Corporate Audits to Get Wider Review [CFOJ]Helen Munter, the PCAOB's director of registration and inspections has a list: "environmental risks, international tax and the estimated value of corporate investment portfolios, followed by reviews of how companies are evaluating their risk from declining oil prices and how they calculate and control for accuracy their cash flows." […]

American Realty Capital Chairman Nicholas Schorsch Resigns [WSJ]CEO David Kay and COO Lisa Beeson are stepping down, too. Prognosis? Not good: " 'It’s unprecedented to have three top executives at one of the largest REITs in the world step down on the same day,' said Kevin Gannon, a managing director at Robert A. Stanger. 'I’ve […]

SEC: Accounting Board Is Dragging Feet [WSJ]Regulatory sniping! "Three senior SEC officials publicly took issue with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board at a conference last week. They suggested the PCAOB, which lately has focused on new audit-firm disclosures, had dragged its feet on another task: new rules that would govern the nuts and bolts […]

KPMG International Achieves Record Revenues [AT]Seems respectable: "KPMG International said it realized record revenues globally of US$24.82 billion for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2014, a 6.3 percent increase over the previous year in terms of local currency. The Americas delivered strong growth over the prior year, with revenues rising by 10.1 percent, driven by […]

PwC sold ‘tax avoidance on industrial scale’ [FT]This sounds fun: "MPs accused a firm of accountants of 'selling tax avoidance on an industrial scale' on Monday after a tense parliamentary hearing sparked by the leak of hundreds of Luxembourg tax rulings. In the course of a two-hour grilling, MPs on the public accounts committee angrily denounced […]

7 risk areas for the 2014 audit cycle [JofA]In case your team is out of ideas. Nobody escapes U.S. taxes – even astronauts [CNN]They cut this scene from Ron Howard's movie: "Taxes have long stressed out astronauts — Jack Swigert, a last-minute addition to the Apollo 13 crew, even radioed Houston's mission control center for […]

U.S. Payrolls in November Grew 321,000; Jobless Rate 5.8% [WSJ]This sounds good: "Nonfarm payrolls rose a seasonally adjusted 321,000 last month, the strongest month of hiring since January 2012, the Labor Department said Friday. Hiring was broad across the economy, led by gains in the professional and business-services sector." If the U.S. economy is so good, […]

Sony Pictures and F.B.I. Widen Inquiry Into Hackers’ Attack [NYT]Interesting little nugget here: "Four months ago, Deloitte sponsored an article in The Wall Street Journal about how companies can more quickly identify employees who take internal data — the very issue it now finds itself addressing." This article includes this statement from Deloitte spokesman Jonathan Gandel: […]

Faster Disclosure of Audit Fee Increases Helps Investors Assess Company Trouble Earlier [AT]Nicole Thorne Jenkins of the University of Kentucky, Karl E. Hackenbrack of Vanderbilt University and Mikhail Pevzner of the University of Baltimore authored a study that concluded: "Accelerating the mandated corporate disclosure of the audit fee could provide useful information to investors, reducing […]

10 Investment Firms Sign On to IASB Feedback Program [CFOJ]Not a small feat since the Board has "always had difficulty" getting feedback, according to one board member. China Sunergy Announces Selection of Grant Thornton as New Auditor [China Sunergy]The company dumped Deloitte "as a part of the implementation of the new management's company-wide expense reduction […]

Deloitte Said to Face Saudi Regulator’s Ban on Audit Work [Bloomberg]The operative words here are "said to": "Deloitte LLP may be blocked from auditing companies in Saudi Arabia after the country’s market regulator told firms registered in the kingdom to stop using its local services, according to a circular obtained by Bloomberg. The Capital Market Authority […]

We're calling it a half-day here and suggest to anyone who's actually working today to do the same. We'll be off tomorrow and Friday, returning Monday. If you have an Open Items emergency, we'll do our best to get you up and email us if you get called in to work during your tryptophan nap or […]

KPMG names Chadwick national tax leader for venture capital [Reuters]Chadwick. Francois Chadwick. "Chadwick has more than 20 years of experience in client servicing and is currently VC tax leader in the Bay Area business unit. He is a member of the management committee in KPMG's San Francisco office and has worked in the firm's offices in […]

Pope Francis on the role of accountants in society [CGMA]ICYMI, Frank expects a lot from you: "The current economic climate makes the issue of work even more pressing. Given your professional vantage point, you are fully aware of the dramatic reality faced by so many people whose employment is precarious, or have lost their job, of […]

KPMG laps up McLaren’s F1-style analytics [FT]This is real future of auditing stuff: "Through the alliance, KPMG will be able to introduce an audit model that is forward looking and predictive, based on multiple sets of data. It will move away from the current auditing model which has drawn criticism for being largely retrospective and […]

U.S. Audit Regulator Scrutinizing PwC Over Caterpillar Tax Advice [WSJ]Michigan Senator Carl Levin rattled some cages: "In April, Sen. Levin sent a letter to the PCAOB requesting that it 'conduct a formal review' of the services that PwC provided to Caterpillar. The letter, a copy of which has been reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, also […]

American Realty Capital Accounting Errors Tied to Employee Bonuses [WSJ]After many of you all had sprung for the weekend, this came out: "The mistake stemmed from computing bonuses, said former Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell, who has served as an independent director of the company since February 2013 and sits on its audit committee. The results […]