OP says:

I’ve been working here a year in an office in New York and we had a call yesterday that went terribly. I believe the call was supposed to just be a tech training but it devolved into discussion over why this year was the way it was.

The biggest offender was a partner who explained the new PTO change as “now we don’t have to pay people out when they leave which is just good business let’s be real” like… ummmm WHAT?! He basically just admitted they made the policy to screw us over.

After months of rumors, KPMG announced firmwide unlimited PTO earlier this month. It was only a matter of time before some bullshit started coming out.

We all know “unlimited” PTO is a) a scam and b) a good way to avoid having several tens of millions of dollars a year hanging over your head as was stated in the email sent among EY leadership leaked in late 2020 when they made the switch to unlimited PTO. Text from the EY email quoted directly (emphasis ours):

A few key takeaways from the slide deck that support the reason for the change include:

• Provides cost savings of about $36M per year (2019 cost) associated with paying unused vacation at termination.
• Freezes the current vacation lability for the growing number of states with an accruat cap vs. a “use it or lose it approach, which significantly increases cost of paying unused vacation at termination. CA, CO, IL, MA, LA and i have accrual cap 1.5x annual allotment (25% of our people)
• Aligns with One EY, moving personnel to a single vacation policy and away from variances necessitated by varying state laws around treatment of accrued vacation
• Better aligns with culture of trust, flexibility and wellbeing
• Eliminates entitlement mentality and need for carryover of unused time or sense of “loss” by our people
• Positions EY as a “first mover among the big 4, providing a competitive advantage and serving as a differentiator on campus

For your reference, attached are the communication plan and a comprehensive list of questions and answers. Some of the key points above may not be shared with our people (e.g. $36M savings), but as business leaders you to know that this is a significant reason for the change.

Make sure the grunts don’t hear about the cost savings of $36 million that we listed as the first reason for the change! No sir. People know that’s a big reason why a firm would make this switch, you just don’t expect a partner to say that part out loud.

It’s just good business let’s be real!

The post QOTD: “Now We Don’t Have to Pay People Out When They Leave Which Is Just Good Business” appeared first on Going Concern.

Q. We’ve seen high-profile cases of AI-related layoffs. How do you protect employees as you roll out AI?

It’s the question we get all the time from our people. First and foremost, I say this: The robots are not coming for your jobs, they’re coming for your tasks.

And in most cases, they’re coming for tasks that you don’t want to do anyway. So much of the automation is for mundane, routine work that people don’t want to make the time for. IMF did a piece of research that found 60% of jobs in advanced economies will be impacted by AI. But keep in mind that it’s rarely entire functions or entire jobs; it’s pieces of jobs.

5 million applications to 140,000 hires: Inside EY’s billion-dollar investment in human-centric AI [HR Grapevine]

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Auditors who think robust regulation of their sector is disproportionate deserve “the world’s smallest violin”, the head of the UK accounting watchdog has said.

Sir Jon Thompson, chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council, told a private industry meeting earlier this year that close scrutiny was appropriate for auditors who earn hundreds of thousands of pounds a year and “can buy a Ferrari”, people who were in the room or were later briefed on his comments told the Financial Times.

Thompson said that if auditors did not want to face such pressure, they should do a better job, these people added. Attendees were “taken aback” by Thompson’s comments, said one person present.

No one should be taken aback by that last comment, he’s said it before. “It’s no good complaining about the fines,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times. “The solution is entirely in [the audit firms’] hands. Do a good audit and you don’t get in trouble with us.” It’s only recently that FRC has taken a heavier hand in picking on supervising the mid-tiers which may be why some are horrified by his comments. It’s only at Big 4 firms that partners take home more than a £1 million  and only at Deloitte and PwC; KPMG partners received £757,000, an increase of 10% from prior year. Meanwhile, partner pay at BDO was more like £647,000 (USD $803,400) and £579,000 at Grant Thornton (USD $719,000).

The crackdown on shoddy auditing is profession-wide, meaning it includes partners at far less lucrative firms than Big 4, and it is something Thompson seems personally committed to. He likens firms complaining about poor inspections to “blaming the doctor for saying you’re ill.”

People on the receiving end of FRC scrutiny suggest the regulator borders on bully:

Meanwhile, FRC deputy chief executive Sarah Rapson was asked by a senior PwC partner at a separate meeting last week whether the regulator was reviewing its approach, in light of reports that a headteacher had taken her own life after an inspection by education regulator Ofsted, attendees told the FT.

“I’ve seen people suffer genuine health problems,” said one audit partner, who felt that Rapson “didn’t really answer” the question. FRC inspections, whose results are published on an aggregate basis without identifying individual auditors, have become “an emotional drain”, said an audit partner at another large firm.

