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Tag: Charity

Unfortunately, Someone You Love May Get a Ride in BKD’s Corporate Jet

Unfortunate because that means they’re really sick. What’s not unfortunate is the firm has joined Corporate Angel Network (“CAN”) and has opted to make their plane available to give free rides to cancer and bone marrow transplant patients that have to travel for treatments.

Each week, CAN enters BKD’s flight schedule into its database and arranges travel for patients when routes match up and seats are available.

“The Corporate Angel Network offers us a great chance to use our company airplane to positively affect the lives of others,” BKD CEO Neal Spencer said. “We’re proud to be able to participate in this program as part of our continuing effort to serve the communities that are home to our offices and employees.”

[via BKD]

One E&Y Office Is Under the Impression That KPMG Is Not Their Competitor

This marks the time of year that your firms ask you to give back to your community in various ways. The most common way that we’re aware of is to contribute to your firm’s respective United Way Campaign. This push usually involves numerous emails and maybe even a little dog and pony show where one partner essentially guilt-trips you into giving to the charity of the firm’s choosing rather than your own.

The Big 4 firms are quite competitive in their fund-raising efforts and a tipster had some thoughts on the tally in the Atlanta office of Ernst & Young (photo after the jump).

[A]pparently EY Atlanta doesn’t believe that KPMG exists (or is considered their competition)

Not to mention that these progress indicators are oddly phallic-looking…


It’s also worth calling attention to E&Y’s abysmal phallic filling performance compared to Deloitte and PwC. Our tipster’s points are duly noted and we’ve concluded that it’s either an obvious show of disrespect by E&Y Peachtown aimed right at KPMG OR the House of Klynveld happens to be blowing everyone out of the water and the Atlanta brass is saving everyone the embarrassment.

Knowing what we know about KPMG employees’ enthusiasm for the United Way Campaign, the latter scenario seems unlikely. Other theories and reactions are welcome at this time.

Deloitte Donates $500k to Seminar Where Professors Nerd Out on Complex Accounting Issues

Joking, joking, joking. Actually it’s the American Accounting Association Robert M. Trueblood Seminars for Professors and it sounds as though it’s a pretty important little get-together.

Launched in 1966 and sponsored by the AAA, the Trueblood Seminars is a two and one-half day session where attendees share and examine complex accounting and auditing case studies. The program’s objective is to offer professors some perspective on present day accounting issues from the viewpoint of the auditors and preparers of financial statements. Each seminar features multiple case discussions led by Deloitte & Touche LLP partners, an open forum discussion on professional issues and developments in practice, as well as an update on the standard-setting activities of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). More than 2,000 professors have attended the Seminars since the program’s inception.

As long as Barry Salzberg isn’t having a free-wheeling discussion about diversity, then we’re all for it.

Deloitte Foundation Renews $500,000 Commitment to Continuing Education for Accounting Professors [CSR Newswire]

Accounting News Roundup: E&Y to Appoint Non-Exec Directors to Global Board; Accounting Remains a Hot Post-College Job; Barclays Calls New Loan Valuation Proposal ‘Potentially Misleading’ | 07.06.10

‘Big four’ auditors bring in independent directors in response to regulators [Guardian]
The Financial Reporting CouncCAEW, issued a new audit governance code back in January that recommended audit firms appoint non-executive directors to their UK firm however, Ernst & Young will go so far to appoint them to their global advisory boards.

“Although the code technically applies only to our UK business, as a globally integrated organisation, we believe it is most appropriate for us to implement the code’s provisions on a global basis also,” said Jim Turley, global chairman and chief executive of Ernst & Young. “Including individuals from outside Ernst & Young on the global advisory council will bring to the senior leadership of our global organisation the benefit of significant outside perspectives and views.”

BP Won’t Issue New Equity to Cover Spill Costs [WSJ]
But if you want to pitch in, they are happy to take you up on an offer, “BP would welcome it if any existing shareholders or new investors want to expand their holding in the company, she said. BP’s shares have lost almost half their value since the Deepwater Horizon explosion that triggered the oil spill April 20.

BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward is visiting oil-rich Azerbaijan amid speculation the company may sell assets to help pay for the clean-up of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The one-day visit comes a week after Mr. Hayward, who has been criticized for his handling of the devastating oil spill, traveled to Moscow to reassure Russia that the British energy company is committed to investments there.”

Looking for a post-college job? Try accounting [CNN]
Happy times continue for accounting grads, according to the latest survey on the matter, this time from the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The average salary listed for an entry-level accounting major is just over $50k and the article also notes that most accounting jobs go to…wait…accounting majors.


FASB, IASB Staff Describe Plans for New Financial Statements [Compliance Week]
As always, the two Boards are hoping that bright financial statement users will chime in with their suggestions but they’ve got the basic idea down, “The FASB and IASB are rewriting the manner in which financial information is presented to make it more cohesive, easier to comprehend, and more comparable across different entities. The proposals would establish a common structure for each of the financial statements with required sections, categories, subcategories and related subtotals. It would result in the display of related information in the same sections, categories and subcategories across all statements.”

