Deloitte University Is Getting Bigger Because God Forbid KPMG Have the Superior Brainwashing Compound
Dallas Morning News reported yesterday that groundbreaking on a “massive expansion” of the already massive Deloitte University campus in Westlake, Texas will begin in January. Deloitte’s been wanting to expand for a while but was waiting on Tarrant County commissioners to approve more than $5 million in tax breaks. “We certainly appreciate the great corporate […]
Effective September 1, You Can Sit For the CPA Exam in Texas With 120 Units
Another state has pushed to allow prospective CPAs to sit for the exam with just a bachelor’s degree worth of units and that’s good ol’ Texas. Effective September 1, future CPAs can sit for the exam with 120 units of education. Before anyone gets too excited, note candidates still need 150 units for licensure. Rules […]
Layoff Watch ’19: Outsourcing Dooms Accountants at UPS In Texas
The Dallas Morning News reported today that UPS is eliminating 64 accounting jobs at its facility in Coppell, TX. The reason? Outsourcing, of course. A UPS spokesperson told the newspaper that the package delivery company is outsourcing transactional finance and accounting work in order to let employees “do more strategic work that can make a greater […]
Layoffs Watch: Big 4 Texas
Here's one from the mailbag: Big 4 in Houston and Dallas have been laying staff off due to "performance reasons." I wonder if this is going to trickle down to other regions as well given the declining oil market. Good question! Here in Colorado, big names like Anadarko and Encana have shed jobs but there […]
Texas CPA Exam Candidates Excited to Embrace the Future
Wait a second… are you telling me that up until this point, one of the biggest CPA exam states in the country did not offer its future CPAs the ability to check their score online? Isn't obsessively refreshing that screen supposed to be both the best and worst part about taking the modern day exam? […]
FYI: The Guy Who Stabbed 14 People At a Texas College Wanted To Be an Accountant When He Grew Up
When laypeople think of accountants, we all know they generally picture green eye shade-wearing dorks, socially inept slobs and that bald asshole in the bowtie from those annoying H&R Block commercials. They likely do not picture a 20 year old "with bushy red hair and a goatee" who fantasized about stabbing people to death since […]
Americans for Tax Reform: Playing Professional Football in Texas to Save Taxes > Working for Jerry Jones
Tony Romo will make a lot of money playing quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys under his new contract. How much money that contract is actually worth depends on how you look at the situation. Americans for Tax Reform looks at the situation in the following terms: if, you opt to play for a team in a state […]
Everything’s Bigger In Texas, Except the Peer Review Requirements?
Texas Representative Phil Stephenson is trying to exempt CPAs who only prepare financial statements for small business (a.k.a. "the little guys") from the state's mandatory peer review program. The change would have no impact on audit reports or reviews, it would only exempt compilation reports prepared for micro or small businesses from peer review. "CPAs […]
Brisket, Blueberries Some of the Best Fare at Deloitte University: Sources
Back in 2011, Deloitte swung open the doors on a 107-acre, $300 million spectacle in Westlake, Texas known as Deloitte University; its centerpiece being a 700,000 square-foot building that has thirty-five classrooms, thirty-six "team" rooms, a ballroom, an amphitheater that seats 176 people, 800 guest rooms, three restaurants, and a state-of-the art fitness center. It's perks like "The DU"1 that make […]
Shipping Wars’ Token Hot Chick Is a Former Accountant?
As far as reality show accountants go, I guess Shipping Wars' Jennifer Brennan isn't quite the caliber of the PwC Dumpster Diver but does compete well with Cosmo bachelor and country hottie Tripp Davis. If you haven't caught this A&E "reality" show about moving strange loads cross-country, "Texas Cowgirl" is basically the resident hottie. She […]
New York, California in a Horse Race for Sending Most People to States with God-Awful Heat, No Income Tax
Hot off the Twitter, New York Times' Catherine Rampell shares some interesting data about movers in 2012: nation’s overall mover rate increased from a record low of 11.6 percent in 2011 to 12.0 percent in 2012, per US Census — Catherine Rampell (@crampell) December 10, 2012 Okay maybe that's not so interesting, but this helps: most common […]
Everything’s Bigger In Texas, Including CPA Exam Statistics
We're wrapping up state-specific 2011 CPA exam statistics with this one so if you absolutely must know how your alma mater performed on the CPA exam last year, email me and I'll dig that up for you. The state of Texas came in 3rd nationally in both candidates and sections but 18th in pass rate […]
Hiring Watch ’12: PwC’s North Dallas 400
P. Dubs is looking to add 400 new capital market servants for their Dallas and Forth Worth offices. Interested parties should have the following qualifications: 1) a history of excellent client service; 2) top-notch analytical and communicative skills and 3) the ability to work in tight quarters when warranted. [DBJ]
PwC Poaches a KPMG Partner and Issues a Press Release, Part VI
Today in KPMG is the PwC Triple-A team news, partner Erik Hansen has joined the P. Dubs Houston office as a risk assurances partner leading the firm’s Internal Audit Practice in the Oil and Gas Industry Sectors. I suppose it goes without saying that Mr. Hansen is pretty adept in the energy field, as well as auditing:
Hansen has served companies in the oil and gas industry on issues related to internal audit outsourcing and co-sourcing solutions, Sarbanes-Oxley assistance services, as well as other risk and control-related services. He has also served as an instructor in several KPMG training programs designed to provide partners and managers with the skills and knowledge necessary to be effective in the marketplace.