A senior accountant from a smaller firm in attendance at the above meeting said comparing auditors to teachers was “self-serving” on the part of Big 4 firms and comparing Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) to the FRC was “quite a clever way of trying to get the [FRC’s] language toned down.” The senior accountant then added that audit partners are paid better than headteachers.

Headteachers, being of advanced senior status, receive the highest teaching salaries. Here are some averages:

• England (excluding London) and Wales – £50,122 to £123,057
• London – £51,347 to £131,353
• Scotland – £52,350 to £99,609
• Northern Ireland – £47,381 to £117,497.

Yeah, that checks out.

The FRC handed down record fines for the 2021/2022 fiscal year: £46.5 million (USD$58.7 million) before settlement discounts, up from £16.7 million the year before. More than half of these were to KPMG alone. The huge increase in fines “reflects the seriousness and high number of cases concluded,” said the FRC. “It also reflects the FRC’s growing capability to take on the large and complex cases which are an increasingly prominent feature of its work, supported by a 23% growth in the Enforcement Division’s headcount.” The majority of FRC enforcements were due to lack of audit evidence and a lack of professional skepticism.

“When deciding sanctions, and whether they will be made public, the FRC does take into account representations about an individual’s personal circumstances, including their mental health,” said Thompson in a statement about his harsh words.

“The FRC has always applied a proportionate approach when discharging its duties and statutory responsibilities as a regulator acting in the public interest and has taken action to not publish when there are significant concerns about the impact on an individual,” he added.

UK watchdog chief shows little sympathy for auditors who ‘can buy a Ferrari’ [FT]

The post Head Regulator Said He’ll Break Out the World’s Smallest Violin For Auditors Crying About Tougher Regulation appeared first on Going Concern.

Heller takes some of his strategy cues from Big Four accounting firms—which law firm leaders increasingly view as potential competitors.

“The smartest service businesses in the country are accounting firms,” Heller said. “They get it. They understand they need to diversify the revenue streams of the company. They don’t distribute 100% of their profits every year. So, we are following to some extent a little bit more of that model.”

About 8% to 10% of Cozen’s revenue this year will come from ancillary business units, Heller said, adding that the businesses enjoy higher profit margins than the law firm.

The firm owns a safety consulting service, Margolis Healy, an insurance subrogation business, National Subrogation Services, and a cybersecurity risk management unit, COSECURE, along with three other businesses.

Cozen O’Connor Chief: Recession Means Time to ‘Spend Money’ [Bloomberg Law]

The post The Smartest Service Businesses in the Country Are Accounting Firms, Says Some Lawyer appeared first on Going Concern.

During the years in which Trump battled disclosure, much of the information he sought to keep secret about his pre-presidential finances became public anyway, largely from a 2020 New York Times investigation.

The picture that emerged showed that for all Trump’s claims to be a great businessman, his core businesses — a sprawling network of hotels, golf courses and other properties — have lost millions of dollars year after year.

“He’s a staggering loser,” said Steven M. Rosenthal, a senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

The newly released records, covering 2015-20, add to that picture.

Trump’s tax returns are out. Here’s how he was able to pay so little — so often [Los Angeles Times]

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The post Arthur Andersen’s Great-Granddaughter is Not a Hoarder appeared first on Going Concern.

“I counsel people all the time — never believe anyone who says they’re awesome, believe other people who say they’re awesome. That’s why I recommend checking online reviews from independent sites, the Better Business Bureau and media coverage from reputable outlets. I even suggest checking to see if they partner with any major charities. None of this guarantees you’re dealing with ethical professionals, but it does massively improve your odds.”

– Howard Dvorkin, CPA and chairman of Debt.com talking about getting financial advice from randos online.

That goes for people using the word “trust” 19 times in a single LinkedIn post, too.

The post QOTD: Never Believe Anyone Who Says They’re Awesome appeared first on Going Concern.

“The IRS destroying data for an estimated 30 million filers in March 2021 is appalling. This will create massive chaos for taxpayers in terms of filing time and refunds. The fact that the IRS is a business that operates in the dark ages in terms of technology further compounds the taxpayer’s burden. They act like they are Barnes & Noble when Amazon would be the benchmark.”

— Julio Gonzalez, CEO and founder of Engineered Tax Services, said in a press release emailed to Going Concern regarding the recent Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report that revealed the IRS destroyed approximately 30 million unprocessed paper information returns due to a backlog of paper returns.

The post Guy Compares the IRS to Barnes & Noble appeared first on Going Concern.

