Second Avenue bars full of cold beer and burned out white collars, St. Patty’s Day was a welcomed Wednesday relief for those in busy season. The day was over, the night was turning late and, for once, shop talk was put on the back burner. That is, until I heard the phrase “Uncle Peat” used as the object of ~~affection~~ bitterness for a toast.

Obviously, I couldn’t resist.

DWB: “Are you guys auditors?”

Auditor 1: “Yeah, over at KPMG. Hopefully not for long, though.”

DWB: “Nice, nice. Moving on to better things?”

Auditor 2: “Hopefully.”

Auditor 1: “Not soon enough.”

A round of drinks later (toast to Uncle Peat not included) and these Irish-for-the-day gentlemen filled me in about an email circulating around KPMG’s NYC audit practice regarding a temporary rotation into the Transaction Services (TS) practice. TS specializes in mergers & acquisitions work and was — most likely — hit steeply by the rounds of the falling guillotine back in 2008 and 2009.

How does a practice that was hemorrhaging money and resources a year ago now have business blowing through the door at such a fierce rate? If you read anything beyond the usual busy season distractions, it’d come as no surprise to you that the markets are slowly picking up. But service firms typically lag in response, both on the positive (Woo-hoo, new business!) and negative (Sorry, this isn’t about you – this is about the numbers) sides of the equation. Nonetheless, Uncle Peat’s auditors should be leaping at this opportunity. A rotation out of audit can be refreshing, even in the quieter months of summer.

Did KPMG’s advisory shake up and realignment pay off? Is the firm’s leadership blowing smoke to perk up the down-trodden auditors currently drowning in busy season? Was a picture of a giant carrot on a string used in the email? If you received this email, I’d love to read the text. Last night’s informants promised to send it over, but they probably called in with emergency doctor “appointments” this morning.

Is RSM McGladrey Worried That Natalie Gulbis Isn’t Sexier Than Lane Kiffin?

Caleb Newquist
March 18, 2010

It’s bracket season and while many of you are trying to get out of work to watch hoops, the good folks at Esquire have a much more pressing matter at hand.

The Sexiest Woman Alive Bracket is: “A single-elimination battle royale: sixty-four women, seven rounds, one readers’-choice champion, and not a single Kardashian,” and RSM McGladrey’s own Natalie Gulbis is a number one seed.

Her first round cruise match is against…Lane Kiffin?

Yes, Lane Kiffin. For those of you not pigskin inclined, Lane Kiffin recently left his job as the University of Tennessee football coach for the job at the University of Southern California.

As you might expect, Volunteer fans didn’t take too kindly to a young first-year coach bolting for the sunny confines of L.A. This is not lost on the folks at Esquire and they opted to include the Trojan coach in this year’s bracket.

And as it stands right now, Natalie is trailing Lane in the first round match-up with just under 35k votes to Kiffin’s 46k-ish votes. How does Kiffin, who at first glance does not even qualify for this particular bracket, manage to hold on to what seems to be a insurmountable lead? Is it possible that LK is sexier than Natalie?

Plus, if this lead holds up, isn’t this a public relations disaster for everyone involved? How will RSM explain this to their clients? Will this lead to a desperate move by the firm to drop NG in favor of someone else, say a newly recovered sex addict — who’s a little down on his luck re: sponsors — that will be playing in the Masters?

Vote for the Sexiest Woman Alive! [Esquire]

KPMG

KPMG Reinstating “Standing Ovation” Bonus Awards

Caleb Newquist
March 18, 2010

Back in November 2008, KPMG suspended the highest level of its Encore bonus award, the Standing Ovation to “manage costs.” Since there is no shortage of exceptionalness at Radio City, the $500 awards were adding up so word came down that it was ixnay the tandingsay vationsoay.

The firm did keep its “Bravo” award that was good for $200 and replaced the five-hundo bonus with a $25 award and “thanks e-cards” that were way better than anything from Hallmark simply because Tim Flynn probably included a personalized message.

And you, simply, cannot put a dollar figure on that.

The most devastating part of the Standing O kibosh was that the trophies — which could easily qualify as a “blunt object” at a crime scene — were no longer handed out. These, understandably, are most coveted of all KPMG tchotchkes.

Well now, according to accountants familiar with the matter, the firm has reinstated the Standing Ovation for reasons that we can only speculate. It will be reserved for those Klynveldians that “go above and beyond” the call of their duties. Again, we can only speculate as to what this actually entails. Considering the fact that the hours you’ve been putting in for the last month or so have been expected, it may just mean that you have to try a little bit harder.

The reintroduction is being received tepidly, as one source told us:

Kinda meaningless to me. They don’t hand them out. Except for managers that want to get laid by younger staff.

Seconded by another source:

Just because they bring them back, doesn’t mean any partners plan on approving them. – “Oh, I nominated you for a standing ovation, but it didn’t get approved! It’s the thought that counts though, amirite?”

Another source saw it as too little, too late:

“Do they really think $500 is going to stop a mass exodus of [people] from leaving? Perhaps they should have thought about that when they didn’t give raises.”

Despite the vague qualifications for the award, it’s good to see TPTB reinstating the bonus for the sake of morale/bribery/empty hope. Now go get yourself one!

News

Job of the Day: BlackRock Needs an IT Internal Audit Manager

GoingConcern
March 18, 2010

BlackRock is looking for an experienced auditor who has is familiar with testing of SAS 70 and Sarbanes-Oxley technology controls.

The position requires 9 years experience with Big 4 firm and professional certifications (e.g. CPA, CISA). The position also requires approximately 20% travel.

Check out the details for this position, based in New York, after the jump.

Company: BlackRock

Title: IT Internal Audit Manager

Location: New York, NY

Experience Required: 9 years

Description: The candidate will supervise one to two staff and will work closely with other internal auditors in executing the global integrated internal audit plan. The candidate will report to the Director of Internal Audit IT, who reports to the Global Head of Internal Audit. BlackRock’s internal audit group is comprised of approximately 40 professionals based principally in New York, San Francisco and London, with additional personnel in Edinburgh, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Responsibilities: More than 9 years experience in the fields of information technology audit, information security and technology risk management; Strong experience auditing operating systems, databases, networks, and technology operations; Experience working within a risk based internal audit function executing audit planning, fieldwork and report writing; A good understanding of information technology, technology risks and emerging technologies; A good understanding of information technology best practice disciplines and frameworks such as CoBIT, ITIL and COSO; Experience managing small teams of skilled professionals and building strong trusted relationships with senior IT and business management.

Qualifications: Experience of auditing Unix, Linux, Sybase, Oracle, MSSQL and Windows; Experience working in a global financial services firm, and a good understanding of the asset management industry and regulatory environment; A “Big 4” background and experience of SAS70 and SOX technology controls testing; Experience working in a non-audit role such as information security or technology operations; Professional certifications such as: CPA, CISA, CISM, CISSP, GSNA, CGEIT, CRISC; Additional technical knowledge, e.g. attack and penetration techniques, security configuration audit tools and techniques, development tools and languages, data modeling and data management techniques.

See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.

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