Fresh Budget Fights Brewing [WSJ]The completion of a tax deal between the White House and Congress sent stocks soaring Wednesday, but the sense of relief belied the fact that more tax-and-spending brinkmanship is expected as soon as February. […] There was muted satisfaction that Congress had sent to President Barack Obama legislation to avoid sudden […]

Olympus Books $9.7 Million Loss [WSJ]Olympus Corp. said Monday that it booked a net loss of ¥756 million ($9.7 million) for the fiscal third quarter, while predicting a full-year net loss of ¥32 billion. The third-quarter net loss for the three months ended December by the Japanese maker of cameras and medical equipment, which is trying […]

H&R Block selling RSM for $610 million [MW]
H&R Block Inc. said on Tuesday that it is selling its RSM McGladrey unit to McGladrey & Pullen, LLP for $610 million. The firm said the deal will result in a $53 million, or 17 cents a share, after tax charge to s expected to close by the end of the year.

Tax Break for Clergy Questioned [WSJ]
As Congress scrutinizes every nook and cranny of the budget for possible revenue, a surprising court decision is allowing clergy members to buy or live in multiple homes tax-free. The U.S. Tax Court ruled that Phil Driscoll, an ordained minister and Grammy Award-winning trumpeter who went to prison for tax evasion, didn’t owe federal income taxes on $408,638 provided to him by his ministry to buy a second home on a lake near Cleveland, Tenn. Under a provision of the tax code known as the parsonage allowance, first passed in 1921, an ordained clergy member may live tax-free in a home owned by his or her religious organization or receive a tax-free annual payment to buy or rent a home if the congregation approves.

Obama Talks to Buffett About Economy [Bloomberg]
“The president and Mr. Buffett discussed the overall outlook on the economy and the reaction to the headwinds we’ve experienced over the last couple of months,” said Josh Earnest, an administration spokesman. “They talked a little bit about some possible measures that would spur investment and increase economic growth and they also talked about some measures that could address the long-term fiscal situation in this country.”

Mandatory Auditor Rotation: If PCAOB Sanctions Were “Case-By-Case” [Re:Balance]
JP: ” [I]f the PCAOB can sustain its proof that long audit tenure was causally related to its definition of “audit failure,” it could include rotation in its toolkit of post-inspection sanctions.”

Hate Your Job? It May Run In the Family [WSJ]
Sayeth a new study.

Sharma to step down as S&P president [FT]
Deven Sharma is stepping down as president of Standard & Poor’s only weeks after the rating agency issued an unprecedented downgrade of the credit of the US, the company said. Mr Sharma will remain as an adviser to S&P’s owner, McGraw-Hill, for four months and leave the company at the end of the year. He will be replaced as S&P president by Douglas Peterson, chief operating officer of Citibank, the banking unit of Citigroup.

Satyam Gets $463.3 Million Tax Notice [WSJ]
India’s Satyam Computer Services Ltd. Monday said it has received a preliminary draft notice from local authorities for a tax claim of 21.13 billion rupees ($463.3 million) disallowing the exemptions claimed by the company and dealing a setback to its attempt to recover from a fraud in 2009.

Is the Chinese Listing Bubble Going Bust? [CFO Journal]
Suddenly the boom in Chinese listings on U.S. exchanges is looking shaky, and two primary reasons were reinforced in separate developments today. On Wall Street, Renren, dubbed the Chinese Facebook, tanked after its shares debuted at a stratospheric multiple on Wednesday, calling into question the appetite for future Chinese IPOs. Meanwhile, at a New York City financial conference, SEC officials were nearly elbowing each other out of the way to express their concerns about reverse mergers that are allowing Chinese firms to back door their way into U.S. markets.

U.S. Economy Adds 244,000 at 9.0% [NYT]
The United States economy added 244,000 jobs in April after a gain of a revised 221,000 jobs in March, the Department of Labor said on Friday, as the unemployment rate rose to 9 percent in April from 8.8 percent in March.

The Grand Illusion: PwC Settles Satyam U.S. Class Action Claims [Forbes]
Oh boy, “The SEC and the PCAOB would not confirm that their enforcement actions regarding the Satyam audit were finished.”

