• Moore’s ‘Capitalism: a Love Story’ to Debut in Venice – We thought it might debut at 85 Broad but whatevs. [Bloomberg]
• In downturn, robots laid off – Statistics also show that robot suicides and chemical dependency is up. [Miami Herald]
• Madoff gives feeder fund managers’ names to lawyer – Something about spending 150 years in prison makes a man want to talk. [Reuters]
• Cablevision to spin off Madison Square assets: report – In other news, Penn Station will remain a toilet. [Reuters]
• Air Canada Gets Bailout From Ottawa – “Air Canada has secured a 1 billion Canadian dollar ($922 million) lifeline with help from the federal government, giving the carrier a crucial infusion of cash to help it survive the recession and avoid another trip through bankruptcy protection, The Globe and Mail reported.” It’s the North American way. [DealBook]
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…
PwC Tells Remote Tax Staff to Get Their Butts Into the Office
So much for PwC letting all their people work remotely forever. Remember when that got headlines five years ago? See: PwC Just Announced That You Never Have To Go Back…
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…
In a Final Rule, Dept of Education Is Unswayed By the AICPA’s Strongly Worded Letters About the Meaning of Words
In the final ruling of a game of semantics that really chapped the AICPA's ass, accounting has not earned a place on the Department of Education list of "professional" degrees.…
Plante Moran Goes South of the Border to Acquire a Firm in Mexico
Shoutout to the person who sent us a link to this, might have slipped past the ol' radar otherwise: Plante Moran bought itself a 500-person Mexican firm called JA Del…
Layoff Watch ’26: RSM Trims Down in Audit
Seeing a couple Reddit posts about a wave of "Business Update" meetings being forced on people's calendars at RSM yesterday. As we all know, "business update" is code for "you're…
SEC Says “What If We Just… Didn’t” on Quarterly Reporting
So that thing that started with a Trump shower thought last fall and that WSJ said would be happening imminently is, in fact, now happening. Catch yourself up on earlier…
Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Claude Starts a Turf War With Consulting; An Article About How Much Big 4 Sucks | 5.4.26
Good morning! Not a fan of Star Wars so I won't be making any May 4th puns today, sorry. In this news briefAnthropic Aggressively Elbows In on Consulting's TurfThat's a…
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…
KPMG Brings Cheating Into the AI Age By Using AI to Cheat on AI Exams
The image is upside down because Australia. This story sounds like a joke but we assure you it is not. KPMG Australia has expanded KPMG's storied cheating repertoire by being…
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…
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In a Final Rule, Dept of Education Is Unswayed By the AICPA’s Strongly Worded Letters About the Meaning of Words
The end of the ‘Always Available’ professional
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…
Sometimes, Adultery Happens…and Maybe a Little Insider Trading
Sometimes when two married people decide to get down to some adulterous activity, bad things can happen. Divorce, confused kids, awkward dinner parties. Most people probably don’t count on getting involved with serious insider trading allegations.
Steamy details after the jump
Eventually the two settled into a comfortable day-to-day routine in their respective offices in New York and Philadelphia, staring at the same Yahoo Finance screen. Mr. Gansman led Ms. Murdoch in a guessing game about which deals he was working on, she said.
Lady Hard Up For Cash Whores Self Out For Hot Tips, Help With Subprime Mortgage [DB]
Review Comments | 07.29.09
• Trustee Sues Ruth Madoff for More Than $44 Million – You knew it was coming Ruth. Forget living in Manhattan. [WSJ]
• Fed Says Most Districts Report Slower Pace Decline – TRANSLATION: Things suck less than previously [Bloomberg]
• No More Bank Deals for Wilbur Ross? – WTG SheBair [DealBook]
• Obama expects GM, Chrysler to repay loans – Don’t hold your breath BO [Reuters]
• FASB Chief to speak on fair value – SNOOZE [Accountancy Age]
• Lights Go Out in New Delhi as Billionaire Ambani Brothers Feud – Two feuding billionaires, living with their Mom. The house is probably large enough to house every Indian citizen but still…AWESOME. [Bloomberg]
When $11.99 at Taco Bell Can Cost You $300
Now that American consumers have maxed out their credit cards, they’re trying to pay for everything in cash or using their debit cards. Noble attempt but if they buy something when their account is zero, the dreaded overdrafts fees are bleeding them out. IT’S NOT FAIR!
It’s becoming apparent that banks will be vilified for anything that results in revenue. And who comes to the rescue when banks are wronging the American people? Congress, obv.
