Going Concern

PwC Accepts Responsibility for Losing Personal Records of Alaska Public Employees

Caleb Newquist
February 1, 2010

In Alaska news that doesn’t involve Sarah Palin, it emerged late last week that PwC lost the personal records of 77,000 public employees and retirees who participated in the State’s Public Employees Retirement System and the Teachers Retirement System in 2003 – 2004.

Alaska had engaged P. Dubs as expert witnesses in a lawsuit against its former actuary Mercer and turned the data over to the firm for analysis during the discovery process. PwC discovered that the data vanished in December and PwC notified the state last week (nobody wants to share bad news during the holidays).

PwC has accepted responsibility for the whole mess and has agreed to pay for identity theft protection, credit monitoring, and security freezes (if necessary) for the 77,000 employees affected. The firm will also reimburse any losses suffered by any of the participants.

The firm must have realized that there was little upside to disclaiming responsibility, as this would inevitably lead to a sentence in a Sarah Palin speech that involved PwC opposing God, guns, and regular Americans. Populist rancor would ensue and the firm would be run out of Alaska within a week (give or take).

This is the second SNAFU for PwC in the last month. The firm issued a press release on January 15th announcing that someone was sending bogus PwC checks to random people advising them that they had been selected to be secret shoppers. It’s not clear as to whether this is a sign of the wheels coming off or simply bad luck. We’ll keep you informed of any additional slip-ups.

State Acts Promptly to Safeguard Alaskans Against Potential Identity Theft [State of Alaska Department of Law]

Accounting News Roundup: Obama’s Budget Proposal; Davos Wraps Up; FINS’ Top Tax Blogs

Caleb Newquist
February 1, 2010

• Obama Offers $3.8 Trillion Budget With Focus on Boosting Jobs [Bloomberg]
The $3.8 trillion budget calls for an additional $100 billion in stimulus spending and would increase the federal deficit to $1.6 trillion. “The $1.6 trillion deficit forecast for the current year represents 10.6 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, making it the biggest by that measure since World War II, according to administration figures.”

The most impressive part is that the WH blew all the other forecasts out of the water, “The White House deficit projection exceeds other forecasts. The Congressional Budget Office has forecast this year’s shortfall at $1.35 trillion. The median of 39 analysts survey by Bloomberg News is for $1.37 trillion this year and $1.10 trillion next year.” Look! We’re going to dig the hole way deeper than anyone thinks!

As we mentioned last week, the spending freezes that will dig us out of said hole that were proposed last week would aim to cut that deficit to less than $1.3 trillion in 2011 and $828 billion in 2012; just in time for the election.

• Leaders in Davos Admit Drop in Trust [DealBook]
After all the chocolate, blondes, and awkward interviews, the other thing that is pretty obvious is that no one knows what the hell is going to happen, “the one certainty seemed to be continued uncertainty.” It’s nice to be confident about something.

Plus, everyone pretty much agrees that if you’ve got even a sliver of power in government or business, you are not to be trusted. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a news flash, what with the near financial apocalypse and all but Tim Flynn said we were moving towards the green light of trust. Is this not the case? Did TF just figure, “I’m out of here, I’ll just say whatever I feel like.”? One can’t help but wonder if he’s shooting from the hip a little bit. Oh well; all in all, good times. Good Davos times. See you next year (right?)!

• The Top Five Tax Accounting Blogs [FINS]
For those of you that are inclined towards the tax side of the house, FINS presents its top five picks for wonky tax goodness that you should be reading if you’re not already. TaxProf Blog, The Tax Policy Blog and Don’t Mess with Taxes are three that we are intimately familiar and a couple we just discovered: Tax Watch and A Taxing Matter.

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day: What About the Paper Clip Exchange? | 01.29.10

Caleb Newquist
January 30, 2010

“High speed and commuter rail are a key part of growing our economy here in Florida, and today’s announcement couldn’t come at a more important time for our state”

~ Alex Sink, Chief Financial Officer for the State of Florida and cost-saving guru on her state receiving $1.25 billion in federal funding for a high speed rail system.

Big 4 at Davos: Jim Quigley is Long Dubai

Caleb Newquist
January 30, 2010

He’s not really sure how much is debt (Jim, it’s a metric asston) is being restructured but Quigs believes that Dubai will come out of it a-okay.

Black holes aside, Quigs also wants to see global accounting standards which puts him firmly in the camp with the other half of Jim-squared and Knight of Accounting David Tweedie.

We’re not sure when this interview was done but could someone get JQ a cup of coffee or something? The guy seems a little stiff. Plus, no red light/green light of trust from Fox Business? They have got to start getting more creative over there.

