Going Concern

Preliminary Analytics

Preliminary Analytics | 10.29.09

Caleb Newquist
October 29, 2009

• Doing deals between angry parties – ‘Shouting Is Good – or at Least Not Necessarily Bad’ [BBC]
• Economy in U.S. Expands for First Time in More Than a Year – There is the unemployment thing… [Bloomberg]
• Galleon paid banks millions for ‘edge’ – $250 mil just last year. [FT]
• Accountant Sentenced to House Arrest in UBS Tax Case – Stephen Rubenstein is the first UBS scofflaw to be sentenced. [AP via NYT]
• Ask the taxgirl: Donating an Engagement Ring – Somebody wants it. [Tax Girl]

Review Comments

Review Comments | 10.28.09

Caleb Newquist
October 29, 2009

• Auditing Firms Should Pay Closer Attention to Spreadsheets – That’s according to a person who is no an auditor. [Web CPA]
• McKinsey Begins Internal Probe in Galleon Case – According to McK, this their first problemo with securities law violations. Traditions are meant to broken anyway. [WSJ]
• House Plans to Roll Out Its Health Care Bill on Thursday – Please end this. [Prescriptions/NYT]
• Picard says $21.2bn lost in Madoff schem – That’s not so bad. [FT]
• Sam Zell: ‘With some reasonable luck,’ Tribune Co. will exit bankruptcy in early 2010 – We’re disappointed, Sam. [CT]
• CIT Takes $4.5 Billion Loan, Shunning Icahn Offer – CIT “wasn’t confident in the solidity of Mr. Icahn’s proffering”. [DealBook]

Five Really Simple Facts About the CPA Exam

Adrienne Gonzalez
October 29, 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.
The CPA exam is full of myth and legend due in large part to the fact that you’re not supposed to discuss what’s actually on it. Of course everyone does and rumors fly around firms (“I heard IFRS is being tested in simulations…” “Tim in tax was thrown out of Prometric for wearing a hoodie to the exam…”) until they’ve been transformed into CPA exam nightmare tales based entirely in fiction. Knock it off, kids, let’s stick with the facts.

Of the two communications, only one is graded. Lucky you, you don’t know which one. Candidates get all bent out of shape over the communications but all you have to do is write a standard business letter. You don’t even have to answer the question correctly, you just have to stay on topic! Easy ten points, don’t blow it and do the communications first.
The research portion is only worth 1 point so if you don’t have time, blow it off. Yes, I said blow it off. If you’re crunched to complete a simulation, this is the last thing you want to spend your time on. Skip it unless you have lots of time.
The CPA exam is NOT graded on a curve, your score is not a percentage and is on a “plus point” basis. This means if you don’t know an answer, guess. Never leave a question blank, everyone starts with 0 points and earns up from there. More difficult MCQ earn you more points when answered correctly and no, the AICPA doesn’t reveal the secret psychometric formula that it uses to determine this.
There are no “easy” multiple choice. You only get moderate or difficult. Every exam starts moderate and MCQ testlets will get more difficult if you are doing well or stay the same if you’re bombing. So yours could be moderate, difficult, moderate or moderate, difficult, difficult or if you really didn’t study: moderate, moderate, FAIL. Sorry, made that last one up. You get the point.
14 – 16% of the exam isn’t even graded. Outrageous as it may seem, the AICPA loves pre-testing things that you have never learned just to scare the shit out of you. Actually, they’re testing new questions and gauging candidate reaction so good for you if you know XBRL but sorry, you’re not getting any credit for it. If you get bizarre MCQ, now you know why.
Thanks to my day job, I guess I’m some sort of CPA exam expert so I encourage Going Concern readers who are interested in CPA exam content to get in touch with us and let us know if there’s something you’d like to see us cover on this subject. Good times, kids, good times!

Rumor Mill: Ernst & Young’s Latest Attempt to Boost the Morale

Caleb Newquist
October 29, 2009

Not feeling hot about your career lately? Needing some love from TPTB? Apparently one E&Y office is taking a stab at a solution. Not a Starbucks card. Not a year’s subscription to the jelly-of-the-month club. And sorry, Christmaskah is still cancelled. No, this is a completely arbitrary way to win your love.
According to a tip we received, in the Dallas office, all positions that are manager and above are now known as “executives”. As if you didn’t need another reason to stick around until making manager.
Despite the much needed kick-start this may give to the psyche of managers, won’t this cause confusion among the staff?
Manager, director, partner. Simple. If everyone is considered an “executive” the whole hierarchy might become meaningless. And if there’s no hierarchy, we very well may have chaos.
The other problem is that some people take their title very SERIOUSLY. Ever called a “senior manager” a “manager” by mistake? You haven’t known the wrath of an unmerciful, passive-aggressive God if you haven’t. Now if you accidently forget that someone is also an “executive”…Watch out.
It’s not entirely clear if this is a firmwide thing so run it by Steve-o tonight or discuss your feelings on this latest attempt to rally the troops (some of you anyway) in the comments.