No, Cathy Engelbert isn’t talking about the delicious summertime treat. She’s talking about “small moments of recovery.”

“I learned this at Deloitte because when you’re running a firm of that size, you have to find time. We dubbed them smors. My EA used to put them on my calendar: Small moments of recovery. You need moments during the day. One thing as an executive, you can’t wait for the weekend. You’ve got to put the smors on your calendar during the day or you’ll go crazy. I didn’t know this when I took the job, but once our games start, this calmness comes over me. It’s kind of neat.”

— Engelbert, former CEO of Deloitte US and current commissioner of the WNBA, said when asked by Time magazine what techniques she uses to de-stress.

Current and ex-Deloitters who worked at the firm during the Engelbert administration: Is this something she preached for employees to do as well? Or were your smors the 10 minutes you spent sobbing in the bathroom every day during busy season?

‘An Absolutely Unimaginable Situation.’ WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert Addresses Brittney Griner Arrest [Time]

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This is a bloody joke. The lazy gits make me sick. Call me old fashioned but all this work from home BS is a total joke. There is no way people work as hard or productive as when they had to turn up at a work location. The pandemic has had long lasting negative effect. pic.twitter.com/MvS2cX9K8C

— Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) May 5, 2022

PwC cuts back staff summer hours to retain talent [The Telegraph]

The post Back In My Day, Accountants Had to Walk Uphill Both Ways In the Hot Sun to Get to Work, Says Crotchety Old British Guy appeared first on Going Concern.

“It is of course for the tribunal to reach a conclusion on the allegations as they relate to the individuals concerned. Nevertheless, it is clear to me that misconduct has occurred and that our regulator was misled. The misconduct that this tribunal will hear about over the coming weeks is disturbing and upsetting for me and for my colleagues, who are committed to serving the public interest with honesty and integrity. This misconduct is a violation of our processes and clearly against our values. It is unacceptable, we do not tolerate or condone it in any way, and I am very sorry that it occurred in our firm.”

— Jon Holt, CEO of KPMG UK, said in a statement today during the start of a disciplinary tribunal hearing on KPMG being accused of providing the Financial Reporting Council with false and/or misleading information on the firm’s audits of Carillion, the construction and services company that collapsed nearly four years ago, and Regenersis, an IT software company.

KPMG and six of its former auditors have been accused of participating in a scheme in which forged documents were created to mislead inspectors reviewing the firm’s audits of Carillion and Regenersis. The Guardian reported:

The tribunal on Monday heard via a public video call allegations of “forgery” by KPMG’s auditors, including the “fabrication” of documents. The FRC’s counsel, Mark Ellison, told the tribunal that auditors manufactured a spreadsheet and minutes of meetings to appear as if they were created during the audits, when in fact they were created months later and presented to inspectors.

The tribunal is expected to hear evidence over the next several weeks from the FRC and the respondents, which include KPMG, a former KPMG partner, and certain current and former KPMG employees.

The current record-holder for Big 4 firm with the largest fine ever received from the FRC is Deloitte at £15 million, which didn’t include an additional £5.6 million to cover the costs of the FRC’s investigation and the costs of a disciplinary tribunal, over its shoddy auditing of Autonomy, the UK-based software company that was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2011 and was involved in an epic accounting fraud. Some longtime Big 4 UK observers think KPMG will overtake Deloitte for No. 1 once this hearing is all said and done.

KPMG says accounting regulator ‘was misled’ over Carillion audits [The Guardian]
KPMG boss ‘clear’ regulator was misled as Carillion forgery tribunal kicks off [Financial News]

The post KPMG UK Already Gearing Up For Massive Punishment Over Carillion Audit Failures appeared first on Going Concern.

— Tony Sheldon, Labor senator and former union boss, asked PwC Australia partner Catherine Walsh during a Senate hearing on job security Dec. 8. Walsh was there to answer questions about a PwC “skills hub” in western Sydney, in which the Australian Financial Review reported used dozens of unqualified workers, on lower salaries and with less training and resources than their main office counterparts, to complete audit work from an unbranded office for large listed clients. It was reported that PwC staff at the “skills hub” were required to work more than 80 hours a week.

Walsh replied to Sheldon’s question: “I would not characterise what was occurring there in the way that you have, Senator.” She obviously has never worked an audit or tax busy season at PwC or any of the other Big 4 firms in the US.

• Working 80 to 120 hours a week.
• Employees substantially underpaid.
• White-collar sweatshop conditions.

PwC denies operating ‘white-collar sweatshop’ in western Sydney [Australian Financial Review]

The post Australian Senator Understands Big 4 Working Conditions Better Than a PwC Partner appeared first on Going Concern.