The IRS Is Making “Thousands” of Visits to CPAs During Tax Season

Caleb Newquist
January 30, 2010

Apparently the IRS is not one for timing. Earlier this month the Service announced that if you get paid to crank out 1040s, your life as you know it is more or less over. Well, at least a little more inconvenient. Okay, it’s hella-inconvenient.

Back when the new regulations were announced the Service let it be known that since it can’t get these new regulations implemented for 2010, it was still stepping up its efforts for getting all up in tax preparers’ shit.

The first step being to be to send 10,000 letters to paid preparers nationwide letting them know that they need to be on their A-game. The letters were intended for, “preparers…with large volumes of specific tax returns where the IRS typically sees frequent errors,” and that they should be “vigilant” for errors related to “Schedule C income and expenses, Schedule A deductions, the Earned Income Tax Credit and the First Time Homebuyer Credit.”

Well then. That should cover about EVERY TAX PREPARER IN THE COUNTRY.

Anyway, the IRS is following up the 10,000 “Dear Joe Kristan” letters with phone calls to set up sit-downs with “thousands” of preparers. According to William Stromsem, who wrote a piece over at CPA2Biz, these are “urgent” calls:

In at least one case, the IRS called a practitioner at home and spoke with the spouse by name, asking for a response within three hours and then calling back before that time was up. Another practitioner, who was unable to schedule a meeting during a busy time was threatened with having the refusal passed up the line to a supervisor.

The piece goes to tell us that the visits will be performed in the coming weeks and months and may last up to 3 hours. Does anyone see a problem with this yet?

These chats are designed to be friendly reminders of all the pitfalls out there in tax preparer land; not a compliance visit (but they will remind you of the penalties that can be assessed for any malfeasance). Regardless of the pleasant intentions, the timing has irked CPAs to no end and we can’t say that we blame them. Hope no one is expecting an apology. And one more thing, we’d like to know how the Commish’s CPA feels about this whole thing. Just for fun; he should get a letter.

IRS ‘10,000 Letters’ Program Angers CPAs [CPA2Biz]

Uncategorized

Five Questions with Francine McKenna

Caleb Newquist
January 30, 2010

Our contributor Francine McKenna takes her job very seriously. When we asked her to participate in our little exercise she insisted that all her answers be as long of some of her posts but we managed to explain to her that none of these questions would be related to the Big 4.

She backed down.

As you know, Francine is the and Founder and Managing Editor of Re: The Auditors and a furious Tweeter. Prior to launching RTA, Francine worked for more than twenty years working for in consulting and professional services here in the States and abroad.

• Why should you accountants read your blog?
Do they really have something more stimulating to do?

• If someone had to read just one post of yours which one would it be?
“Too Few To Fail Or Something More?” tells you everything you need to know about how the current regulatory regime works against the shareholder and for the perpetuation of the myth of the current audit firm business model. It’s my first post with original reporting, it’s where I coined the term “too few to fail,” and still one of my most popular.

• Who is your favorite blogger?
So many favorites now, but the guy that told me blogging could make me famous is Mr. Clublife, the guy who stands on the box at your favorite club in NYC.

• Best thing about blogging for accountants?
They are, for the most part, too introverted to complain or harass me too much.

• The biggest issue facing accountants/auditors today is…
They’ve, for the most part, forgotten that their client is the shareholder and that, as professionals, they owe their first professional duty to that client, not their firms, not their partners, not their colleagues and not the management of the companies they audit.

CFOs

FEI Survey: Half of CFOs Don’t Plan to Replace Laid Off Positions

GoingConcern
January 30, 2010

This story is republished from CFOZone, where you’ll find news, analysis and professional networking tools for finance executives.

This is not the news you hear when there is talk of “recovery.”

Plus, it’s bad news for President Obama. The morning after our leader joined the rest of Americans and finally acknowledged that jobs are the most important issue facing the country, chief financial officers signaled they don’t expect the employment picture to improve anytime soon.

Sure, 62 percent of the 371 corporate CFOs who participated in the latest quarterly survey conducted by Financial Executives International (FEI) and Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business said they do not plan any layoffs for this year. Big deal. Most companies have already gotten around to this cost-cutting measure. In fact, 77 percent of those surveyed said they already cut rank and file during the economic downturn.

More significantly, nearly half of the CFOs that previously laid off people said they do not plan to replace those positions. Rather, they figure to deploy other strategies to increase production or output. For example, they plan to reinstate overtime for existing employees, turn to outside consultants, hire part-time employees, and/or make current part-time employees full time before rehiring new full-time employees.

Just 44 percent of the total surveyed said they anticipate an increase in hiring at their companies. On the other hand, about one-quarter of the finance execs expect to cut back on hiring. Not too encouraging, huh?

