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]
KPMG Australia Has Made a List of Things It Probably Should Have Done Already
...such as "support whistleblowers" and "punish people who do stuff that will give Australian Financial Review an easy 9 months of negative headlines." So KPMG Australia is still in its…
EY Didn’t Do Too Bad Last Year
Shortly after Deloitte released their 2026 revenue numbers on September 24, EY had some numbers of their own, announcing $57 billion in global revenue last week. Notably, they edged out…
The King’s Deloitte Got Hit With a £6 Million Fine and a Homework Assignment For Questionable Auditing
The Financial Reporting Council announced £6 million (nearly $8 million USD) in sanctions against Deloitte UK today and honestly, this client sounds like a mess. But messy clients are what…
Scandal-Embattled KPMG Australia Hits Up the Global Body to Borrow a Few Bucks
This information comes from Australian Financial Review so it's legit: KPMG Australia is seeking up to $100 million in emergency loans from the firm’s global network as well as a…
Deloitte Saw Another Year of Single-Digit Growth, a Respectable $74.5 Billion in Revenue
It's revenue season! Traditionally Deloitte is first to report and report they have: $74.5 billion in global revenue (unaudited). Last year, the firm was the first Big 4 to cross…
KPMG Australia Has Made a List of Things It Probably Should Have Done Already
...such as "support whistleblowers" and "punish people who do stuff that will give Australian Financial Review an easy 9 months of negative headlines." So KPMG Australia is still in its…
EY Didn’t Do Too Bad Last Year
Shortly after Deloitte released their 2026 revenue numbers on September 24, EY had some numbers of their own, announcing $57 billion in global revenue last week. Notably, they edged out…
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: KPMG Might Be Moving in Chicago; Hope You Like Sales | 10.12.26
Happy Columbus Day to those who celebrate, happy nondescript Federal holiday to everyone else. There are a few things going on today but it goes without saying that this will…
Friday Footnotes: Accounting Education Could Use a Catch Up; Whistleblower Says IRS Leaked His Tax Records | 10.9.26
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…
The King’s Deloitte Got Hit With a £6 Million Fine and a Homework Assignment For Questionable Auditing
The Financial Reporting Council announced £6 million (nearly $8 million USD) in sanctions against Deloitte UK today and honestly, this client sounds like a mess. But messy clients are what…
Bill Gates Predicts AI Will Be Taking Clients’ Most Tedious Questions 24/7 Within a Few Years
Did you catch Bill Gates' recent chat with Ezra Klein? I didn't, thankfully my washed colleague regularly reads NYT and sent it to me via Slack. Many people are stuck…
The AICPA Wants Tax Pros to Take a Hit From Its New AI Risk CART
Rather than dropping a strongly worded letter on the topic of the IRS's position on AI in tax practice and dropping the topic there to focus on other pressing matters,…
Deloitte Survey: A Lot of People Are Using Clandestine AI at Work
As corporations everywhere shove AI down our throats and businesses wrestle with the conflict between rushing to integrate AI to not be left behind and having to pay for it…
Bill Gates Proposes a Tokens and Robots Tax
Bill Gates has written a loooong essay on AI covering all sorts of things from potential benefits to immediate concerns. Feel free to read the whole thing if you'd like,…
Firms (and Some Guy Obsessed With China) Have Weighed in on the PCAOB Turning an Eye to AI
The comment period for PCAOB Release No. 2026-005 Request for Public Comment on PCAOB Standard Setting has closed and when all was said and done, it racked up an unremarkable…
Finance Leaders Are Shopping for a CAS Partner, and They Brought a List
Cash flow, automation, fraud protection. Your firm can deliver all three. Finance leaders would like some help with the accounting. Not a little help, either. BILL asked 354 finance decision-makers…
Expense Management: Because Apparently Clients Will Pay You to Make Expense Reports Suck Less
Spend and expense management is one of the most in-demand CAS services—and one of the most underutilized. There’s still plenty of room to get into the game. Clients are drowning…
For Firms, Growth is Down But Profitability Is Up
That's the headline from INSIDE Public Accounting based on the results of their 2026 Practice Management Report: The report draws on survey responses from 605 North American accounting firms, spanning…
AICPA Pushes Back on IRS Suggesting CPAs Should Charge Less If They’re Using AI
Back in June the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) issued its first solid AI guidance in the form of a bulletin titled Introductory Guidelines for Responsible AI Use in…
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…
Twitter Feed
Curious where general sentiment is here, as I think a lot of folks are afraid of being AI-cancelled
For US tax pros, if you're using an AI assistant that doesn't train your prompts into the model (business plans)
Do you think a signed 7216 consent to disclosure is required?