Lesson of the Day: When Requesting a Bogus Tax Refund, Avoid an Excessive Amount

Caleb Newquist
October 28, 2009

It makes sense that financial crimes increase during a recession. People get desperate and they start taking crazy-ass chances. Crazy-ass chances like, let’s request a tax refund for a couple hundred million dollars.
Justice.gov:

Papers filed in the cases say the defendants prepared tax returns requesting a total of $562.4 million in bogus refunds. One defendant – Dick Jenkins, of Heber City, Utah – allegedly holds himself out as a CPA and requested a $210 million fraudulent refund for one customer. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) catches the vast majority of the bogus tax returns and blocks the claimed refunds…Altogether, according to the IRS, redemption scheme participants (including customers of the defendants in the seven lawsuits filed this week) have requested a total of $3.3 trillion in fraudulent refunds.

According to the AP, “Officials say the tax preparers often falsely tell customers the government maintains secrets accounts of money for its citizens that can be accessed by filing false returns.”
So your tax preparer tells you that by filing a fake tax return you’ll be able access a secret pile of money. Is this remotely believable? Believable to the point of saying, “Excuse me, Internal Revenue Service, you owe me $210 million”?
Some discretion, people.
DOJ Charges Seven With Seeking $562m of Bogus Tax Refunds [TaxProf Blog]
Feds file suits over $562 million bogus tax claims [AP]

Uncategorized

Your 2009 Halloween Costume: Zombie Phil Mickelson

Caleb Newquist
October 28, 2009

It’s only three days until Halloween and most of you are probably procrastinating on costume ideas. Fortunately we’ve come up with an idea that will incorporate your profession/firm and maybe your love of golf.
Inspiring examples, after the jump

You can go black:

Or white:

Small problem: The only place that we’ve been able to find a KPMG golf hat is on eBay and the auction doesn’t end for four days. Good news is that’s going for grand total of $0.01. So if you don’t already own one of these beauties, it’ll have to wait until next year.

EY
On Campus

Memo to E&Y’s Steve Howe: Choose Your Ice Breaker Carefully

Caleb Newquist
October 28, 2009

If you’ve got nothing going on tonight and you’re in the Chapel Hill, NC neck of the woods, Steve Howe, E&Y’s Americas Area Managing Partner will be speaking at UNC tonight starting at 5:30. Don’t worry, it’s scheduled to end at 7:00 sharp so you’ll have plenty of time to get home in time for baseball or whatever else is on TV these days.
We’re mostly curious how Steve-o will break the ice with the audience, considering it’s been an awkward moment for some of his fellow partners in the past. We’re confident he’ll be fine though, especially since he’s not phoning in the speech and leaving a voicemail for everyone.
It’s not clear if there will be a Q&A, so if you have questions that you’d like to ask Steve-o, kindly leave them in the comments and we’ll pass them along.
Dean’s Speaker Series – Steve Howe, Americas Area Managing Partner of Ernst & Young [UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School]

Uncategorized

Accounting Rulemakers Already Talking Plan B on Fair Value

Caleb Newquist
October 28, 2009

Sounds like Bob Herz and Sir David Tweedie are phoning it in with regards to fair value rules.
Herz and Tweedie and their respective accounting wonks met in Norwalk, CT on Monday and they’re all but admitting that there’s no chance that they’ll get on the same page:

At a joint meeting in Norwalk, Connecticut on Monday, members of the London-based International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) sparred over whether fair value, or “mark-to-market,” accounting rules should be expanded to a broader array of financial assets, such as loans and deposits.
In a move opposed by the banking industry, the FASB has proposed that all financial instruments be valued at market levels, while the IASB has proposed to have those assets valued at “amortized cost,” which would mostly provide information about expected cash flows.
“If FASB and IASB can’t agree on mixed model or full fair value model … the next best thing is something to move between the two,” Sir David Tweedie, chairman of the IASB, said on Monday…”By the end of 2010… if we can’t get it together, we should be appreciably together,” Tweedie said.

