• Study: 2 out of 5 working-age Californians jobless – That sorta seems not good. [AP via SF Chronicle]
• Volunteer 5-0: Civilian Patrols Grow As Recession Puts Citizens on Guard – “After parking her truck in this beachside town in July, local resident Pamela Miller says she was confronted by a man wearing a neon-lemon “Parking Enforcement” T-shirt. He accused her of parking illegally, called her “retarded,” and, after she refused to move her truck, bumped her legs with his Ford Crown Victoria, she later told town officials.” [WSJ]
• Closely Watched Buffett Recalculating His Bets – Not that you’re going to do anything about it. [NYT]
• Deadline for $24m Leibovitz loan – Due today. If this somehow gets pulled off, can any of you help this woman? [BBC]
• Cadbury vows to fight Kraft offer – Because chocolate eggs and manufactured cheese don’t belong together. [FT]
• France to oppose Google book scheme – Your back-up career plan to scan the likes of Atlas Shrugged and the Harry Potter series may be put on hold. [FT]
• Swiss topple U.S. as most competitive economy: WEF – Obviously not taking the whole ‘End of Swiss Banking as we know it’ very well. [Reuters]
Breaking News
- Evergrande Liquidators Want to Take an Extra Grande Bite Out of PwC’s Whole Pocket
- Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: How About That Entry Level Job Market!; The Failed Client That Could Cost PwC $8 Billion | 5.18.26
- Friday Footnotes: PCAOB Plans to Take It Easy; Just Ignore Those CP53E Notices, Probably | 5.15.26
Evergrande Liquidators Want to Take an Extra Grande Bite Out of PwC’s Whole Pocket
It's already cost PwC China as much as two-thirds of their revenue due to regulatory punishments and reputational fallout, and now the collapse of long-time audit client Evergrande in 2021…
EY Gets Busted and Yeets Cybersecurity Report Littered With AI Hallucinations
Yesterday we received a news release from a communications firm working for a group called GPTZero. Now you should know that we receive probably a hundred or more news releases…
Layoff Watch ’26: KPMG Cuts 4% From Consulting
We've got another RIF at KPMG, a consulting cull that went down yesterday (that's Wednesday the 29th for those of you reading this a week from now). Let's start with…
The Department of War Broke Up with KPMG, KPMG Gives Up Federal Audits Altogether
The other day -- and by the other day we mean like more than a week ago -- we received a text on the tipline that read "KPMG US to…
KPMG Shoves 10% of Its Audit Partners Out the Door
We're sure you've seen this FT headline floating around today: KPMG to axe 10% of US audit partners. And if you, like most denizens of the internet these days, read…
Evergrande Liquidators Want to Take an Extra Grande Bite Out of PwC’s Whole Pocket
It's already cost PwC China as much as two-thirds of their revenue due to regulatory punishments and reputational fallout, and now the collapse of long-time audit client Evergrande in 2021…
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: How About That Entry Level Job Market!; The Failed Client That Could Cost PwC $8 Billion | 5.18.26
Hey, you. Got a little news to get you started on this quiet Monday. In this news briefEY Settles a Matter That's Been Dragging OutThe Failed Client That Could Cost…
Friday Footnotes: PCAOB Plans to Take It Easy; Just Ignore Those CP53E Notices, Probably | 5.15.26
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…
EY Gets Busted and Yeets Cybersecurity Report Littered With AI Hallucinations
Yesterday we received a news release from a communications firm working for a group called GPTZero. Now you should know that we receive probably a hundred or more news releases…
Layoff Watch ’26: Grant Thornton Making Some Cuts This Week
As discussed in this Reddit post and in a few tips we've gotten on the tipline received since yesterday, GT US has let some people go this week. How many…
EY Gets Busted and Yeets Cybersecurity Report Littered With AI Hallucinations
Yesterday we received a news release from a communications firm working for a group called GPTZero. Now you should know that we receive probably a hundred or more news releases…
KPMG Plans to Hand Routine Testing Off to AI
Did you happen to see this WSJ article from the other day? In "In This Critical Part of Audits, the Accountant’s Role Is Shrinking Fast," we're given a look into…
AI Will Be EY Auditors’ New BFF, According to EY
While staff in tax at EY US will soon be spending more time with their flesh-based colleagues due to a return-to-office mandate that requires them in the office for an…
ICYMI: According to This AI CEO You Won’t Have to Go to Work in a Year
Commence to fantasizing about what you'll do with all that glorious free time when you lose your job to AI in 12-18 months because that's the confident prediction made by…
Another Early AI Accounting Startup Just Bit the Dust
TIL that early AI accounting platform Botkeeper has died. I found out via this CFO Brew article which pointed to a post on Botkeeper's own site. Turns out r/accounting was…
Top Remote Tax and Accounting Candidates of the Week | October 16, 2025
Struggling to Find Remote Accounting or Tax Talent? We’ve Got You Covered.If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're…
Top Remote Tax and Accounting Candidates of the Week | October 2, 2025
Struggling to Find Remote Accounting or Tax Talent? We’ve Got You Covered.If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're…
Top Remote Tax and Accounting Candidates of the Week | September 25, 2025
Struggling to Find Remote Accounting or Tax Talent? We’ve Got You Covered.If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're…
Top Remote Tax and Accounting Candidates of the Week | September 18, 2025
Struggling to Find Remote Accounting or Tax Talent? We’ve Got You Covered.If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're…
Top Remote Tax and Accounting Candidates of the Week | September 4, 2025
Struggling to Find Remote Accounting Talent? We’ve Got You Covered. If your firm or internal team is having a tough time sourcing qualified remote tax and accounting professionals, you're not…
Twitter Feed
Redditor asks "What happened to the accountant crisis?"