“If you were the head of audit at one of the Big Four and you read this document, you’d be thinking ‘I think those are the things I’m [already] trying to do.’ The problem, as far as we’re concerned, is they don’t really do it.”

— Sir Jon Thompson, chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council, said to the Financial Times ahead of the launch on Tuesday of the UK audit cops’ first guide for accountants on how they should carry out good audits which is called, obviously, What Makes a Good Audit?

Sir Jon also told FT:

“If we’re telling people who are running these multibillion-pound firms to do something they should have known how to do years ago: why can’t they do it [already]?” Thompson said, pointing to the firms’ scores in the FRC’s annual audit inspections.

Almost 30 per cent of company audits by the seven leading audit firms were deemed to require improvement in this year’s FRC quality inspections … .

Good question. We’ve been wondering the same thing for years.

UK accounting watchdog tells Big Four to run businesses better [Financial Times]

Related article:

KPMG UK Got Absolutely Dragged By the FRC For Its ‘Unacceptable’ Bank Audits

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“I was just talking to our team in terms of the importance of people, the importance of being empathetic, the importance of making sure that we’re taking care of our people. And, you know, we talk to our clients about this all the time. We’ve actually hired 115,000 people in the last year, but we’ve also lost people. So, you know, the culture of the organization is incredibly important. And our culture, and hopefully many companies’ culture, is around taking care of their people. And that was really shown during the pandemic. I think companies that took care of their people, I think they’re being rewarded for it now. And companies that didn’t or really didn’t care about it or were not empathetic, then I think they’re the ones that are losing people today.”

— Carmine Di Sibio, global CEO and chairman of EY, told Yahoo Finance when asked about his thoughts on “The Great Resignation.”

This from the global head of a Big 4 firm in the US that will save $36 million annually by denying employees the right of accruing their vacation time when EY went to unlimited PTO last year. But hey, here’s a 1-800-Flowers gift card for all your hard work.

It’s just another example of Big 4 firms not practicing what they preach to clients. No wonder people are leaving the Big 4 in droves.

EY CEO on labor shortage: ‘Companies that took care of their people’ are being rewarded [Yahoo Finance]

Related articles:

EY Changes Its Vacation Policy, Oh and BTW They’re Not Paying Out Accrued PTO If You “Leave”
EY US Chair Kelly Grier Will Not Seek a Second Term

The post This Probably Didn’t Go Over Too Well With Many Grunts At EY appeared first on Going Concern.

“Well, I’m KPMG man and boy. I actually did engineering at university and then decided that I wanted to get a business qualification alongside that, so I joined the KPMG audit team in Glasgow and did my charted accountant training there. And then post-qualifying I moved into our transaction services team in order to implement a bit of variety and take the opportunity to see what other things the firm did. I didn’t necessarily have long-term plans though. I certainly didn’t view that I would still be here 20-odd years later.”

— James Kergon, the new senior partner at KPMG Scotland, said when asked to reflect on his 22 years working at the firm.

Q&A: KPMG senior partner James Kergon [Accountancy Age]

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— Simu Liu, star of the new Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which opens in theaters on Sept. 3, said about his experience working as an accountant at Deloitte in Toronto before he became an actor.

He eventually was laid off from Deloitte, which Liu said, “It was, honestly, in many ways a relief,” and decided to pursue acting.

Liu has talked openly about his short time as a Big 4 accountant. In a recent AMA on Reddit, he said, “I was a miserable student, and an even more miserable accountant.”

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Liu said about working in D-town: “Evidently they didn’t think I was [a good fit] either. Eight months in, they laid me off. The first round of cuts, and I was right out.”

He once did a stock photo shoot and one of the photos ended up on the cover of the book, Using QuickBooks Accountant 2015 For Accounting.

In 2017 Liu tweeted:

Call @Alanis Morissette because I just died from irony. I did a stock photo shoot in 2014 and it ended up here. I used to be an accountant. pic.twitter.com/2spNQuG4MH

— Simu Liu (@SimuLiu) February 22, 2017

this is massively ironic because i worked for deloitte out of business school and got laid off because i was so bad hahahaha

— Simu Liu (@SimuLiu) February 22, 2017

‘I was drowning in debt’: How Simu Liu went from failed accountant to Marvel’s first Asian superhero Shang-Chi [i]

Related article:

Accounting Endgame: Who Would Survive Thanos’s Snap?

The post Even a Marvel Superhero Knows How Horrible Working at a Big 4 Firm Can Be appeared first on Going Concern.