Plan B is already in full effect! Instead of one fair value rule, the two standard setters will provide a “presentation for fair value for more financial assets on corporate balance sheets so that investors would be able to quickly reconcile numbers in U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) or International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).”
Some board members are worried that this approach may be too confusing, however. Confusing financial statements? That’s only a problem for average investors. No biggie.
Oh, well. We know 2010 is coming up fast and those politicians get impatient when the bank lobbyists are threatening to cut off the money. Thanks for trying guys. You did your best.
Accounting boards try to reconcile fair value views [Reuters/Emily Chasan]

Preliminary Analytics

Preliminary Analytics | 10.28.09

Caleb Newquist
October 28, 2009

• GMAC Asks for Fresh Lifeline – Third round of bailout aid should be the charm. [WSJ]
• Ex-Chief of AMD Is Linked to Galleon – So far, Hector Ruiz isn’t in any trouble but this certainly doesn’t look good. [WSJ]
• World Series Games Add $15.5 Million Each to NYC, Agency Says – Much of which goes to Billy’s and Stan’s. [Bloomberg]
• Pitchfork Watch: Couple Charged With Torturing Suspected Mortgage Fraudsters – Mortgage brokers, this is your warning. [Naked Capitalism]
• Madoff victims lobby judge to deny Frank DiPascali Jr. bail – Surprise. [NYDN]
• It may be BYOB as fewer firms plan holiday parties – Roll in with the High Life. [Reuters]

Review Comments

Review Comments | 10.27.09

Caleb Newquist
October 28, 2009

• Hedge and private funds to register, open up books to SEC – Barney Frank, steering the ship: “The legislation would require fund managers to keep additional records and make new disclosures about their transactions to both the SEC and a proposed systemic risk regulator. The SEC would disclose additional information about trading to investors, creditors and other counterparties.” [Market Watch]
• Bank protesters descend on downtown Chicago – Angry people with signs, costumes. No Oprah though. [Chicago Breaking News]
• Only You Can Prevent White-Collar Crime: A Guest Post – Got it? [RTA]
• U.S. Revokes Licenses of Pilots Over Wrong-Way Flight – Solitaire is so damn distracting. [Bloomberg]
• Chicago Offers Bounties to Tax Whistleblowers – Protestors will now have something to do. [TaxProf Blog]

Whatever You Do, Don’t Bring Up Tax Shelters

Caleb Newquist
October 28, 2009

Well you can if you want but somebody will probably flash a piece on the lanes and you’ll end up entering a world of pain.
If you’re in Beta Alpha Psi at the University of Illinois, KPMG is hosting a charity bowling event tonight at 6 pm. Hell, even if you’re not a member you should do a jay and head on over and get your roll on. What’s the worst they can do, throw you out?

KPMG

KPMG Partner Named in $240 Million Tax Fraud

Caleb Newquist
October 28, 2009

This is getting awkward, KPMG. Tax shelters continue to be a problem for some of your partners.

Fairfax Times:

Three local businessmen have been indicted on a charge of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service of more than $240 million.
According to the indictment filed in federal court on Oct. 22, two of the men allegedly attempted to defraud the IRS by making several “false and misleading statements” concerning a corporate tax shelter that was implemented by them.
Daryl J. Haynor, a partner in KPMG’s federal tax practice for the mid-Atlantic Area, based in Tysons Corner; and Jon Flask, a Vienna-based attorney, are both named in the suit.
“Mr. Haynor has been placed on administrative leave pending a review of the situation,” said George Ledwith, a spokesman for KPMG, on Monday.

Obviously our little warning concerning tax shelters was way too late.

According to the federal indictment, Flask, Haynor and Parker implemented and marketed a tax shelter named “Sale Leaseback of Tenant Improvements Strategy (SLOTS),” from 1998 through 2006.
The shelter enabled various U.S. corporations to claim tax deductions totaling more than $240 million on corporate income tax returns.
The indictment alleges that Flask, along with Haynor and Parker, misled and deceived the IRS by misrepresenting facts concerning the SLOTS tax shelter during IRS audits of companies claiming tax losses generated by the shelter in the years 2002 through 2004.

Mr. Haynor has been with KPMG for over 25 years. He and Mr. Flask face up to eight years in prison and $500,000 in fines. If you know any details, shoot us an email or discuss in the comments.

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