Idk if this was a gap in my knowledge or is commonly unknown. They certainly never did it at any of the 3 firms I worked at.
A Market Discount adjustment in a 1099-B is supposed to be recategorized as interest income.
Did you know this/do you do this?
IRS Employees Looked at Celebrities’ Tax Records, Report Says
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…
Finance Leaders Are Shopping for a CAS Partner, and They Brought a List
Cash flow, automation, fraud protection. Your firm can deliver all three. Finance leaders would like some help with the accounting. Not a little help, either. BILL asked 354 finance decision-makers…
Expense Management: Because Apparently Clients Will Pay You to Make Expense Reports Suck Less
Spend and expense management is one of the most in-demand CAS services—and one of the most underutilized. There’s still plenty of room to get into the game. Clients are drowning…
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,…
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
SHOCKER: Joe Francis May Have Attracted Slimy Business People
Joe Francis, perhaps thinking that his strategy to deduct anything related to topless girls might not pan out, is now claiming that he was the victim of three former executives who conspired to embezzle millions of dollars.
“Using shadow companies doing business…the men allegedly filed and then approved phony invoices they wrote themselves. The lawsuit also accuses [one former executive] of filing hundreds of thousands of dollars in false expense reports, for which he reimbursed himself through the company payroll.”
Hard to believe that a pillar of wholesome entertainment like Joe Francis would have attracted people that would take advantage of his lack of knowledge about internal control structures but maybe we don’t know the whole story.
‘Girls Gone Wild’ Founder Accuses CPA of Going Wild [Web CPA]
Think You’re Bitter?
Since some of you might not be spending your weekend consuming massive quantities of red meat, and thus, might be a little bent out of shape, we thought we would present a couple of quotes from “farewell emails” provided by readers.
Granted, these have probably made the rounds but we’ve included our favorite passages to demonstrate just how bitter some people are. Hopefully this will result in self-reflection for some of you but for some of you, it may be the sign that you’re beyond help.
Feel better about yourself (or pretty much the same) after the jump
Former PwC, who is obviously concerned about the mass soda consumption:
I would greatly encourage some kind of weight loss challenge to be implemented firm wide. The herd of water buffalo you call your work force is embarassing and a bit gross. When I call a co worker over from 2 cubes down and they are legitmately out of breath when they get to my cube it may be time to knock off 10 or 80 pounds. The company seems to encourage this obesity; each busy season we get a giant package full of pixie sticks, chocolate and assorted sweets. As much as I would enjoy type 2 diabetes, I think I’ll pass.
This particular former Green Dot should seriously consider some Dr. Phil time:
I would like for you to take note that Deloitte’s continuous lying and deceit is not acceptable to me or anyone else. Deloitte has been the biggest Disappointment because they are Deceitful, Demoralizing and De-motivating to their graduates who they should be uplifting as they are the foundation for future leaders of this country…When I started at the DGA I was promised many things, house on the hills and a black convertible to name a few. I was told that all the sacrifices I make during the programme would be worth it in the end. I ask how will it be worth it and when is the end?
iPhones are one thing but if the new recruits are promising black convertibles, for crissakes, please let us know.
These two examples certainly give credence to the notion that on call psychoanalysts for Big 4 employees should be given serious consideration. If you’ve got more examples out there, shoot them our way. We’re here to help as many of you as possible.
Are the Big 4 Driving Away Small Clients?
Accountancy Age reports today that smaller firms in the UK are cleaning up at the expense of the Big 4, specifically audit clients. The Four Horsemen are claiming cost pressure but small firms see it a little differently.
More, after the jump
Melissa Bowers, partner with Macclesfield-based firm Harts LLP, points to the Big Four’s practice of using senior partners to ‘seal the deal’ while leaving junior employees to do the grunt work, which has alienated smaller clients. This practice, combined with cost pressure, has driven audit clients into the arms of local firms. She has won work from clients who employed the same auditor for more than a generation…’It is possibly smaller work for them and they are possibly not giving them the same priority and attention.’