“We are monitoring these developments. At this point in time, though, we just don’t believe it’s practical to enter the practice of law.”

— Steve Kimble, CEO of Deloitte Tax in the U.S., said in an interview with Bloomberg Law about the possibility of Deloitte stomping around Big Law’s turf in the States.

What developments is Kimble alluding to? Last May, the Arizona Supreme Court approved the first three entities to be licensed as alternative business structures, which now allows businesses owned by non-lawyers to deliver legal services under new licensing rules the court approved last August. Similar ownership rule changes have also been made in Utah and California, which could open the door for Big 4 firms to practice law in those states, something Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG haven’t been able to do because of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

SOX prevents audit firms from providing certain non-audit services to their clients. BUT …

Big Four officials and legal consultants say changing state bar rules is the key to broadening legal practices in the U.S., not a repeal or revision of Sarbanes-Oxley.

If a Big Four firm wanted to open a U.S. law practice after a state bar legal service ownership rule had been softened, they could do so—they’d only need to heed Sarbanes-Oxley by making sure that legal service clients were not also clients of the company’s audit division, said Jim Jones, a senior fellow with Georgetown Law’s Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession.

“I always assumed that that’s what they intended,” said Jones.

Another option might be to open a new law office as a separate entity, legally distinct from the main Big Four accountancy, he said.

Given the overlap between accounting and law services, it makes sense for the Big 4 to get in on the legal services action. We’ve always called the Big 4 “the Walmart of professional services firms,” but you can’t find a law practice at any of them in the U.S. The closest you would find is Deloitte’s new U.S. Legal Business Services practice, which works with in-house legal offices to streamline functions that track client contracts, invoices, eDiscovery, and other core functions, according to Bloomberg Law. EY’s legal managed services unit also focuses on helping large and medium-sized in-house legal departments streamline and automate their legal services, and John Knox, global head of that unit, told Bloomberg Law last year that the U.S. will be key to its plans, given that it’s the largest legal market in the world by a healthy margin.

Some experts believe that Big Law should be worried about the Big 4’s slow march into U.S. legal markets. A 2017 report from ALM Intelligence states, “Within 10 years, the Big Four could easily become the largest players in the legal industry.” That same report found that nearly two-thirds of law firm leaders were “concerned” or “very concerned” about “alternative legal service providers and accounting firms,” and 69% of these leaders consider accounting firms to be “a major threat.”

On the other hand, a recent study done by Robert Couture, a senior research fellow at the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession and a former executive director of Richmond, VA-based law firm McGuireWoods, found that the majority of the top 100 global law firms “are taking no action as a result of Big Four competition. Either these firms have fully evaluated the threat and concluded that they are not competitive due to the type of work they perform, or they have not seriously conducted a firmwide evaluation of the threats.”

But even with these recent state regulatory changes, it doesn’t seem like the Big 4 firms are in any rush to start practicing law. Arizona legal ethics specialist Lynda Shely told Law.com last month:

“The Big Four accounting firms have figured out how they can provide consulting services and they don’t need to have a law firm,” she said. “They are already functioning by providing multiple services to clients.”

And Kimble told Bloomberg Law:

[P]racticing law in the U.S. could create conflicts with other parts of Deloitte’s business, which includes tax and audit services.

“We serve clients that operate and need assistance in all states, in all countries,” Kimble said. “We just don’t view it as practical.”

But it begs the question: If not now, when?

Deloitte Not Ready to Practice Law in U.S., Tax Unit Chief Says [Bloomberg Law]

The post Deloitte Doesn’t Want to Play In the Sandbox with the Big Law Kids Right Now appeared first on Going Concern.

“I think the whole industry should simply do away with any age-based retirement policy. I don’t think older partners perform any differently. These days people still have got a lot to offer as they get older. They’ve got a lot of experience, they’ve got a lot of know-how. They can be up with trends in industry and technology. They can continue to be good advisers to clients and mentors.”

— Colin Brown, a former audit partner at Deloitte Australia, told the Australian Financial Review when asked about the Big 4’s policies of forcing partners to retire once they reach a certain age.

Brown took Deloitte Australia to court for age discrimination over the firm’s mandatory partner retirement policy. He sought more than $3 million in damages after alleging Deloitte makes its partners retire at age 62, in breach of the Age Discrimination Act. Brown and Deloitte reached a multimillion-dollar settlement in June, according to AFR. As part of the settlement, he had to leave Deloitte.