BDO USA Settles Bankest Suit With Former Client Banco Espirito Santo [Bloomberg]
BDO’s statement emailed to Bloomberg: “BDO USA LLP has entered into confidential settlement agreements with Banco Espirito Santo and Barry Mukamal, the bankruptcy trustee of E.S. Bankest LC, pursuant to which the lawsuits against BDO have been resolved,” sounds a lot like what we published yesterday.

The Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles is the focus of an IRS investigation into tax evasion [LAT]
Sources familiar with the investigation said the criminal division of the IRS is looking into whether nonprofit funds were used for the personal enrichment of the Berg family, which has controlled the Kabbalah Centre for more than four decades, a period in which it expanded from one school of a little-known strain of Judaism to a global brand with A-list followers like Ashton Kutcher and Gwyneth Paltrow and assets that may top $260 million.

New PCAOB Chairman Pushes for Audit Overhaul [AT]
“I do not believe that the global audit firm networks themselves pose a systemic risk to our economy,” said Doty. “Initiatives to shrink the global audit firms would likely weaken their ability to audit large, multinational companies that may be systemically important.” He said governments should instead focus on regulation. “To protect investors, governments should regulate such firms, not cripple them,” said Doty. “There’s no reason to think that if there were more major firms, they would be more likely to stand up to their clients.”

U.S. auditor watchdog hopeful of access to China [Reuters]
U.S. audit watchdogs are hopeful of ending a stalemate that has blocked inspections of auditors in China, the head of the audit oversight agency said on Thursday. With more Chinese companies raising capital in the U.S. markets, “I believe Chinese authorities understand they have a real interest in solving our impasse,” James Doty, chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said.

GE Posts Fourth Straight Profit Rise as Industrial Orders Gain [Bloomberg]
General Electric Co. (GE) posted a fourth straight quarter of profit growth, beating analysts’ estimates, as equipment orders increased, and boosted the dividend for the third time since July. First-quarter profit from continuing operations rose 58 percent to $3.58 billion, or 33 cents, excluding pension results, up from $2.26 billion, or 20 cents, a year earlier, GE said. That exceeded the average estimate of 28 cents a share from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Regulators Serve Up Alphabet Soup [WSJ]
The financial overhaul of the 1930s first brought in a slew of acronyms now part of today’s financial fabric—FDIC, SEC, FHLB and FHA. But the acronyms created by the recent Dodd-Frank Act means anyone hoping to understand the biggest financial overhaul in almost 80 years will need a language tutor.

Wells’ Stumpf Mum on CFO Departure [TSC]
Wells Fargo […] CEO John Stumpf wouldn’t answer questions Wednesday on the departure of Howard Atkins, the bank’s former financial chief, preferring instead to focus on the bank’s dividend and buyback. “That is so yesterday. We have a terrific CFO; we are going forward and we are looking to the future,” said Stumpf in the bank’s conference call Wednesday.

Treasury pays IRS a backhanded compliment on its tax-season performance [WaPo]
“On the one hand, the IRS is to be commended for its sharpened focus on fraud interception and prevention,” said Inspector General J. Russell George. “On the other, its efforts to prevent improper credits still leave much to be desired, and customer service problems continue.”

Supreme Court cancels bail to former Satyam auditors [NDTV]
The Supreme Court has cancelled the bails granted to PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Subramani Gopalakrishnan and Satyam’s internal auditor V. S. Prabhakar Gupta, directing them to surrender by April 30. A bench comprising Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice B. S. Chauhan cancelled their bail and directed them to surrender within this period, failing which, the central investigative agency will take steps to arrest them.

Calif. court freezes assets of TV’s ‘tax lady’ [AP]
A California court froze the assets and appointed a receiver Wednesday to run the business operated by Roni Deutch, a nationally known tax lawyer who gained a measure of fame on late-night television commercials. Sacramento Superior Court Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne Chang ordered Deutch to appear in court June 10 for a hearing to decide if she should be fined and jailed for criminal contempt of court. She acted after the California attorney general said Deutch shredded documents and failed to promptly repay her clients in violation of a court order.

FASB, IASB Want Feedback on Convergence Burden, Timeline [JofA]
FASB and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) posted a survey online to collect views from users about the time and effort that will be involved in adopting several new standards and when those standards should be effective. The boards are seeking further input on these issues because, they said in a press release, a request for comments in a document released last October drew a “limited number of responses” from users and, for FASB, private entities.