There’s no question that the cost pressure is an issue but what small clients really want, like a fat kid wants cookies, is some love from the partner. They’re not interested in a barely sober first year associate doing testwork. Clients want the partner to show up with the corporate card in hand ready to charm the pants off of them.
The other consideration is that clients just don’t care if they’ve got a big name on their audit:
Michael Good, partner at Oxford-based firm Critchleys, said that he believed smaller clients are no longer willing to fork out money for a big brand name firm. ‘They are asking themselves “do we need to pay the premium?” and “what are we getting for the premium?” and they are saying “actually not a lot”,’ he said.
‘Up to £20,000 for a big firm is not a big audit.’
We’d assume that here in the States, the sitch is no different. Small clients want to save money and they want to be someone special not just another contract that a partner has to take the rubber stamp to for the sake of his practice.
Discuss in the comments the trend here in the States. For you Big 4 types, are your smaller clients jumping ship because you’re treating them like the red-headed stepchild? Small firm bean counters are you picking up these clients? Feel free to get ugly about it, since most of you checked out on Monday, it will probably be a slow day.
Smaller firms clean up as recession sees audit clients shun the Big Four [Accountancy Age]
Preliminary Analytics | 09.03.09
• Treasury Retreats From Standoff With TARP Watchdog – “Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a position also known as Sigtarp, declared victory Wednesday in his effort to clarify that he doesn’t answer to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.” [WSJ]
• Oracle Faces In-Depth EU Probe Over Sun Purchase – Larry Ellison will not stand this aggression. [Bloomberg]
• Will AIG Rein In Its Brash CEO? – “Mr. Benmosche said New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo ‘doesn’t deserve to be in government’ and that Mr. Benmosche would leave dealing with ‘all those crazies down in Washington’ to the company’s chairman, according to an account by Bloomberg News that was confirmed by Mr. Benmosche.” For the sake of the rest of us, let the man say his piece. [WSJ]
• Stanford Has Surgery; Receiver Defends $27 Million Fee – “Jailed fraud defendant R. Allen Stanford had surgery for an aneurysm in his leg Wednesday morning and was back in a Conroe-area prison before noon.” Recovery time for a stud such as Stan is not nearly as long for you mortals. Meanwhile, the receiver in the case is telling the SEC to BTFO. [Houston Chronicle]
• Stanford’s Bellagio debt, redux – Stan’s attorney suggests that if the Bellagio wants its money it should go after the aforementioned receiver, Ralph Janvey. Old school style of course, ‘Maybe the Bellagio should revert to the time-honored method of Vegas debt collection and send someone to make the receiver an offer he can’t refuse, or just break his legs,’ or may we suggest a hammer? [FT Alphaville]
Review Comments | 09.02.09
• Google’s Gmail knocked offline for ‘majority’ of users – Which was the cause of all the Tarantino-esque stand offs yesterday. [NYDN]
• Economy Sheds 298,000 Private-Sector Jobs, ADP Says – Unfortunately, some of you are in that number. [WSJ]
• Geithner Says Too Early to Start Withdrawing Stimulus Measures – Just in case you were worried. [Bloomberg]
• Goodell: NFL Teams Could Face TV Blackouts – For some of you, this is worse than Gmail going down. [NPR]
• The Great Recession – September 19th. NYC. Check it out. [Blackout Film Festival]
PCAOB Appears to Be Taking After Big Brother
The SEC has been setting a bad example for everyone. Now the Commission’s sloth-like urgency to appoint a chief accountant seems to have led the PCAOB to think that finding new board members really isn’t a big deal.
Chuck Niemeier announced that he will be leaving his position as a board member of the P very soon, even though his term ended almost a year ago. The PCAOB’s board members are allowed to stay on the board after their terms have ended until a replacement is found.
We suppose that you could give the P credit for having the foresight to write this rule in, as it’s pretty obv that no one really wants this job. Doesn’t make much difference anyway, as it’s not really clear just what the hell they’re doing over there, except making auditors’ lives more difficult and possibly ignoring independence violations.
IFRS Critic to Leave Accounting Firm Regulator [CFO]
Depantsing Day for the SEC
In the biggest shocker of the day, the inspector general of the SEC reports that the Commission never undertook a ‘thorough and competent’ investigation into Bernie Madoff’s operations.