Enjoy Houston, Erik! Just keep your wits about you at the happy hours down there.
[via PwC]
Earlier: More posts on KPMG v. PwC.
Texas ‘Pole Tax’ Gets Called Back to the Stage
[T]he Texas Supreme Court on Friday gave state officials the go-ahead to continue collecting a special $5-per-customer tax on strip clubs. The so-called “pole” tax, collected upon entrance to any club that features nude dancing and alcohol consumption, was ruled unconstitutional by a state district judge in Austin and the 3rd Court of Appeals. The law was passed by the Texas Legislature in 2007, and so far about $15 million has been collected. The money has not been disbursed because of the earlier court rulings. [HC via DMWT, Earlier]
Who Would Have Guessed That Texas CPAs Would Oppose the Elimination of Oil and Gas Tax Breaks?
Next thing you know you’ll hear about CPAs in Iowa (with the exception of one with whom we’re acquainted) opposing the repeal of ethanol credits.
The Texas Society of CPAs’ Federal Tax Policy Committee addressed the issue in its “Analysis of Legislative Proposals to Repeal Certain Tax Treatments of Domestic Oil and Gas Exploration and Development”.The committee agrees that reducing the deficit is of utmost importance, but said that any effort to cut tax incentives for oil companies and raising taxes on oil and gas exploration and development should be weighed against its potential to exacerbate the current underemployment issue, and the need for a secure source of energy.
As noted in the analysis, the committee said it believes repealing tax benefits and allowances for the industry could adversely impact the state’s oil and gas industry, and the economies of Texas and the U.S.
Texas CPAs Oppose Elimination of Oil and Gas Tax Breaks [AT]
Lots of People in the South Have $0 Tax Liability
So those nonpayers you heard about throughout tax season? Proportionately, lots of them are in the south (don’t ask us why they used red/blue):
Purely by the numbers, California has the most with over six million taxpayers whose credits and deductions reduce their tax liability to zero. However, of the ten states that have the highest proportion of nonpayers, nine of them are in the south, including Texas and Florida, who have 4.2 and 3.4 million tax filers that had no tax liability respectively.
The total number of nonpayers in the south is approximately 13 million or 25% of the total 51 million, according tot he IRS’ data. So whatever the expression is that includes the combination of God loving the South and hating taxes, suddenly has more credence to it.
States Vary Widely in Number of Tax Filers with No Income Tax Liability [Tax Foundation]
What if the Final Four Was Based on Accounting Research Production?
We realize this is a strange question but hear us out. Many of you have had brackets on the brain for the last couple of weeks and this was not lost on some faculty members at Brigham Young University. David Wood, Brady Williams, Scott Summers and Joshua Coyne created the bracket below to demonstrate what this year’s NCAA tournament would look like if the schools advanced based on the productivity of accounting researchers. It was based on their paper entitled, “Accounting Program Research Rankings by Topical Area and Methodology.”
We spoke with David Wood, Assistant Professor at BYU and he clarified for us that the bracket was based solely on the schools in the 2010 tournament. “For example, Stanford is rated first for number of articles published but they weren’t in this year’s tournament, so their productivity isn’t seen here,” David said.
As you can see above, BYU did okay for themselves, reaching the Final Four, along with real-life Final Four teams Michigan State and Duke. Ultimately, accounting powerhouse Texas-Austin came out on top, taking out the CPA mavens at Wake Forest in the first round. Professor Wood explained, “There is a disconnect between CPA exam success and research production,” thus a research program like McCombs that produces many papers every year will always come out on top.