What’s more, non-cash payments seem to be high on the list of anticipated cutbacks. For example, executive perks were cited more than any other area for potential cutbacks (37.2 percent). Benefits in general ranked third (31.5 percent).

“As far as the new normal is concerned, efficiency is the name of the game,” Marie Hollein, CEO and President, Financial Executives International, said in a press release.

CFOs may become more confident later in the year, however. Virtually half of the respondents to the survey said they believe indicators such as bond yields, mortgage interest rates, U.S. unemployment rate and rising GDP will collectively improve and result in the start of a recovery in the U.S. economy in the second half of this year. Another 22 percent don’t expect these conditions to materialize until the first half of 2011.

In general, however, CFOs indicated they were more optimistic about the U.S. economy in the fourth quarter survey than they were three months earlier.

They are also more optimistic about their own company’s financial prospects than they were in the third-quarter survey.

Career Center

Job of the Day: Citi Needs a Financial Accounting Analyst

GoingConcern
January 29, 2010

If busy season is already kicking you in the teeth and nothing has been able to motivate you, then perhaps it’s time to try something new. Or perhaps you just woke up and you realized you’ve got to pull your life together.

Whichever applies, Citi is looking to fill a Financial Accounting Analyst position with a minimum of five years experience in New York. Get the rest of the details after the jump.

Company: Citi

Title: Financial Accounting Lead Analyst

Location: New York

Minimum experience: 5 years

Responsibilities: Participate in analyzing and advising on the regulatory capital implications of broad Corporate strategic initiatives (including, for instance, potential M&A activities); Partner with the Corporate Regulatory Reporting team in addressing regulatory capital and reporting issues of significance; Interface with Corporate staffs (e.g., Accounting Policy, Treasury, Corporate Reporting) regarding certain regulatory capital matters; Garner exposure to Clearing House discussions as well as those with the U.S. banking agencies (Fed and OCC) regarding complex and/or nuanced regulatory capital or other relevant regulatory matters of significance.

Skills: Bachelor of Science Degree – Accounting Major; CPA; 5 – 10 years professional experience, preferably a combination of public (ideally Big 4) and private within the financial services industry (commercial or investment bank); Preferably GAAP Accounting Policy or Regulatory Reporting or Advisory experience

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

Technology

Tracking Charitable Donations? Now There’s a CPA-Developed App for That

Caleb Newquist
January 29, 2010

In more non-iPad, Apple-related news, we learned earlier this week about iDonatedIt, an iPhone app developed by BMG CPAs in Lincoln, Nebraska. The app is designed to track all non-cash charitable contributions whether it be clothes, furniture or family members (okay maybe not the last one). This will allow you to track all of our donations to Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc. rather than receiving that crappy receipt they give you that has nothing on it.

Being interested in all things accountant-ish, we got in touch with BMG to find out how this bit of ingenuity came about.

We spoke with Todd Blome, a partner at BMG who came up with the idea and he told us that as soon as he got an iPhone he was thinking of ideas for apps that would be useful for his clients. Since Todd is the tech-savvy partner at BMG, (he heads up their IT consulting services) he started kicking around ideas right away and eventually landed on the idea for iDonatedIt.

Todd told us that the development was fairly simple and that there were only two test versions prior to releasing the app.

“So far we’ve 100% positive feedback on iDonatedIt,” Todd told us, “We’re definitely looking for suggestions for improvements or add-ons.” The one idea that has been floated to Todd was adding a tax savings tool to the app so that a user could determine how much tax savings would be created by the donations. “That will probably be in version two,” he told us.

iDonatedIt retails for $2.99 at the app store and as Todd noted, “a donation of one item pays for the app.” A version for the Droid is currently in the works as well.

Todd and the rest of of his team at BMG are kicking around a few more ideas for apps but he said they want to make sure iDonatedIt is working as good as possible before committing to another project. Check out the demonstration below and jump over the firm’s website or follow them on Twitter to give them your feedback.

KPMG

Who Will Be the Next Chairman of KPMG?

Caleb Newquist
January 29, 2010

Yesterday we told you the sad news that Tim Flynn will not be serving another term as Chairman of KPMG.

After taking the time to compose ourselves and realized that life will somehow go on, we had questions. Figuring you had some of your own, we’ll throw a few out there for some discussion. These will range from the obvious (i.e. headline) to the inane but they are all of equal importance:

• Why Tim? Why?

• Is the Davos trip the last hurrah and if so, what is doing to celebrate/reflect/mourn?

• If he’s not taking Tim Geithner’s job then what? Will T Fly defect to one of the other Big 4? Launch a blog? Ponzi scheme?

• How does Phil Mickelson feel about this and does this mean he will keep TF on the bag or is this an honor reserved only for the Chairman?