This seems to be the official “our bad” statement by the SEC, although Chris Cox didn’t waste any time throwing worker bees under the bus, “Days after the conman’s arrest, the SEC’s then-chairman, Christopher Cox, faulted the agency’s staff for failing to act on ‘credible and specific allegations’ about the operation for at least a decade.”
More, after the jump
Harry Markopolos was soiling himself the whole time and no one bothered to listen probably because you called country club rules when you took the big chair, C-squared. Call us Monday morning QB but if some guy called us up with dirty undies screaming about the biggest fraud in history, we’re pretty sure we’d take him seriously.
Anyhoo, it’s all water near a bridge now. Schape and Co. are kicking ass and taking their sweet time naming key positions, so we’re sure that everything will be hunky-dory from here on out.
SEC Never Took ‘Competent’ Look at Madoff’s Firm, Report Finds [Bloomberg]
UPDATE: Check out more of the SEC sucking over at our sister site, Dealbreaker.
The Day the Audits Died
I will refrain from expressing my opinions on the PCAOB and do my best to keep this neutral, I swear.
Accounting Onion pointed out in 2007 that “more than half of the PCAOB’s inspection resources (> $65 million) are protecting the public against the equivalent of a flea bite on the hindquarters of a bull (market),” meaning a bunch of overpaid auditors are inspecting 1% of public company revenue. 1%! What do we need them for?
More, after the jump
And it gets worse. The PCAOB and SEC have decided as of August 13, 2009 that auditors need a whole lot more on their plates including but not limited to increased disclosures for:
• An audit firm withdrawing an audit report
• Any time a firm’s name is used in an unauthorized manner by an issuer without the firm’s consent
• Any time new hires are brought into the firm with a history of disciplinary sanctions
• Anytime professional licenses are revoked, suspended, or subject to conditions or sanctions.
The last one is my personal favorite. Watch your Ps and Qs out there kids, they’re coming for you.
Let’s hope State Boards of Accountancy aren’t as broke as the states they belong to (this means you, California BoA, with your 3 furlough Fridays a month and ELEVEN WEEK WAITING TIME to process CPA exam applications!) otherwise there might be monetary incentive for state licensure authorities to put more bad accountants in the back of their monthly pub just so firms can avoid as many of these reports as possible.
As of October 12, 2009, firms will be required to make these reports to the PCAOB, who will then disseminate the information to the unwashed masses as it sees fit.
The same PCAOB of which Skeptical CPA speaks so highly on June 4, 2009:
Another PCAOB triumph. Does the PCAOB think say KPMG is unaware of problems at Citigroup? Or is the PCAOB aware that it is? How can anyone take the SEC and PCAOB seriously? Is Spokane more fraud plagued than Wall Street? Or just less well connected? Now if Goldman Sachs moved its offices to Spokane …
Check out the article for the backstory.
The SEC is having trouble seducing accountants to its team because of the competitiveness of PCAOB salaries. So what, let them get the scraps? You hear that, soon-to-be-grads? Why are you at Meet the Firms when you could be off getting wined and dined by the PCAOB? Sounds like fun, right?
The Maryland Association of CPAs’ CPA Success made the new reporting requirements sound much tamer, as if it were just a polite, albeit groundbreaking request from the PCAOB.
Perhaps it is a benign request. But this appears to be a PCAOB power grab to me, not to mention a costly one.
Just my $0.02. Do I have to report that to the PCAOB?
Two Obscure Firms Get Together to Form a Slightly Larger Obscure Firm
Call us snobs for being ignorant about regional firms but until our New Firm Name Challenge, we’d never heard of J.H. Cohn and we’ve definitely never heard of Charles Brucia.
Regardless, the two firms are copulating to form a new firm but there won’t be a new name, which is pretty boring. According to Web CPA, “The firm will operate as Charles Brucia & Co., a division of J.H. Cohn.” Vomit.
This current get together follows JHC’s mergers with Frederic Kantor last summer and Good Swartz Brown & Berns last spring.
So at this pace of mergers, we’re predicting JHC will start throwing around “Global 6 Accounting Organization” somewhere around the 24th and one half Century.
J.H. Cohn Combines with Charles Brucia [Web CPA]