Brown, now 65, joined Deloitte Australia in June 2014 at age 58 after being headhunted the year before by then-CEO Cindy Hook while working for a Deloitte Global member firm, AFR reported. In his lawsuit, he claimed Deloitte has a policy that expects forces its partners “to retire in or around May following their 62nd birthday,” a requirement that he said breached the Age Discrimination Act, according to AFR. But Brown insisted that the mandatory retirement policy wasn’t included in the partnership agreement he signed:

His appointment was preceded by several months of interviews with Deloitte Australia’s leadership, including meetings where Mr Brown was told he would be staffed across multiple audit clients – a commitment that usually lasts 10 years.

He was also provided with a copy of the firm’s partnership agreement which, according to his statement of claim, “deals with expulsion from the partnership, and other forms of termination or retirement from the partnership, but does not make any provision for retirement on account of age”.

New Deloitte Australia CEO Adam Powick announced last week the firm would stop “expecting” partners to retire when they turn 62, less than six weeks after Brown settled his case with the firm, according to AFR. In addition, KPMG and EY have both removed age-based clauses—58 and 60 years old, respectively—from their partnership agreements.

PwC in Australia is the last Big 4 firm standing, as current and former PwC partners have told AFR that the firm continues to have an understanding that most partners will retire when they reach 55, a policy that the firm has denied.

Age no barrier to keeping up with trends, says ex-Deloitte partner [Australian Financial Review]

Related article:

QOTD: Guy Suing Deloitte Australia Can’t Believe Everyone At the Firm Is Giving Him the Cold Shoulder

The post Ex-Deloitte Australia Partner Says The Olds Still Got Game appeared first on Going Concern.

“Now, if you want to do what you want [with your time] I suggest that you become millionaires, authors or bums. Failing that, I would like to emphasize the rules of the road for scheduling.”

— Alexander Curry, partner and U.K. lead of Deloitte’s strategy and business design practice, Monitor Deloitte, in an internal email sent to junior staff in early July that was seen by the website eFinancialCareers.

This part of the email was prefaced by Curry writing that he recently met with some young’uns in the practice who Curry said told him “what they did with their time was up to them, based on their interests and preferences,” according to eFinancialCareers.

We often like to poke fun at the Big 4 and the top midtier firms for hyping how great their work/life balance is during recruiting trips to college campuses, then reeling in a boatful of future capital market servants, and overworking them as first-years to the point where they barely have enough time to eat a meal or use the bathroom, let alone have a life outside of work.

But in this instance I don’t think Curry is telling junior staffers they have to be chained to their desks 24/7. It seems to be an issue of Gen Y or Gen Z Deloitters who may be a little too picky about what projects they want to work on. Why else would Curry have said, “I would like to emphasize the rules of the road for scheduling” in his email? And what are his “rules of the road” for being assigned to a project? The article from eFinancialCareers didn’t publish that part of the email.

I could be wrong but I didn’t think first- or even second-years have the clout to reject project assignments. More often than not, these projects are not going to be fun and cool and interesting. Willingly putting yourself on the bench because a project doesn’t meet your “preferences” will result in a one-way ticket to Unemployment Land.

Regardless, though, after seeing some of the salaries that first- and second-years make at Deloitte U.K., they’re much closer to being bums than ever becoming a millionaire.

Deloitte consulting partner tells juniors their life is not their own [eFinancialCareers]

The post Did This Deloitte U.K. Partner Unjustly Rip Young Staffers, Or Did He Speak the Truth? appeared first on Going Concern.

“The film is not famous in Germany. Nobody knew of the film until the version with Johnny Depp came out. So when I tell people I was a part of the Willy Wonka movie, nobody knows.”

— Michael Böllner, a tax accountant in Munich who played the obnoxious chocolate-loving 9-year-old slob Augustus Gloop in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, when asked by WGN film critic Dean Richards if any of his clients realize he was in the movie.

The film came out in movie theaters 50 years ago this week.

Stars of ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ celebrate 50 years – @DeanRichards caught up with the cast for an interview:https://t.co/EGv88CFpS5

— WGN Morning News (@WGNMorningNews) June 28, 2021

The post Munich Tax Accountant Says Clients Have No Idea He Was Augustus Gloop In ‘Willy Wonka’ appeared first on Going Concern.

“This is rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. To regulators, they have always been giving warnings that if you close one down, we will be the Big 3 – so leave us alone, as we are ‘too big to fail’. Fundamentally, it’s the leadership culture and aggressively commercial model of these firms which is broken and this cannot be fixed by changing ownership structures.”

— Atul Shah, professor of accounting and finance at City University of London, told City A.M. regarding EY’s plan to centralize power in a new European executive team, which the Financial Times first reported would pool resources across the region but also raises concerns that any financial hit from the Wirecard scandal might also be shared.