Eleven journals were selected for the purposes of the paper:
• Accounting, Organizations, and Society
• Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory
• Behavioral Research in Accounting
• Contemporary Accounting Research
• Journal of Accounting & Economics
• Journal of Accounting Information Systems
• Journal of Accounting Research
• Journal of Management Accounting Research
• Journal of the American Taxation Association
• Review of Accounting Studies
• The Accounting Review
Now before you judge, this particular method of illustrating both basketball and accounting prowess may serve those of you well that are considering a PhD in future. Don’t laugh, we know you’re out there.
Accounting Program Research Rankings by Topical Area and Methodology [SSRN]
NCAA Tournament Simulated Using Accounting Research Rankings
Here’s Why Most Sin Taxes Aren’t Stupid (Hint: It Makes More Things Legal)
Elie Mystal, the Editor of our sister site Above the Law, did a fair amount of kvetching over the Texas “pole tax” on Friday. He focuses primarily on his distaste for sin taxes, “I can’t avoid sin taxes — and thus I can’t stand them. First of all, they are regressive. Secondly, they’re anti-business. So we literally have a tax regime that freedom-loving progressi conservatives should hate, and yet sin taxes continue to be an acceptable way for the government to shove its morality down our throats.”
We’ll address that statement in a minute but first, we’ll examine the pole tax which supporters have stated, “is an appropriate exercise in state power — promoting public safety by discouraging the ‘combustible combination’ of drinking and live nudity.”
Elie’s thoughts:
Nude women + alcohol = rape? What kind of sex crazed sociologist came up with that equation? Just because boobs and beer make your sick ass go out and terrorize females doesn’t mean that other males are incapable of telling the difference between fantasy and cold, lonely reality.
And if this is a serious problem — what the f*** is $5 going to do about it? Texas legislators want us to believe that there is an epidemic of sexual assaults occurring because of the “combustible combination” of alcohol and live nude girls, but they also want us to believe that a $5 surcharge is going to make a difference.
We agree with Elie that Texas has come up with a bad — nay — horrendous idea. An extra $5 at the door isn’t going to accomplish a damn thing. Strip clubs are highly “combustible” environments regardless; taxing patrons to get them to think twice before entering doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Where Elie is dead wrong is his notion that “Either [the behavior subject to tax] is a serious societal problem that the government needs to step up and make [it] illegal — or it isn’t. If it’s not that big a deal, then what is a sin tax other than the government trying to get a taste of a lucrative American business?“
We have a problem with the “step up and make it illegal” part. The decriminalization and taxation of certain “sins” is a perfectly good way for states to raise money since taxes on income and property are far more political and thus, not effective.
Alcohol and tobacco both cause a myriad of health problems in humans that can result in high medical treatment costs. Taxes on these items are appropriate in order to supplement the burden that they place on society as a whole. Drugs and prostitution are, for the most part, criminalized. Thousands of people are arrested and jailed yearly for engaging in these behaviors, imposing millions of dollars in costs to taxpayers. Here’s a newsflash: human beings are not — ARE NOT — going to stop engaging in these behaviors. So why not take the “criminal” element out of the equation?
If they were to be made legal, highly regulated and taxed, states could enjoy new revenue streams and citizens can engage in behavior that they choose. That’s something many “freedom loving progressives” can certainly get behind. Plus, if drugs and prostitution are legal, won’t this encourage entrepreneurship and a more competitive marketplace? That sounds like something “money-loving conservatives” would approve of.
So while we’re with Elie railing against Texas’ impotent legislation, sin taxes are useful when implemented intelligently. California is putting legalized marijuana to a vote and DC may not be far behind so maybe we’re beginning to see some common sense for a change.
No Sin Taxes in the Champagne Room [ATL]
Earlier:
Texas Stripper Tax Will Survive One More Valentine’s Day
Texas Stripper Tax Will Survive One More Valentine’s Day
If you’re a resident of the Lone Star State and you happen to frequent the peelers, you’re probably familiar with the $5 charge that you pay to enjoy a little bit of entertainment.
Well good news! The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case and determine if that $5 violates the First Amendment right to free expression and maybe this travesty can be put to bed once and for all.
The Texas Court of Appeals ruled the law was discriminatory against establishments that served alcohol since as Kay Bell explained then, “a play involving nudity did not trigger the tax…that meant that, had the law stood, the touring company of…Hair could have come to Texas.”
If you simply wanted to go to Treasures in Houston and have a beer and appreciate some artistic impression to Bon Jovi, Skid Row, Def Leppard, etc. then the tax applied. The $12 million that the state collected while the law was in effect is still being held in an account while they sort this out. What’s not clear is if that money will be returned to the patrons or simply given to employees of the clubs where the money was going to end up anyway.
Texas stripper ‘pole tax’ to get review [Don’t Mess With Taxes]