Obama Presses for Budget [WSJ]
President Barack Obama emerged from a late-night meeting Wednesday with House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid saying the two parties had moved closer to a spending agreement to avoid a government shutdown Friday, but no deal had been struck. “What [the talks] did was narrow the issues and clarify the issues that are still outstanding,” Mr. Obama said. He was confident a deal could be reached to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year, he said, but “it’s going to require a sufficient sense of urgency from all parties involved.”

IRS Commissioner See Tax Filing Process [Bloomberg]
U.S. Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman outlined a “vision for a more real-time tax system” that would reduce the need for audits after returns are filed. Shulman said the IRS should receive all paperwork such as W-2 and 1099 forms before individuals file their returns. That would allow the agency to flag potential problems before it processes tax returns, instead of sending out refund checks and then starting audits.

Mayor Drops Accident Tax After Criticism [WSJ]
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided to drop his administration’s controversial plan to charge motorists involved in accidents for emergency-response services, a coup for City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. A Bloomberg administration official confirmed Wednesday afternoon that the mayor withdrew the proposal in the wake of opposition from Ms. Quinn. “The speaker made a strong case against it,” the official said.

Warren ‘Do-Right’ Buffett Gives Errant Kiss [Bloomberg]
[W]e can admire his talent for securities analysis, and his success at building an empire and making himself and lots of other investors rich. But let’s put to rest the exaltations about his plain talk and his eye for strong character. He’s a corporate chief executive officer, for goodness sake. These are the kinds of dodges we’ve come to expect from many CEOs. Buffett, whose record of reputational hits is long and varied, is no exception.

Price Waterhouse India Settles With Regulators But Satyam Saga Not Over [Forbes]
Settlements with Price Waterhouse (PW) India, the US-registered audit firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and Satyam, the Indian outsourcing company that blew up in a dramatically public and fraudulent fashion in early 2009, will probably provide significant ammunition to private lawsuits still pending in New York and court hearings in India.

Eliminating opportunities for fraud in companies [Fraud Files]
Fraud prevention policies and procedures sometimes have a tendency to focus on the smaller thefts. While those types of defalcations occur most often, they are not the most expensive. The financial statement frauds are the most devastating monetarily, and therefore must be fought aggressively.

Uncle Sam pummels boxing great Roy Jones Jr. [Tax Watchdog]
Boxers seem to only trail hip-hop artists in tax compliance futility.

Who Benefits From Those Tax Breaks? All of Us. [TaxVox]
“We have met the enemy and he is us,” said the cartoonist Walt Kelly. He was talking about preserving the environment, but he could have been describing our national addiction to tax credits, deductions, and exclusions.

Satyam Expedites Legal Settlements [WSJ]
The new management at India’s Satyam Computer Services Ltd. wants to overcome all of the legal hurdles facing the fraud-hit company as fast as possible – even if it means shelling out a few bucks – so it can get back on the U.S. exchanges. Late Tuesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Satyam has agreed to pay $10 million to the regulator to settle charges that the software exporter engaged “in a massive accounting fraud.”

Two guilty pleas in NJ in $880 mln Ponzi scheme [Reuters]
Roberto Torres, 76, and his son Alejandro, 39, a former Capitol accountant, each admitted to one count of securities fraud on Monday before U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton in Newark, New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said. The pleas follow the guilty plea last Sept. 15 by Nevin Shapiro, Capitol’s chief executive and a Miami Beach, Florida resident, to securities fraud and money laundering counts. Prosecutors said each defendant admitted that more than 50 investors lost between $50 million and $100 million in the scheme, which ran from January 2005 to November 2009 and helped Shapiro repay earlier investors and fund a lavish lifestyle.

Dish Network Wins Auction for Blockbuster [DealBook]
After a bankruptcy auction that extended into the early hours on Wednesday, Dish Network announced that it had emerged as the winner of Blockbuster’s assets, with a bid valued at $320 million. Dish, the satellite television company, is set to pay roughly $228 million in cash, after accounting for certain adjustments. And the deal is expected to be completed in the second quarter.

Would You Let Your Employer Track You? [FINS]
When asked if they would accept a “dream job” if it required GPS tracking via Blackberry, 52% of 545 respondents said “yes” in the FINS.com online question forum Sign or Decline. But when asked if they would accept the job if the tracking was done via a microchip implant, only one in five respondents said yes.