Via @FinancialReview: "KPMG Australia has admitted a senior audit partner improperly accessed and displayed confidential board documents from longtime client Lendlease when the firm was pitching for a major Westpac contract."
Here Are Tax and Audit Salaries at Top 25, Top 300, and Regional Firms
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,…
Friendly Reminder Not to Work Yourself to Death For This Profession
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…
Accounting Firm Abruptly Nopes Out of Tax Season Early (UPDATE)
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…
This Deloitte Office Has Eliminated Trash Cans at Desks to Make Staff Get Up Off Their Asses
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…
The IRS Decided to Troll Tax Pros For 10/15
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…
Top Remote Accounting Freelancers: February 3, 2024
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…
10 Essential Project Management Principles for Accounting Firms
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,…
6 Ways Email is Secretly Destroying Your Accounting Firm
Email: The word itself sounds innocent, doesn't it? Kind of like "snail mail," but faster, sleeker, and without the slimy trail. But don't be fooled—email is secretly a sinister beast,…
Don’t Grow Your Accounting Firm Out of Business! Break Up With These Unscalable Practices Now
Business growth is always a high priority for accounting firms, especially small-to-midsize practices. Take care, though, because growth can be a double-edged sword. If your firm expands too quickly or…
Review Comments | 09.04.09
• H&R Block will convert 500 company offices to franchises – Sort of a Tax Prep McDonalds? [DBJ]
• IFRS Adoption in the US: One Year Later – No rush. [JDA]
• #48 Free Wi-Fi [Stuff Accountants Like]
• Lamest Accountant Video “Winners” – Shout out from Paul Caron on his blog. Thanks Paul! [TaxProf Blog]
That’s it for us today and we’re off on Monday. Have a great holiday weekend and try not to spend it working.
E&Y is Not One for Music Appreciation
We just received word that Pandora is blocked for Uncle Ernie’s troops. We’re thinking if BW had got ahold of this news, E&Y would have dropped out of at least the top five.
We thinks this is a strange way to wish everyone a nice holiday weekend but we understand that everyone shows love differently. Anyone else out there now working in eerie 2001-esque silence? Confirm for us or discuss in the comments.
Charlie Rangel Needs Your Help
For those of you that don’t concern yourselves with civics nonetoomuch, Chuck is the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. Ways and Means writes the tax laws for this fair land of ours. Get it?
Anyhoo, Rangs has a bit of a problem. People are shouting from the rooftops that this guy has to go. Why? A small matter of forgetting to list some assets on his disclosure forms.
Minor omissions, after the jump
Web CPA:
…in the Washington Post today decrying some of the newest revelations from last week, including a Merrill Lynch account valued between $250,000 and $500,000, tens of thousands in municipal bonds, and between $30,000 and $100,000 in rent from a Harlem brownstone that he owns, all of which he failed to list on his congressional disclosure forms from 2002 to 2006.
And if you remember:
This comes on top of the news last year about the four rent-stabilized apartments he rented at below-market rents, his use of government stationery to raise money for a pet project, his failure to report income from his sale of a Florida condo, and his failure to pay taxes on rental income from another home in the Dominican Republic.
According to the WaPo piece, Rangs’s net worth doubled-ish, “from between $516,015 and $1,316,000 to between $1,028,024 and $2,495,000”.
Yeah, so, that’s kind of a big change. We’re thinking that Chuck is way too busy being a tax wonk to track all this stuff. Or maybe he’s just too tired. Either way, it’s way easier to forget about four rent-controlled apartments than you think.
Rangel Under Pressure to Step Down [Web CPA Debits & Credits]
Deloitte is Handing Out Giant Foam Fingers Today
BusinessWeek’s “Best Places to Launch a Career” hits the newsstands today and Deloitte stuffed the ballot box best.