And you better believe EY, especially in Germany, will take a financial hit from the Wirecard scandal.

According to the Financial Times, EY’s plan “breaks from the federated business model of the Big 4 firms in an attempt to cut management costs by half and will authorize the central team to decide on partners’ pay.”

The new Europe West region, which will be launched on July 1 (New Year’s Day in the Ernstiverse), will include Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and 20 other western European and north African countries, according to City A.M.

But FT reported that EY partners are concerned the new structure may lead to penalties related to Wirecard being shared beyond the German team that handled the work, and the FT article included this equally wonderful quote about how French EY partners feel about that:

“French partners are going ballistic about it because they say ‘why should we pay now for the Wirecard mess?’,” said one person close to the firm.

Another person close to the matter said there was “not a lot of transparency” on whether any financial hit from Wirecard-related lawsuits or regulatory action will end up being shared by partners in other countries.

But according to sources, FT and City A.M. reported that separate legal entities will be retained in each country despite the centralized power.

Even though the Big 4 are considered “too big to fail,” can EY Germany survive potentially having to settle a slew of lawsuits from Wirecard shareholders for God-knows-how-much money and possible fines from regulators for its horrible auditing of Wirecard and the resulting fraud that collapsed the payments company?

Sure, they could call on partners to invest capital in the firm, but would that be enough to cover all the legal costs and potential legal losses? If not, how could EY Germany stay afloat without money being funneled in from its other mates in the Europe West region or from the Mothership in London? Could EY Germany be the next Laventhol & Horwath?

Who knows! But it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.

EY to centralise power in Europe in break from typical Big Four model [City A.M.]
EY Europe revamp has partners worried over Wirecard damage [Financial Times]

Related articles:

German Investigator Can Confidently Prove EY Was Unbelievably Bad At Auditing Wirecard
EY Partners Told How to EYsplain Wirecard Mess to Clients

The post EY’s Europe Restructuring Is Just ‘Rearranging the Deckchairs on the Titanic’ appeared first on Going Concern.

“The principle of shared audits is very attractive to challengers as long as the share of the audit is meaningful and brings incremental experience to teams. If the challenger firm is just going to get what’s left at the bottom of the barrel, that’s not interesting and doesn’t help.”

— Fiona Baldwin, head of audit at Grant Thornton in the U.K., said about the U.K. government’s proposal for “managed shared audits,” in which a Big 4 firm would work alongside a so-called challenger firm (i.e., a non-Big 4 firm) during the audit of a FTSE 350 company.

Soooo, according to the Financial Times, GT and BDO are considering not pitching for work on shared audits of FTSE 100 companies; however, smaller challenger firms like Mazars and Crowe said they would work with the Big 4 on shared audits of the largest U.K. companies in sectors where they have the required expertise.

ICYMI, here’s what our friend Jim Peterson recently wrote about the shared audit plan in the government’s consultation paper on audit reform in the U.K.:

[T]he Consultation contemplates (¶¶ 8.1.15-.16) that a FTSE 350 client of the Big 4 would be obliged in its audit tender process to identify a “meaningful proportion” of its statutory audit—not less than 10% and desirably closer to 30%, by metrics including audit fees, group revenues, assets, and profits—to be performed by one of the so-called “challengers”—that is, a firm below the Big 4 in size, yet brave enough to deem itself qualified to propose.

Whisper who dares: in a triangular relationship among an issuing company, its lead auditor, and a “challenger,” such an arrangement could satisfy none of the three.

Because the Consultation would not allow for joint bidding (¶ 8.1.17), a Big 4 firm preparing to take the lead would start from an untenable position—not even knowing the identity of the smaller firm, much less its qualifications, reputation, or resources by either industry or geography. Despite which, that lead auditor would, under applicable professional standards and the liability regimes to which its global-level work and overall opinion would be exposed, bear full responsibility for the results of the group audit including the work performed and up-streamed by the “challenger.”

Passing for the moment whether such inhibitions would implicate a scope restriction on the lead auditor’s acceptance and planning (see International Standard on Auditing 300), a lead firm’s risk manager would have cardiac arrest at any lesser level of involvement than essentially 100% re-performance of the work of the “challenger.”

As for the company under audit, its management and audit committee could scarcely with comfort identify between 10% and 30% of its operations to be devolved for audit by a “challenger” whose capability and experience at the FTSE level would range from untested to non-existent.

This whole shared audits plan seems like a big ol’ swing and a miss from a government being pressured to do something, anything to stop the Big 4’s dominance in the U.K. audit market.