Accounting rules “practically impossible to implement”, Barclays claims [Accountancy Age]
Barclays’ finance director, Chris Lucas isn’t too keen on these new loan valuation proposals. Besides the ‘practically impossible’ thing, he says, “The sensitivity disclosures…are highly subjective, difficult to interpret, and potentially misleading, particularly when the underlying data is itself highly subjective,” Lucas said.

“It is hard to see how sensitivity disclosures could be aggregated by a large institution to provide succinct data that avoids ‘boilerplate’ disclosure.”

Asking The Difficult Questions [Re: The Auditors]
“Audit committees too often rely on the auditors’ required disclosures without comment. They sometimes lack the independence, experience, or determination to ask the probing questions. It’s critical, however, that committees seek answers to vexing questions and not accept the response, ‘But that’s the way management has always done it.’ “

Buffett Donates $1.6 Billion in Biggest Gift Since 2008 Crisis [Bloomberg]
WB continues his plan of giving away 99% of his fortune, “[Buffet] made his largest donation since the 2008 financial crisis after profits at his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. jumped.

The value of Buffett’s annual gift to the foundation established by Bill Gates rose 28 percent to $1.6 billion from $1.25 billion last year. The donation, made in Berkshire Class B stock, was accompanied by gifts totaling $328 million in shares to three charities run by Buffett’s children and another named for his late first wife, according to a July 2 filing.”

The case for cloud accounting [AccMan]
Dennis Howlett continues to provide evidence that switching to the cloud provides benefits that are simply too big to ignore, “This 2min 1 sec video neatly encapsulates why this is something you should be considering, especially if you are operating electronic CRM or e-commerce for front of house activities.”

Reminder: Extended Haiti Donation Deadline for 2009 Tax Returns Is This Sunday

Despite many arguments that the extension was bad legislation, it cruised through Congress and was quickly signed by the POTUS and now the window is closing fast.

For those of you that are able to itemize deductions and you’re looking for a little extra deduction for ’09, the countdown is at t-minus two days.

If you are considering a last minute donation, A) what the hell have you been waiting for? B) you’re in a bit of luck because the deadline has a little bit of wiggle room, as Kay Bell tell us, “If you charge your donations to a credit card before the end of February, that counts even if you don’t get or pay the your credit card bill until next month or later.”


For those of you that don’t trust machines and are cutting a check, you best drop it soon if you want it to hit your ’09 return, “don’t send a check dated Feb. 28 on March 15 and claim it…if a tax examiner looks at your statement and sees the check didn’t clear until the last half of March, your deduction will probably be disallowed.”

Oh and it’s cash only. Your clothes that were originally meant for your garage sale this Spring are generous but not eligible for the extension.

On a related note, part of Stephen Chipman’s blog post from this week announced that Grant Thornton had raised approximately $140,000 that will be split between the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. Thumbs up GT.

2009 Haiti donation deadline Feb. 28 [DMWT]

Non-Profits Are Feeling the Pain

WSJ has a Monday piece “Once-Robust Charity Sector Hit With Mergers, Closings” (the Recession Forces Nonprofits to Consolidate) that may be found here. It tells the story of a “homeless” woman with terminal lung cancer and a charity no longer able to afford to help her out. Sad.

When one charity’s COO says “we’ve had funding cut after funding cut, and we never know when the next shoe is going to drop,” that is a bad sign.

Hit by a drop in donations and government funding in the wake of a deep recession, nonprofits—from arts councils to food banks—are undergoing a painful restructuring, including mergers, acquisitions, collaborations, cutbacks and closings.

“Like in the animal kingdom, at some point, the weaker organizations will not be able to survive,” says Diana Aviv, chief executive of Independent Sector, a coalition of 600 nonprofits.

I saw that on the Discovery Channel and it wasn’t pretty.

Note: the Service says the value of your blood is not deductible as a charitable donation but cars are. As of 2005, cars are only deductible at FMV, not Blue Book. Damn you, fair value, foiled by the free market again!

Blame the Service for tightening its charitable donation rules at the worst possible time? Not sure on that one. While you’re reluctant to donate your $200 Toyota (ha) to charity because you could have claimed $2,000 under old rules, find some comfort in the fact that (alleged) terrorist “non profits” can not file for 2 years and somehow get away with it. You wonder why I advocate fixing the system from the ground up?

You can text $10 to Haiti but what about the “Economic Homeless” here in America? asks Young Money.

If this were a survey and you asked me “What do you think the IRS could do to encourage charitable donations?” I would answer “Tax breaks. It isn’t the Treasury’s job to distribute bailouts.” Yet they continue to behave as though it is their duty.

See the problem yet?