E&Y is the first loser, PwC gets the bronze and KPMG jumped one spot to #4, up from #5 last year. Grant Thornton dropped in at #51.
A few stats that probably help Deloitte land on top include:
• Average pay range being $5k higher than all the other firms
• Highest average signing bonus and 90% of new hires received them
• Highest three year retention rate of 56%
• Lowest drop in entry level hiring
Regardless of who comes out on top in this list, all the firms will be hyping their inclusion while on campus this fall.
We’ll revisit this next week when more of you are actually at work, not hungover, or haven’t already left.
For the rest of you, feel free to discuss the list in the comments, as we’re sure there are opinions out there on this.
Best Places to Launch a Career [BusinessWeek]
Preliminary Analytics | 09.04.09
• Stanford’s Money-Losers, Unlike Madoff’s, Get No Help From SIPC – Sucks. [Bloomberg]
• Ex-SEC Lawyer: Madoff Report Misses Point – “Genevievette Walker-Lightfoot told Dow Jones Newswires on Thursday the SEC inspector general should have focused more of his attention on how supervisors, rather than the staff examiners and investigators, handled the agency’s many stillborn probes of Mr. Madoff.” Supervisors? Responsibility? Get out. [WSJ]
• Zimbabwe to get $500m IMF loans – Seems silly that these are called loans. [BBC]
• U.S. Job Losses Increased in August, Unemployment Rose to 9.7% – And the spin is that this good news. [Bloomberg]
• Congress to probe SEC’s lapse on Madoff – Because this is a perfect opportunity for members of Congress to talk about how smart they are and how stupid the SEC is. We haven’t had enough of these anyway. [Reuters]
Review Comments | 09.03.09
• Madoff ‘Astonished’ SEC Failed to Act After Interview – And the guy must tell a helluva yarn. [Bloomberg]
• Yahoo accounting chief searching for a new job – This could be you. [Accountancy Age]
• Retailers Show Best Results in a Year – “Still, a quick recovery isn’t expected; half of retailers missed projections.” Dead? Alive? WTFK? [WSJ]
• Triumph of Consumerism – Naming children after your favorite brands. Who needs a drink? [Floyd Norris/NYT]
Labor Day Weekend Poll Results
We’re happy to report that over half of you are not working at all over the next four days. Congratulations, so get out there and make some bad choices. As for the rest of you, sorry but we’ll be here tomorrow at least. If you haven’t voted yet, what the hell have you been doing all day?
On a side-note, when we created today’s poll, we were surprised to have learned that for our last poll, we prematurely declared E&Y the winner of the lamest video contest. After likely ballot stuffing by KPMGers, the Radio Station/Backstreet Boy video ended up being the W. to E&Y’s Gore. We suspect Tim Flynn played the part of Karl Rove in this caper. Nevertheless, after the jump, we’ve presented the newly crowned winner because we’re solid like that.
On a Completely Unrelated Note
Apparently this happened:
One of a national series of rallies for health-care reform took a violent turn Wednesday night when, according to authorities in Thousand Oaks, Calif., an unidentified man bit off the tip of another man’s pinky finger.
That is all.
You Guys! Corporations Actually Pay Taxes!
At least Schering-Plough appears to be on the hook for some. A tax court ruled that the drug dealer maker doesn’t get a refund of $473 million after it tried to avoid taxes altogether on $690 million it made through offshore subsidiaries.
We could get into the specifics but then we’d have mass suicides to explain.
What is interesting that Schering’s auditor, Deloitte, even called shenanigans, “stating that the transactions were used as a means of repatriating money from Europe without having it taxed as a dividend.”
Not sure when Deloitte first brought that up but Schering obviously wears the pants because these transactions took place in 1991 and 1992 and the ruling came down this week. So at least the law firm representing Schering made out okay on this one.
Court Rejects Schering-Plough $473M Tax Refund [Web CPA]
The PCAOB Wants You to Know That the New Accounting Standards Codification is Not Optional
The PCAOB would like all of you auditors to know that you better learn how to use this Codification thing and quit your bitching about how you don’t like it because they can hear you screeching about how much it sucks.
Nevermind that the P is already making your lives difficult with new rules and leaving lame ducks on their board.
Seriously. Get with the program.
What Does Labor Day Mean for You?
Since it’s Friday for some of you, we’ll squeeze in a participatory exercise today.
The lucky ones are MIA until Tuesday or farther out. Others of you will not see the outdoors, your homes, or loved ones at all. The rest fall in between. This, all while trying to comply with your firm’s needs. We’d say, “vote early, vote often” but considering some of the attitudes out there, we’re only allowing one vote per person. Feel free to leave your thoughts on the subject in the comments.
Vote, after the jump