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September 29, 2023

Accounting News

Accounting News Roundup: PCAOB Making a List, Checking It Twice; Fat Shaming at the Office; Should You Ditch the Holiday Party? | 12.17.14

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." […]

Accounting News Roundup: American Realty Capital Spirals; Rothstein Kass and KPMG Have Some Loose Ends; SEC vs. China Drags On | 12.16.14

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 […]

Accounting News Roundup: SEC Jabs PCAOB; Ex-PwC Auditor Charged for Luxembourg Leaks; Deloitte’s First Female CEO Down Under | 12.15.14

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 […]

Accounting News Roundup: KPMG’s Revenues; Gilmore Girls Guy Sues CohnReznick; What If You’re Smarter Than Your Boss? | 12.12.14

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 […]

Accounting News Roundup: PwC Accused of Being a Tax Avoidance Factory; Inversions’ Heyday; McGladrey Acquires Fesnak | 12.09.14

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 […]

Accounting News Roundup: Audit Risks; Astronaut Tax Issues; More Productive Mornings | 12.08.14

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 […]

Accounting News Roundup: Economy Feel Good, People Feel Bad; PCAOB Taking Another Stab at Auditor Report; Workspace Decorations | 12.05.14

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, […]

Accounting News Roundup: Some Irony for Deloitte in Hack Attack; Mike Lynch Still Battling HP; What Is Predictive Accounting? | 12.04.14

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: […]

Accounting News Roundup: Faster Audit Fee Disclosure; Wake Forest CPA Success; Crowe Horwath Hits Miami | 12.03.14

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 […]

Accounting News Roundup: BDO CEO Expects More Consolidation; An Accountant Can’t Stay Out of Trouble; Jets for Pets | 12.02.14

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 […]

Accounting News Roundup: Real Estate Mogul Sues Grant Thornton for A LOT; Should You Be Friends with Your Manager?; Deloitte’s Burning Man Guy | 12.01.14

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 […]

Accounting News Roundup: Microsoft Coughs Up Change for Chinese Tax Evasion; An Accounting Pot Practice?; BDO Gunning for McGladrey | 11.26.14

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 […]

Accounting News Roundup: KPMG’s News Head of VC Tax; Twitter CFO’s Misfire; Casey’s BooBoo | 11.25.14

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 […]

Accounting News Roundup: Holy Accounting; Unhappy Managers; Marriage and Stalled Careers | 11.24.14

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 […]

Accounting News Roundup: KPMG and McLaren; Showing Respect for Employees; A Cuddling Business | 11.21.14

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 […]

Accounting News Roundup: Pile On PwC; Productive Procrastination; The Anti-App App | 11.19.14

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 […]

Accounting News Roundup: Deloitte’s Internal Startups; Bragging About Audited Numbers; Facebook at Work | 11.17.14

Islamic finance body AAOIFI to discuss global accounting standards [Reuters]I'm sure this will cause some fretting over adoption of "Sharia GAAP." Deloitte offers its staff the chance to be the boss of their own start-ups [Telegraph]Sort of. "Staff will be paid during their time out to focus on their start-ups, and they will be able […]

Accounting News Roundup: PwC Stays on Message; Happy International Accounting Day; Tearing Down the Pyramid | 11.10.14

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 […]