Why People Pay Income Taxes [Economix/NYT]
Mostly because people are honest…yes.

White House Releases New Tax Calculator [Tax Foundation]
Don’t worry, it doesn’t appear Joe Biden had anything to do with it.

IRS: Japan Earthquake-Tsunami Constitute ‘Qualified Disaster’ for Tax Purposes [TaxProf Blog]
If it was anyone other than the IRS, we’d think that this determination took a little longer than necessary.

Grant Thornton names new managing partner for Wisconsin [MJS]
Grant Thornton LLP said Tuesday that Jeff Robinson has been appointed office managing partner for the firm’s Wisconsin practice. Robinson replaces Melissa Koeppel, who will move into a national role, working directly with Grant Thornton’s chief operations officer on strategic projects.

• PwC auditor Srinivas gets bail in Satyam case [The Economic Times]
According the Economic Times, the Supreme Court in India “said since the case was based on documents, all of which has already been seized by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), it would be of no use to keep the accused in jail, where he had been lodged since his arrest in January 24 last year.” They also report that the “chargesheet [runs] over 55,000 pages” which seems like a good enough reason to just forget this whole thing.

Seriously, they were just able to come to the conclusion that he didn’t need to be in jail because the documents were TLDR? What army of accountants is on this thing? Will this never end?

• Ex-Broadcom Officials off SEC Hook [WSJ]
Despite all the horn tooting the SEC has been doing, they still manage to mess things up pretty regularly. After criminal charges were dropped against Broadcom executives due to “evidence in the criminal case showed prosecutors tried to influence the testimony of three key witnesses, improperly contacted witnesses’ attorneys and leaked information about grand jury proceedings to the media,” the civil charges have been subsequently dropped.

The Broadcom case if you recall, involved a back-dating scandal but far more interesting were the allegations that Broadcom co-founder William Nicolas III was “conspiring to distribute illegal drugs, including methamphetamine and cocaine,” and providing prosties to clients in underground quarters built specifically for said purposes.

But now Nicolas is sober and it’s all been thrown out and the SEC once again looks like idiots. Sobriety and an incompetent SEC makes for a feel good story.

• PCAOB Launches a Redesigned Web Site [PCAOB Press Release]
It was official yesterday although the new look seems to have been up all week. Acting Chair Dan Goelzer managed to wake from his nap to throw in his boilerplate statement, although by the looks of the guy, were not sure he knows how to use email let alone give an opinion on the website: “The redesigned Web site enhances the PCAOB’s transparency efforts by making registration, inspection, standard setting and enforcement information more accessible and user-friendly to the investors, auditors and other interested parties who use our site.”

In other news, it appears that despite the decent salary no one wants to be the non-acting Chairman. Not that it’s an important position or anything.

Depreciation’s Place in Tax Policy [Economix/NYT]Bruce Bartlett has everything you need to know about the history of depreciation and how it became the eighth-largest tax expenditure in the IRC.   Lessons From ‘Simpler Taxes for America’ Tour [WSJ]As Max & Dave wind up their tour, a couple of major questions that have not been answered remain: […]

KPMG FY 2012 Revenue Up 4.4% to Record $23 Billion [WSJ, Earlier]In the year ended Sept. 30, KPMG saw its revenue rise 4.4% in local currency terms, or 1.4% in U.S. dollars. KPMG's annual revenue grew fastest–by at least 20%–in markets including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, India and Turkey, while Africa and Indonesia saw revenue growth […]

PwC India dressed up books to show profits [ET]Serious violations of accounting principles as well as major financial irregularities have been detected in several entities of PricewaterhouseCoopers India (PwC India), which would seem to indicate that the company has been wrongfully dressing up its own books and those of its network audit firms in order […]

KPMG Quits as China Forestry Auditor, Deepening Concerns About Accounting [Bloomberg]China Forestry Holdings Co. (930), the Chinese timber company whose shares have been suspended since January last year because of accounting irregularities, said its auditor KPMG LLC resigned citing valuation concerns. China Forestry needs to verify the ownership and valuation of its plantations and log inventories, […]

Corzine: 'I Simply Do Not Know Where The Money Is' [WSJ]Much of the day's testimony is likely to focus on a significant shortfall in customer funds at MF Global. As Mr. Corzine scrambled to stabilize the firm in its last days, it was discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars were missing in customer accounts. The trustee […]

Studies Fuel Dueling Views on U.S. Corporate Taxes [WSJ]
While Congress duels over whether U.S. companies should pay more in taxes, a pair of reports provided fodder for each side of the debate this week.

