Going Concern

The Latest Feel Good Story Involving the IRS

Caleb Newquist
December 7, 2009

Were you concerned that the IRS wasn’t auditing enough poor people? Well here’s a story that will put those fears to rest: The IRS audited a woman in Seattle who made less than $19,000 a year because she was too poor.
Rachel Porcaro was summoned to the IRS after being flagged for an audit. She was told that based on what she was earning, she couldn’t possibly be supporting herself and her two sons:

“They showed us a spreadsheet of incomes in the Seattle area,” says Dante Driver, an accountant at Seattle’s G.A. Michael and Co. “The auditor said, ‘You made eighteen thousand, and our data show a family of three needs at least thirty-six thousand to get by in Seattle.”
“They thought she must have unreported income. That she was hiding something. Basically they were auditing her for not making enough money.”

Initially, the Service told Ms. Porcaro that she owed the Feds $16,000. When Dante Driver sent a letter to the IRS explaining how he thought the code was being wrongly interpreted, the IRS turned around and audited Ms. Porcaro’s parents:

Rob and his wife, Patty, had to send in house blueprints, bank statements, old utility bills. Rachel was asked to prove her children were hers, as well as document the money she’d spent on her children’s clothes, health care and so on.
They racked up $10,000 in accountant bills — $8,000 of which Driver is trying to recover from the IRS.
In the end, the parents were cleared. The IRS also backed off trying to reclaim Rachel’s earned income tax credit.

Ultimately, Ms. Pacaro had to pay over $1,400 in back taxes, penalties, and interest because she couldn’t provide enough receipts to document that she could claim her sons as dependents. Her parents are also not allowed to claim them as dependents, so for tax purposes, the two boys simply don’t exist.
Even if you’re a stickler for tax law, the time and expense of this audit hardly seems worth $1,400. The IRS soldiers likely would claim that they were just following orders but the Service was mum on this story. You can safely bet they won’t be apologizing either. The moral seems to be, regardless of your income, keep those receipts people. Yeesh.
$10 an hour with 2 kids? IRS pounces [Seattle Times/Danny Westneat via The Consumerist]

Uncategorized

Because There is No Shortage of Criminals

Adrienne Gonzalez
December 7, 2009

Editor’s Note: Want more JDA? You can see all of her posts for GC here, her blog here and stalk her on Twitter.
Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of speaking with Sam Antar of White Collar Fraud. I won’t give him too many props (lest he think his wily criminal charms got to me) but our conversation was both relevant and disconcerting.
In case you aren’t acquainted with Sam, he’s the ex Crazy Eddie CFO who ripped them off and now does speaking tours talking about, well, crime. But there’s a lot more than that at work here, that’s just his schtick.

So what did I learn?
I believe my editor thinks I’m a doom and gloomer so here’s some good news: besides suggesting we start training more qualified forensic auditors fresh out of school, Sam insists there is a chance for real financial reform.
Do you take your reform advice from an ex-criminal? I remind you here that a tax cheat is in charge of the IRS, do with that information what you will.
Anyway, the point here is that financial statements lack integrity. Without integrity, investors are groping in the dark and criminals are able to execute their schemes. Foreign investors are scrambling to leave US capital markets, could that be because our statements are – generally speaking – unreliable?
So. Sam’s 3 step plan to restoring sanity to financial statements. Take it for what it is.
1. Redefine audit committees as truly independent. No member of the audit committee should derive a salary or other compensation from stock options or stock holdings. Period.
2. Committee members should be qualified. CPAs and securities lawyers are qualified to sit on an audit committee, not marketing managers and other “average” sections of the corporate population.
3. Forensic accounting should be standard curriculum in university accounting programs. Don’t eliminate 404(b), if a corporation can’t afford the audits required to be a public company, then don’t become one.
We’ll have to agree to disagree on that final point, I don’t think tedious audits are the solution. However, perhaps if we had more qualified auditors out in the trenches, I might be inclined to be slightly less skeptical about the effectiveness of more softcore audits.
Stay tuned as we’ll be picking Sam’s brain again soon.
GC Posts Referencing Sam Antar:
Grant Thornton: Patrick Byrne’s Pants Are on Fire
Obvious Sign of Fraud: You’re Having Sex with the Client