That’s right, thank God we’ve got lawmakers working for the people because right now the banks are “walking across the battlefield and shooting the wounded”, which, we have to admit, is a pretty awesome analogy.
Yes, banks are charging fees for too many things that shouldn’t be allowed. Consumers need to be able keep to spending long after their accounts are at zero. How hell else can this economy get rolling again if Americans aren’t spending?
Nevermind that 3,000 banks may collapse if legislation passes that would limit overdraft charges. And forget about setting up automatic transfers from savings, THERE ARE NO SAVINGS. Help us, Congress. PLEASE.
Overdraft Debit Fees Treat Customer to $300 Fast-Food Charge [Bloomberg]
AICPA Report: Accounting is Still Sexy on Campus
Accounting is still a hot degree according to the latest report from the AICPA. For the 2007-2008 school year, 66,000 bachelor’s and master’s degrees were awarded, a 3.5% increase from the previous school year.
Enrollments were also up, to 213,000 students in undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs, a 4.7% increase.
One thought we have is that this trend can’t possibly continue forever. We talked to one campus recruiter for a Big 4 firm and they said that while the trend of graduates and enrollment will eventually slow down, the number of students at on-campus events is not getting smaller. “Lots of finance majors have seen the banking sector implode and rather than become biology majors, they jump into accounting because it’s an easy transition.”
More after the jump
While the need for accountants is obvious, we’re wondering if these students know what they’re getting themselves into. What would be interesting is to know how many of them end up leaving the industry after a few years and do something entirely different (like become a D-list blogger).
What continues to impress us, however, is how the Big 4 and the larger regional firms are able to make accounting so glamorous. The students are drooling at these recruiting events, mostly for beer, but they’re drooling nonetheless. The competition for the top talent is fierce and the firms pull out all the stops to get that talent. It also doesn’t hurt that most campus recruiting professionals are dead sexy but whoever heard of someone taking a job for shallow reasons?
Accounting Degrees Continue Historic Upward Trend, According to AICPA Report [AICPA Press Release]
2009 Trends in the Supply of Accounting Graduates and the Demand for Public Accounting Recruits [AICPA.org]
Trying to Care About the UBS and IRS Debacle is Getting Difficult
The whole IRS/UBS tango has gotten to the point where we’ll take any kind of resolution.
Like if the IRS decided that it was too much trouble and said, “We don’t need no stinking names”, we’d be thrilled. Or if UBS decided to hand over a truckload of Toblerones in order to bury the hatchet we’d think, “that was our idea” .
But no, the standoff continues, as the parties confirmed Friday’s meeting today to discuss the progress they’ve made in reaching a settlement. Regardless if a settlement is announced on Friday or the stalemate continues and the case starts on Monday the sooner this thing is over, the better.
UBS, IRS to Meet on Friday [WSJ]
Does The Times (UK Edition) Have a Hot Crush on PwC?
The Times Online put out its “Top 100 Graduate Employers” list today and P. Dubya tops this list for the fifth year in a row. We congratulate P. Dubs on this momentous achievement but can’t help but wonder about such a dominating performance by a Big 4 firm.
More details, after the jump
The first thing we notice on the list is that the TOP THREE (PwC, Deloitte, KPMG) are Big 4 firms. These four came in the exact same order on last year’s list. The red-headed step child of the Big 4 is apparently E&Y who comes in at #11.
Accenture came in at #4 and Goldman Sachs sneaks in at #10 but JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, IBM, and Google all fall outside the top 20. Other notables include McKinsey & Company at #48 and Grant Thornton at #97 (that’s eight spots behind the Transport of London, btw).
So what we’re wondering is how the Big 4 can dominate this list while in States they seem to be all over the map (highest on Fortune’s list was E&Y at #51) . Are the firms in the UK allowing employees to crush three or four pints at lunch and thus making work infinitely more tolerable?
UK readers, let us know why you’ve seemingly got it so good across the pond. As for my fellow Americans, what do you think is going on over there that we’re all missing out on? We’ve never seen The Queen in her damned undies, so maybe that’s it? Anyone done any rotations and have first hand knowledge of the awesomeness that is the Big 4 life in the UK? We’re thinking there’s got to be some reasons…
The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers [List]
Top 100 graduate employers: No 1 – PricewaterhouseCoopers [Times Online]
UAL Dumps Deloitte for Ernst & Young
Deloitte has gotten dumped by UAL, the parent company of United Airlines, for E&Y. The change will be effective after D-Period finishes the 2009 fiscal year-end audit engagement. This continues the trend of heartbreak for Deloitte, who was kicked to the curb by Heelys over fees.