Sherron Watkins and Harvey Pitt on SEC’s Whistleblower Rules [CFO Journal]
Pitt said that paying up to 20% of penalties collected for a securities-law violation to the person who provided the information that led to the case would “undermine corporate governance.” Employees seeking “lottery-like” returns will inundate the SEC with marginal claims, he warned. “There will be two gems within those 10,000 or 20,000 complaints but whether the SEC will be able to pick those two out is a different question.”

Satyam case: HC rejects auditors plea on disciplinary action [Business Standard]
PricewaterhouseCoopers auditors, Subramani Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri, accused in the Rs 14,000-crore Satyam accounting fraud, today received a jolt as the Delhi High Court today rejected their pleas against the disciplinary proceedings initiated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). A Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna dismissed the petitions filed by the two auditors, who had sought a stay on disciplinary proceedings initiated by the ICAI for their alleged involvement in the Satyam accounting fraud.

Navistar Sues Deloitte Proving No Statute of Limitations On Idiocy [Forbes]
Nearly one hundred years together. Down the drain.

‘Tax Lady’ Roni Deutch faces tax lien of nearly $183,000 [Modesto Bee]
Tax attorney Roni Lynn Deutch has been slapped with a nearly $183,000 federal tax lien, according to Internal Revenue Service filings, another sign of the Tax Lady’s financial woes. Deutch, who built a $25-million-a-year tax resolution law firm promising clients relief from the IRS, was hit with a lien of $182,722, filed May 9 in Placer County Superior Court.

KPMG Executive Poll: 39% Say Anti-Corruption Laws Disadvantage Them [WSJ]
A KPMG LLP poll of 214 executives in the U.S. and the U.K. showed that only 39% believed anti-corruption laws had hurt them competitively, and fewer than 20% though enforcement of such laws was “excessive.” The survey offered a glimpse into the C-Suite as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce intensifies efforts to amend the FCPA on the grounds that aggressive enforcement has held back U.S. business.

Cellphone Cancer Warning [WSJ]
Using a cellphone may increase the risk of a certain type of brain cancer, an international panel of experts said Tuesday, adding to a growing debate about whether a now nearly ubiquitous form of communication poses health risks. The experts said cellphone radio waves are “possibly carcinogenic,” classifying them in the same risk category as lead, chloroform and coffee. The classification from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer could lead the United Nations health body to look again at its mobile-phone guidelines, the scientists said.

Microsoft to Acquire Skype [WSJ]
Microsoft Corp. agreed to buy Internet phone company Skype Technologies SA for $8.5 billion in cash—the most aggressive move yet by Microsoft to play in the increasingly converged worlds of communication, information and entertainment. “Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world,” said Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer in a statement announcing the deal Tuesday. “Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world.”

Boehner Outlines Demands on Debt Limit Fight [NYT]
Speaker John A. Boehner said Monday that Republicans would insist on trillions of dollars in federal spending cuts in exchange for their support of an increase in the federal debt limit sought by the Obama administration to prevent a government default later this year.

Deloitte Makes Acquisition to Strengthen its End-to-End Analytics Portfolio of Services [Deloitte]
Deloitte today announced it has purchased substantially all of the assets of Oco, Inc., a provider of enterprise-class software as a service (SaaS) business analytics solutions.

Being Expedient: PwC Settles Satyam U.S. Class Action [Re:The Auditors]
Satyscam, we barely knew you.

11 Clues a Client is a Loser and 4 Keys to Finding a Winner [AW]
A stripped down version of risk management.

IFRS Adoption is Dead! (I Think) [The Accounting Onion]
Tom Selling is quite ready to call for time of death, “Way back in November 2008 when Christopher Cox was calling the tune, the SEC issued its proposed ‘Roadmap’ for achieving a ‘single set of globally accepted accounting standards.’ That was the point at which the ‘IFRS adoption is inevitable’ pot banging reached deafening levels. Thankfully, however, it has been mostly downhill from there.”