Preliminary Analytics

Preliminary Analytics | 12.07.09

Caleb Newquist
December 7, 2009

• Taking Tiger By the Tax Tale – Two things are for sure, Elin will come out of this thing just fine and Uncle Sam will certainly be looking for his cut. [Tax Girl]
• Fresh Pay Skirmish Erupts at AIG – Pseudo-government employees continue to threaten to jump ship if their civic-duty comp is cut too much by the pay master. [WSJ]
• Going to School on Revenue Recognition – Tom Selling digs into Apollo Group, Inc.’s (parent of University of Phoenix) SEC filings to try and figure out what the Commish might be interested in. [The Accounting Onion]
• Bloomberg eyes more acquisitions – In its quest for world domination of financial information, the ‘Berg is “planning a further year of aggressive investment and may make more acquisitions”. [FT]

Review Comments

Review Comments | 12.04.09

Caleb Newquist
December 5, 2009

• IRS & California Slap $1.9m Tax Liens Against Pamela Anderson – And her two friends. [TaxProf Blog]

• How to Keep Your Firm Out of Trouble in this Holiday Party Season – Not listed: Don’t let interns attend. [CPA Trendlines]

• Superstar Finance Blogger Week 3: Francine McKenna at re: The Auditors – Hey, we’ve heard of her! [Blogging Suits]

• House Approves 45 Percent Estate Tax Extension – So much for dying in 2010. [Web CPA]

• OTB Enters Bankruptcy Protection – Speaking of death. Will you miss the plight? [City Room/NYT]

Uncategorized

Layoff Watch ’09: Crowe Horwath

Caleb Newquist
December 5, 2009

We just received word that Crowe’s CEO, Chuck Allen left a firm-wide voicemail announcing that the firm was having layoffs.
According to our tip, CH had “a lot of forced time off during the summer” and that “Oakbrook assurance has seen some movement.” Also, our source indicated that “Firm isn’t announcing specifics besides that its happening.”
So far, our calls and emails to Crowe Horwath have gone unreturned. We’ll update you with any comment or further information they may provide. If you have details on Crowe Horwath layoffs from any office, send the details to tips@goingconcern.com and discuss in the comments.

PwC’s Moritz: ‘We Will Have Base Increases Next Year’

Caleb Newquist
December 5, 2009

Now we’re talking! Nothing like calling your shot.

Moritz did his best Joe Namath today on PwC’s firm wide webcast today (is it over?) so all that speculation of P. Dubs phoning in 2010 can be put to rest. WRITE. IT. DOWN.

If you’ve got other thoughts or details on the web cast, get in touch and discuss in the comments.

E&Y Columbus Layoffs Update

Caleb Newquist
December 5, 2009

Just a little more context on the latest E&Y layoffs that we reported on this morning.
A new source has indicated to us the cuts were absolutely based on utilization:

The staff confirmed that no counselor was addressed.
The staff confirmed that no personnel with whom the individual worked within the past 6-8 months was consulted, including manager and above.
The staff confirmed that no performance reviews since April 2009 were referenced.
You better have a strong anchor client that keeps you going year round, and good luck if you lose them. So much for people.

We don’t feel further comment is necessary but if you have any thoughts, please share them in the comments.

Is Charlie Rangel a Closet NASCAR Fan?

Caleb Newquist
December 5, 2009

Maybe! Joe Kristan tells us that the Ways and Means chair is “[proposing] to ‘pay for’ the extension of forty five tax provisions that expire every year or so with an increase on the taxes on hedge funds and private equity funds.”
At the expense of the PE and hedge fund industry no less! Rangs is screwing people in his own back yard to give tax provisions to race car fans? Does this seem especially bassackwards to anyone else?
Tax Update Blog:

Among the 45 provisions are special depreciation rules for “motorsports entertainment complexes” and an “alternative motor vehicle credit for heavy hybrids.” Because heaven knows we need NASCAR and heavy hybrids more than we need private equity investment.

Being the dapper gent that he is, Rangs no doubt has several of his favorite drivers’ jackets hanging up at all of his rent-controlled apartments. You cannot deny the fashion genius of the bow tie/Snickers jacket combo.
Beating on Private Equity to Save NASCAR [Tax Update Blog]
See also: Rangel Identifies $30b of Tax Increases to Pay for 45 Tax Extenders [TaxProf Blog]

Uncategorized

Job of the Week: Is Visa Where You Want to Be?

Caleb Newquist
December 4, 2009

Why not? They’re not going anywhere for awhile. Slowly dying dollar and all. Get the details for a Senior Financial Analyst position in the Bay Area, after the jump.

