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Accounting News Roundup: Auditor Naming Skirmish; Tesco’s Bad Accounting; Temple’s CPA Dash | 09.22.14

Regulators, Accounting Firms Bicker Over Audit Rule [WSJ]
The PCAOB wants audit partner names in the 10-K. Auditors want those names in Form 2. Neither wants to budge: "To those outside the accounting industry, the debate may sound like splitting hairs. But the location makes a big difference, say experts on both sides of the issue. Investor advocates say the company's annual report is the simplest and most prominent place to disclose the partner's name to investors. Other alternatives like the Form 2 aren't as well known, would make it more difficult for investors to find the name and would result in delayed disclosure, these advocates add."

Tax-Evasion Crackdown Has ‘Intense’ Impact on Expats, Survey Finds [Total Return/WSJ]
Expats say, “their financial accounts are being closed, their relationships with their non-American spouses are under strain, some Americans are being denied promotions or partnership in business . . . and some are planning or contemplating renouncing their U.S. citizenship,” according to a report from Democrats Abroad.

Tesco cuts profit outlook again and suspends staff after accounting error [Reuters]
Echoing a thought from John Hempton: it's odd that a grocery store would have an overstatement due to "the accelerated recognition of commercial income and delayed accrual of costs." 

Getting her 2014 performance review, perhaps?

Is It a Bad Sign When Management Looks Manly? [Money Beat/WSJ]
A study discovered this: "Yuping Jia at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, with Laurence van Lent and Yachang Zeng at Tilburg University, collected pictures of 1,136 male chief executives at companies in the S&P 1500, and used a facial-structure metric to gauge how masculine each one’s face was. Tracing employment histories from 1996 to 2010, they found the risk of financial misreporting was substantially higher for executives with more masculine faces. Greater facial masculinity was also associated with more enforcement actions, and higher incidences of insider trading and stock-option backdating."

Temple business majors to network on the run [AT]
The school's Accounting Professional Society will have a "CPA Dash" that includes: "
a short run, accounting problem-solving, as well as competitive tie-tying."

Montco accountant gets 40 months in prison for role in Philly mob boss's fraud scheme [PBJ]
And give up his PA CPA.

Lynnwood accountant gets 41-month jail term for stealing from relatives [PSBJ]
And you thought your family was bad.

French farmers torch tax office in Brittany protest [BBC]
And that's not all! "The farmers used tractors and trailers to dump artichokes, cauliflowers and manure in the streets and also smashed windows, police said."

Posted in ANR