SEC Cracking Down on Foreign Shell Cos. [CFO]
While the Securities and Exchange Commission has recently stepped up its enforcement efforts against allegedly fraudulent U.S. shell companies in greater China, those efforts aren’t limited to that region, according to James Kroeker, the SEC’s chief accountant.

Madoff Trustee, Fairfield Liquidators Join Forces [WSJ]
The trustee for investors hurt by Bernard Madoff’s fraud reached a settlement with liquidators of the Fairfield Greenwich Group funds, the biggest feeders of money into the Ponzi scheme, in which they resolved claims against each other and agreed to jointly pursue the fund owners, including Connecticut financier Walter Noel.

Bin Laden Is Dead, President Obama Says [NYT]
Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the most devastating attack on American soil in modern times and the most hunted man in the world, was killed in a firefight with United States forces in Pakistan on Sunday, President Obama announced. In a dramatic late-night appearance in the East Room of the White House, Mr. Obama declared that “justice has been done” as he disclosed that American military and C.I.A. operatives had finally cornered Mr. bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader who had eluded them for nearly a decade, and shot him to death at a compound in Pakistan.

Satyam Investors’ U.S. Lawsuit OvPwC for $25.5 Million [Bloomberg]
Investors in Satyam Computer Services Ltd. (SCS) settled a lawsuit against PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP for $25.5 million related to its audit of the Indian firm that included a $1 billion overstatement of assets. Satyam, the software exporter embroiled in India’s biggest corporate fraud probe, reached a $125 million settlement in February in the class action in New York. Satyam agreed last month to pay $10 million to settle a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit.

The Osbournes — 357,000 More Tax Problems [TMZ]
Clearly the moral of the story is, don’t cancel meetings with your accountants.

Ohio accounting students meet fraud expert [AW]
The old cliché, “If you want to build a better hen house, ask a fox,” rang loud and clear today at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business. You’re probably familiar with Enron, WorldCom, and Madoff scandals, but do you remember the ZZZZ Best Carpet Cleaning fraud from the 1980s and the man behind it, Mark Morze? Morze was found guilty of stealing $100 million and creating more than 10,000 phony documents and several fake tax returns. None of the auditors, lawyers, and bankers who were charged with examining the books detected the fraud. This legendary tale of deception is now must-read material for accounting and business students, helping them prepare to be able to make decisions that will shape their own careers and lives.

Is Going Public Going Out of Style? [CFO]
No matter how you slice it, the number of publicly traded companies in the United States continues to fall. On the major exchanges, there were 5,091 companies, including foreign-based ones, listed at the end of February, a 2% drop from 2009 and a 42% decline from the peak of 8,823 in 1997, according to new data from Grant Thornton. Looking across all U.S. exchanges, including the over-the-counter (OTC) market, the number of U.S.-based companies has fallen more than 30% since 2000, according to Audit Analytics.

Some Closer than Others: Inside The Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting [Forbes]
Aka: Francine goes to Omaha.

Deloitte’s leader makes her case for diversity in the executive suite [Boston Globe]
With less than a month to go as chairman of Deloitte, Sharon Allen continues making the rounds.

E&Y awaits ruling on challenge to ICAI [FT]
Ernst & Young is due to learn this month if it can proceed with a legal challenge that could derail an investigation into its auditing of Anglo Irish Bank, the property lender that had to be rescued by the Irish government in 2009. The Irish arm of the global accountancy network has objected to the way that the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland has probed its work at Anglo Irish before its nationalisation.

New H&R Block CEO Cobb gets $900,000 sign-on bonus [KCBJ]
H&R Block Inc. will pay new CEO William Cobb a base annual salary of $950,000 on top of a $900,000 cash sign-on bonus, plus the potential for millions of dollars in additional compensation. Former CEO Alan Bennett will stay with H&R Block full time until July 31, then get a monthly fee of $15,000 under a one-year consulting contract, according to a Friday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. After that, he’s eligible for a one-time cash bonus to be determined by the board.

IFRS Outlook: Hurry Up and Wait [CFO]
Asked which are the most crucial accounting issues that their companies are facing in 2011, 34% of the 472 CFOs who responded to the question ranked “Convergence to IFRS,” or international financial reporting standards, as number one. Cumulatively, the respondents ranked IFRS convergence higher than any other accounting issue. Yet asked to describe their companies’ “readiness to comply with global accounting standards,” 44.2% said they hadn’t “begun to address convergence,” while 38.8% said they were preparing, “but far from ready.”