Company: Visa
Location: Foster City, CA
Title: Sr. Financial Analyst – Controller Business Operations
Responsibilities: Responsible for analyzing, interpreting, and recording financial transactions, as well as and reporting this information and proactively research and document conclusions on accounting issues with appropriate references to relevant GAAP pronouncements.
Qualifications: Must have a BS in Accounting or related field, CPA, at least five to seven years of progressive professional accounting experience in a medium to large international company or public accounting firm, and proficiency in Microsoft applications. In-depth knowledge and recent experience with application of SOP 98-1.
Check out the entire description over at the GC Career Center and jump over to the main page for all your job search needs.

>75: What Happens When You Get a 74?

Adrienne Gonzalez
December 4, 2009

Editor’s note: Welcome to latest edition of >75, our weekly post on questions that you have related to the CPA Exam. Send your questions to tips@goingconcern.com and we’ll do our best to answer as many of them as possible. You can see all of the JDA’s posts for GC here and all our posts related to the CPA Exam here.
It might be the worst feeling in the world. Trust me, I know people who have gotten 17s and 24s on the exam – these are not my CPA Review students, of course, these are people who tried to go the CPA exam alone – and a 74 beats their misery any day of the week.

Nearly 99% of the candidates I talk to (I’m making that percentage up off the top of my head, mind you) who get a 74 on any part of the exam did everything they were supposed to do. They did hours of multiple choice and tons of practice simulations and even did the tutorial at cpa-exam.org before test day.
These are people who asked me very early on how they could plan their time, requested updates weeks before they were available and had me emailing 3 years’ worth of previous CPA exam questions for them to practice on. From all appearances, they did everything they were supposed to and yet got a 74, the worst possible score you can get (17 on FAR aside but we won’t talk about that mmmmmkay?).
So what do you do if you’re that person?
• Don’t bother requesting a “rescore” from the AICPA Board of Examiners: For all of 2008, not a single rescore request resulted in a candidate going from FAIL to PASS. It’s a waste of time and money and the AICPA isn’t going to admit their CBT is at all faulty (those of you who have actually taken it probably know better but we won’t talk about that either) so accept your score and move on.
• Don’t move on to a new section While you have to deal with the fact that you’re going to have to pay re-application fees to the Board and another exam fee, the best thing you can do in the case of a 70 – 74 is to go right back to that section and schedule a new exam as soon as possible. A 74 especially shows that you have an excellent command of the information, just a little more studying and you’re over that hump.
• Look at your score report: Your score report is going to give you quite a bit of insight on where you went wrong the first time. When you fail an exam part, they go so far as to tell you where you failed the worst, USE THAT! When you go back over your review materials, there’s no need to watch every single lecture video again fourteen times – just look at the report, figure out where you need more work, and do extra practice questions in those areas.
Finally, don’t beat yourself up. If this exam were easy, everyone would be a CPA.

Layoff Watch ’09: Update on Ernst & Young’s November Round

Caleb Newquist
December 4, 2009

It’s been a couple of weeks since we last heard any details from last month’s layoffs at E&Y, so we just assumed this particular story had run its course.
Well now, we have received word of (and confirmed) layoffs in the Columbus, Ohio office. One source indicates it was 2 – 3 staff and possibly one manager in the assurance practice. This would put the number of layoffs in the North Central region in the nabe of 25. Our source indicated that it seemed that Columbus had been spared for the round last month, so this may be their attempt to catch up.
Annnnnnd it’s our understanding that the cuts happened the day before the holiday party in Columbus. So there’s that.
If you have additional details, continue to pass them along and continue to keep us updated on any layoffs you hear for your office.

KPMG

Rumor Mill: KPMG Debunking ‘Six Year Manager’ Rumors?

Caleb Newquist
December 4, 2009

While many Klynveldians are getting amped to cobble together some bears for the kids this morning we’ll pass along a little rumor about a rumor.

The rumor that the KPMG bigwigs have been considering a six year timeline to make manager in the audit practice has been kicked around for at least a couple years. Naturally, there were two schools of thought:

• Managers thought it was good idea

• SAs thought it was a terrible idea

According to a tip we received, apparently there is an email floating around that says the rumors about a “six year program are not true and that the firm will continue with existing promotion timing.”

A friend of GC told us that while it’s entirely possible that such an email exists, it’s definitely not coming down from 345 Park and could be some local office trying to calm down those SAs that are considered flight risks.

Regardless of the rumored debunking, the path to partner is certainly becoming longer as we reported earlier this week, and early promotions will still happen based on ~~need or~~ political maneuvering.

If you’ve been notified that your promotion timing is still on track, by email or otherwise, pass the info along or discuss in the comments.

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