We may not have covered everything here so chime in with your questions or simply respond to those we’ve put out to the group. And please, if he happens to change his mind, notify us immediately.

The JDA

Bernanke’s Next Four Years

Adrienne Gonzalez
January 29, 2010

We’re skipping >75 this week because apparently none of you have any CPA exam questions. That’s sad. Really? None? Well if you do, send them over. Please. JDA needs to eat.

Anyway, let’s talk about Bernanke’s confirmation!

WSJ:

Ben Bernanke won the backing of the Senate for a second four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve by a comfortable margin Thursday. Even with that storm behind him, Mr. Bernanke faces formidable political and economic challenges made tougher by the bruising confirmation fight.

Yeah, ok, let’s ignore the fact that the Fed spent the last week buttering up everyone they could to get to push Bernanke through. WSJ made it really easy with a chart of Senators who were going to vote for him, who weren’t, and who were undecided. It was a fucking Fed Telethon trying to save Bernanke’s ass and with a 70-30 vote, apparently they won.

Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher wrote in the WSJ that Congress is Politicizing the Fed but Market Ticker argued that The Fed is Politicizing the Fed. What do you call making a last ditch effort to convince undecided Senators to keep the Bernanke crack flowing? That’s not necessarily the Fed getting political, it’s just them trying to save their own asses.

I’m not going to rant about Zimbabwe Ben and his mission to destroy the dollar. In some ways, I’m glad this thing is over with and Bernanke is the least of all evils (Larry Summers for one) but it’s funny that markets reacted as they did when Bernanke’s confirmation was “up in the air” (LOL, we all knew what would happen).

I would hate to go all conspiratorial and throw out “manipulation” as the culprit, nor can I pretend to know what charts mean.

Don’t miss The Bernanke Confirmation: Incompetence, Indifference and Institutional Inertia via Huffington Post.

DealBook:

The Senate voted 70 to 30 on Thursday afternoon to confirm Ben S. Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve for another four years, Sewell Chan of The New York Times reports from Washington. The confirmation came minutes after senators voted 77 to 23 to end a debate in which critics excoriated the central bank’s handling of the financial crisis.

The confirmation was a victory for President Obama, who had called Mr. Bernanke a critical leader in the nation’s recovery from recession, but the rancor in the debate also signaled the extent to which the Fed, once little known to the public, has become the object of populist anger over high unemployment and bank bailouts.

Grrrrr.

Accounting News Roundup: IASB Chairman Won’t Converge at ‘All Costs’; Phony IRS Agent Racks Up $55k Hotel Bill; Stuy Town to Become “Trump Town”? | 01.29.10

Caleb Newquist
January 29, 2010

• IASB plans no fair value changes for EU-chairman [Reuters]
Sir David Tweedie has put his foot down again, so listen up. The IASB is not going to bend over backwards for you, the EU, or the FASB when it comes to fair value, get it? The world is at stake here. You non-knights out there need to just BTFU and let the man do his job. Tweeds told reporters in Brazil that the EU can stick it, “‘We cannot always allow Europe to tell us what to do. This is global. We are the IASB, not the European accounting standard board'” Got it?

You too, FASB. SDT said that he won’t converge accounting standards at ‘all costs,’ because he knows not everybody likes to place nice and seems to be okay with that. The man has short-timer’s so he doesn’t really care what you do. Have a nice life, Bob Herz.

• Woman charged with posing as IRS agent [San Francisco Chronicle via The Tax Lawyer’s Blog]
Sheryl Lynn Vertoch had been staying at the Inn Marin Hotel in Novato, California for over seven years telling the staff there that she was an IRS agent. Among her many adventures working in fantasyland, were testifying in the Enron case and being only one of six IRS agents that could investigate large public companies.

This all sounded good enough for the staff at Inn Marin, until Ms. Vertoch couldn’t pay her bill starting in 2008. The story was the IRS was getting stingy and wasn’t going to pay her until her current investigation was over. The owner of the hotel — finally fed up with an apologetic IRS — phoned the cheapskates up to complain because this was an outrage to hang this hardworking federal employee out to dry.

The IRS blew Vertoch’s “cover” and she’s now been arrested for impersonating a federal employee and she’s got a $55,000 hotel bill to deal with.

• Trump says he’ll jump at StuyTown takeover [NYP]
The Post is reporting that Stuy Town may become Trump Town, although it’s not entirely clear where we’ll see the iconic Trump name on the equally iconic brick buildings. The Donald joins many other high profile investors interested in the property including Wilbur Ross and WinnCompanies. One thing is for sure, whoever comes out top in this thing will certainly have no trouble following the Tishman/BlackRock fiasco.

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