Satyam Seeks SEC Approval To Shorten Period of Earnings Restatement [Dow Jones]
Satyam Computer Services Ltd. […] which is recovering from a fraud scandal, is in talks with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to shorten the time frame for which the company would need to restate its earnings under U.S. accounting standards, its chairman said. A restatement of earnings under U.S. accounting standards would be one of the prerequisites for Satyam to be able to relist on the New York Stock Exchange.

Auditors would deflate accounting bubbles [FT]
But it is right for regulators to impose high standards on auditors, who in servicing big quoted companies benefit from what looks suspiciously like an oligopoly. Accountants who habitually let a little air out of inflated asset values could help avert future market crashes. In an old joke, a chief executive asks his slick FD what the profits figure is. “What would you like it to be?” comes the reply. Sceptical auditors would guard against that.

Auditors Abandon Investors On Liability Limits [Forbes]
The Big 4 audit firms have always been preoccupied with significant legal liability in the US. Managing these cases requires exorbitant amounts of the US firms’ time and money. Their international umbrella firms and, in many cases, members firms in other parts of the world are also burdened. It’s my estimate that Big 4 leadership spends 75% of their time on litigation matters.

American Apparel CEO held teen as sex slave: lawsuit [Reuters]
American Apparel Inc founder and chief executive Dov Charney is being sued for $250 million by a woman who said he treated her as a sex slave when she was a teenage sales employee at the clothing chain. Irene Morales of Brooklyn, New York, has accused Charney, 42, of sexual harassment, creating a hostile workplace, gender discrimination and retaliation. American Apparel and directors at the company have also been named as defendants in the lawsuit, filed in a New York state court on Friday. Morales accused them of failing to protect her, and said they knew or should have known that Charney was a “sexual predator.”

Marijuana IPOs Provide Investors With Gateway to Cannabis Boom [Bloomberg]
The legalization of medical marijuana — permitted in at least 15 states — has kicked off a booming economy in ancillary goods. Startups such as Peterson’s GrowOp Technology Ltd. and General Cannabis Inc. (CANA) compare the phenomenon to the California gold rush, when the people making the real money were the ones selling pick axes and shovels. Both companies are planning initial public offerings, part of an effort to remove the stigma from what’s seen as a multibillion-dollar industry.

GM Announces CFO Transition [PR Newswire]
General Motors Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell today announced that he will leave the company April 1, 2011, having completed the largest public offering in history and stabilizing the company’s financial operations. Liddell, 52, joined GM in January, 2010 and led the company’s financial and accounting operations on a global basis. “Chris was a major contributor during a pivotal time in the company’s history,” said Dan Akerson, GM chairman and CEO. “He guided the company’s IPO process and established a good financial foundation for the future.”

Christie to Propose Small-Business Tax Cuts [WSJ]
Less than a week after he vetoed a slew of Democratic job-creation and tax-cutting bills, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will present a budget Tuesday that includes around $200 million in tax cuts, mostly for small businesses, a source familiar with the budget said. The figure represents a small portion of Mr. Christie’s overall state budget, details of which were kept tightly under wraps. However, the move underscores Mr. Christie’s determination to be seen as a tax-cutter even amid one of the worst budget crises in years.

KPMG to Provide Broader Global Outsourcing rough Acquisition of EquaTerra [PR Newswire]
“EquaTerra is an ideal fit for KPMG and we look forward to welcoming the EquaTerra team to the KPMG network family,” said Timothy P. Flynn, Chairman, KPMG International. “Through this acquisition, clients of KPMG member firms will benefit from the addition of a market-leading sourcing adviser to help them transform their organizations into more flexible enterprises in a way that meets today’s complex market demands.”

Satyam Settles; PwC Left In Lurch [Forbes]
Yes, this story is still out there. No, this doesn’t mean it’s over.

Big Increases in Tax Prosecutions (27%), Convictions (15%) [TaxProf Blog]
You’ve been warned.