UAL claims that it doesn’t have any disagreements with Deloitte which we don’t really believe. They have to disagree on something. White Sox vs. Cubs fans at the very least.
More after the jump
Also, changing your auditor isn’t like changing your underwear (well, it might be hard for some). We’ve got the feeling some top brass at UAL were sick of shacking up with Deloitte. However, the article also states that UAL cited the mandatory rotation of the lead partner, “firms often choose to seek bids for audit work in anticipation of that rotation.” Okay, going out to bid to tease the other firms is one thing but actually opting for a change is quite another.
We’re guessing there’s more to this story, so if you’ve got some inside dirt on this latest break up, let us know at tips@goingconcern.com.
UAL hires E&Y to replace Deloitte as accountant [Reuters]
Brazilian Soccer Star Romario Proves that Hating Taxes is a World-Wide Institution
In another demonstration that the rich and famous either hate taxes or simply play dumb to their existence, Brazilian soccer star Romario has been convicted of tax evasion and faces three and a half years in prison. He’s appealing the conviction so it’s likely that he will end up coaching soccer to troubled youth for five years.
The allegations were that he skipped on paying $500,000 in taxes in 1996 and 1997. Romario’s attorney claims he is innocent because “it’s not his fault” which is a similar excuse that might be used by a third grader who tripped someone at recess.
According to USA Today, Romario also has trouble paying child support having been arrested for it twice, once in 2004 and just a few weeks ago. He was released in both instances after paying what he owed or proving that he had already paid.
Can somebody get this guy an accountant? He’s having a hell of a time with non-soccer responsibilities.
Scoping | 07.29.09
• Bernie Madoff gloats from prison: I can’t believe I got away with Ponzi scheme for so long – That explains the smirking. [NYDN]
• Microsoft and Yahoo Reach Deal on Search Partnership – Thank God. We thought we’d never see the end of this awkward flirting [New York Times]
• EU examines Latvia bank bail-out – They’re likely to discover some questionable collateral at the very least. [BBC]
• Bank of America May Trim Branches as Customers Use Web, Phones – Personal banking on the web. What a concept. Real reactionary, Charlotte. [Bloomberg]
• KKR Plans a Dollar General IPO – Cheap stuff + Bad Economy = Big Money [WSJ]
Review Comments | 07.28.09
• Phibro mum after White House slams reported $100 million payday – “Phibro LLC, the energy trading arm of beleaguered bank Citigroup, was mum Tuesday after the White House criticized a reported $100 million pay plan for its top trader Andrew Hall as ‘out of whack.'” [Reuters]
• Sprint-Nextel to acquire Virgin Mobile USA – “Sprint Nextel, the third-largest US mobile network operator, unveiled a $420m deal on Tuesday to acquire Virgin Mobile USA, the wireless phone company in which Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is the largest shareholder.” [FT.com]
• House Panel Approves New Rules on Executive Pay – “Marking an important victory for the White House, a congressional committee approved on Tuesday legislation closely resembling the Obama administration’s proposal that attempts to impose new restraints on executive pay.” [New York Times]
• Baldness Not a Requirement for Working at Goldman Sachs [Daily Intel]
• Backdating Returns to the Spotlight – “The IRS released new tax guidance this month related to so-called backdated stock options. But discounted options are still not considered ‘qualified performance based compensation.'” [CFO.com]
SEC Doesn’t Care Who it Has to Hurt to Get Respect Again
After everything the SEC has been through, you might expect some government bureaucracies to wither and die at the hands of some irate congressional committee (ahem, Financial Services).
Not the Commission. No, the SEC has HAD IT with everybody’s Monday morning quarterbacking and is going to start kicking ass and taking names.
And they’re going to start by aggressively interpreting the clawback provisions in Sarbanes Oxley. Sounds incredibly snoozerific, we realize, but in the past the Commission has only gone after the bonuses of the actual scofflaws.
The new SEC has decided that it’s going to try and clawback the bonuses and performance-based pay back from those who knew squat about the fraud and just cashed checks.
Last week, the regulator asked a court to order the return of $4m (€2.82m, £2.43m) paid to Maynard Jenkins, former chief executive of CSK Auto, whose profits were allegedly inflated by accounting fraud committed by others: Mr Jenkins was not involved.
We especially feel bad for the guy being made to be an example at the hands of the SEC. The House of Schape/Cox has been the joke of the establishment for months so the Commission figures that if it has to make a few people miserable while they crawl their way back to semi-respectability, it’s a small price to pay.
‘Clawback’ marks tougher SEC stance [FT.com]