Rothstein Kass Hires Three New Tax Principals [PR Newswire]
Rothstein Kass today announced the addition of three new principals to its ranks. Moshe Biderman, an alternative investment industry expert, has boarded as a Tax Principal in the Rothstein Kass Financial Services Group, and will be based in the Roseland, New Jersey office. David Logan, well-known within the alternative investment community, has also joined the company as a Tax Principal in the Financial Services Group. He is based in the firms’ New York office. Meanwhile, Robert Siegel, a tax planning and advisory services specialist to both public and private companies, has re-joined Rothstein Kass as a Tax Principal in the Rothstein Kass Commercial Services Group. He will operate from the firm’s Roseland location.

Women Still Earning Less than Men in Finance [FINS]
According to the data, with women in financial activities earn only 71% of what men earned: women made $732 a week, compared to $1,039 a week for men.

Dynegy to Replace CEO, Board After $665 Million Icahn Bid Fails [Bloomberg]
Bruce Williamson, 51, has resigned as chairman and will step down as CEO effective March 11, Dynegy said yesterday in a statement. Patricia A. Hammick, 64, who headed a board of independent directors reviewing the Icahn bid, succeeds Williamson as chairman, the company said. Board member David Biegler, 64, will become interim CEO. Chief Financial Officer Holli Nichols, 40, also will resign as of March 11.

Travel With the Boss: The Pluses and the Chasms [NYT]
Traveling with the boss offers an array of both professional opportunities and minefields. After all, a week of meetings, meals, airport delays and taxi rides can add up to more time together than a junior employee may normally experience in a year. There are also plenty of chances to err — a less-than-stellar client presentation, a technology mishap or perhaps a suggestion to eat at a famous barbecue place when the boss is a vegan.

A 2nd I.R.S. Amnesty for Offshore Accounts [NYT]
The Internal Revenue Service said on Monday that it would soon announce a new amnesty program aimed at encouraging wealthy Americans with hidden offshore bank accounts to come forward, declare their money and pay taxes owed. An I.R.S. spokesman, Frank Keith, said that the program would be formally announced “very shortly” and would not offer terms as generous as those put forth in a similar initiative last fall. Senior tax lawyers said on Monday that the announcement would most likely come within several weeks, ahead of the 2011 tax filing season. “The government wants to encourage people not to lie on their said Robert Katzberg, a white-collar criminal defense lawyer in New York with offshore bank clients.

Finance Hiring Outlook 2011 — Most Active Sectors [FINS]
This year the finance industry will continue bouncing back from a dismal 2008 and 2009 that saw hundreds of thousands of jobs disappear from the business. Wealth management firms, commercial banks and firms that extend mezzanine financing are just some that plan to add staff. Here are the five areas projected to make the most hires.

IRS Announces Tax Refund ‘App’ for iPhone [WSJ]
The free IRS2Go phone app, which works with iPhone or Android phones, allows taxpayers to check the status of their tax refund and obtain tax tips. “As technology evolves and younger taxpayers get their information in new ways, we will keep innovating to make it easy for all taxpayers to access helpful information,” IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said in a statement Monday.

Auditors Under Pressure In The UK: Or Are They? [Re: The Auditors]
Francine McKenna breaks it down.

Healthcare Locums suspends CFO; probes accounting flaws [Reuters]
British medical staffing firm Healthcare Locums Plc (HLO.L) suspended its chief financial officer and another top executive as it investigates serious accounting irregularities at the company. “Serious accounting irregularities have been brought to the attention of the board as a result of which the company will be carrying out an immediate investigation to consider the financial implications,” Healthcare Locums said in a statement. CFO Diane Jarvis and Executive Vice Chairman Kate Bleasdale had been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, it said.

Satyam fraud not an accounting failure: ICAI [Business Standard]
The Satyam scam was not an accounting or auditing failure, but one of corporate governance, said Amarjit Chopra, president, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). Speaking on the sidelines of an international taxation conference here on Monday, Chopra said, “There were promoter shareholders, executive directors and directors, and the auditors were the last rung. On the other side, there were independent directors, one of whom was a dean of the Indian School of Business, but nobody questions the role of independent directors.” Chopra also wanted the government to look at the role played by independent directors, saying one worthwhile suggestion by them could prevent such frauds.

E&Y plans ‘dramatic’ Middle East investment, says CEO [Arabian Business]
No numbers from JT but he is quoted as saying, “We will invest what we need to have the leading practice on the ground.”

KPMG International Launches Annual Review 2010 [PR Newswire]
Available for your iPad.