UK plan to shake up audit market faces major setback [Financial Times]

Related article:

Audit ‘Reform’ In the UK: The Government Finally Speaks, and Says Little

The post Grant Thornton Is Not a Bottom of the Barrel Firm, Says Grant Thornton appeared first on Going Concern.

“We have championed flexible working for many years prior to COVID-19 and we will continue to do so. This has been built on a culture of trust with our people. We also believe there will always be a need for EY to have office space across the U.K., but how we use our offices in the future will change with a greater emphasis on collaboration rather than as a place for individual working. We will therefore be moving to a hybrid model where our people are able to split their time between their home, office, and client site.

“We will continue to listen carefully to the needs of our people and broader stakeholders as we go through this transition process. We believe a hybrid model creates an opportunity for us to maximise the benefits of both in-person collaboration and flexible remote working for our people and clients.

“Having been champions of flexible working for many years, hybrid working is an evolution rather than a revolution for EY. It’s about trusting and empowering our people to manage their day in a way that works for them, their teams, and their clients.”

— Hywel Ball, chairman of EY U.K., said today about the firm moving to a hybrid working model once social distancing restrictions are lifted in Britain. That means EYers will be able to continue working from home two days a week, then spend the rest of their time in the office or at client sites.

Then in September, EY will “start a period of experimentation in which it will test, refine and evolve its approach to ensure the model meets the needs of its people, clients, and other stakeholders.” This will be accompanied by a longer-term plan to reconfigure EY offices “to create more collaboration spaces for meetings and group working,” the firm said.

As the Financial Times noted today, PwC U.K. told its 22,000 staff in March that they would spend an average of two to three days a week in the office after the pandemic ended, while KPMG U.K. staff will spend a maximum of four days in the office every two weeks.

Deloitte has yet to publicly announce its plans for where Deloitters in the U.K. will work after the pandemic, but the odds are high it will be a similar model to what the other three are doing.

EY staff to spend at least two days a week working from home [Financial Times]

The post Hywel Talks Hybrid At EY U.K. appeared first on Going Concern.

— Anthony Sabino, a defense lawyer specializing in white collar criminal defense, famously said in July 2009 after Bernie Madoff decided not to appeal his 150-year sentence for fraud. As you’ve probably heard by now, Madoff died today in jail at the age of 82.

Madoff won’t appeal 150-year sentence [Associated Press]
Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff dies in prison at 82 [Associated Press]

The post Bernie Madoff Was Into ‘Madoff Schemes’ Before It Was Cool appeared first on Going Concern.

“I didn’t feel I had a choice. I had to fight for justice. And any cursory examination of the facts of the case showed that I was clearly in the right. Given that, I have never been able to understand why EY fought a losing battle for so long.”

— Amjad Rihan, a former audit partner at EY in Dubai, said regarding EY giving up its legal fight on having to pay him $10.8 million in compensation for blowing the whistle on a client that was suspected of laundering money and buying gold from conflict zones.

The U.K. High Court ruled in favor of Rihan last April, after he told the court that EY tried to suppress a report that uncovered multiple problems at Dubai-based gold refiner Kaloti Jewellery International, including allegations about the importation of gold from Moroccan suppliers that had been coated with silver to avoid export restrictions, Bloomberg reported at the time.

Rihan, who was the partner in charge of the 2013 audit of Kaloti, said he wanted to report the suspicious activity at the time, but his bosses watered down reports and told him not to be a narc.

The BBC reported in October 2019:

“If you identify a suspicious transaction you should report it to the authorities and what we identified was way beyond suspicion. Instead of reporting the crimes that I told them about, my bosses just covered them up,” Rihan said.

EY did not just fail to report the crime – it helped to cover it up too.

In the initial report, Kaloti seems to admit buying gold coated with silver. It says: “We acknowledge an incident… with the bars coated with silver.”

But EY rewrote the report so that it said: “We acknowledge transactions… in which there were certain documentary irregularities.”

Shortly after blowing the whistle on EY, Rihan was fired by the firm. In a lawsuit filed in January 2018, he accused EY of “unlawful, unprofessional, and unethical” conduct in its audit of Kaloti.

According to a report in today’s Financial Times, EY said in a statement that it remained “disappointed by the trial judge’s decision and by the subsequent refusal of leave to appeal the underlying findings of fact, with which we firmly disagree.

“With such an impediment, we concluded that our appeal on the law, even if successful, no longer merited the time and resources involved. We therefore withdrew the appeal last year.”

EY drops appeal against $11m Dubai whistleblower case [Financial Times]
EY: Gold, drug money and a major auditor’s ‘cover-up’ [BBC]

Related articles:

Friday Footnotes: EY Takes the L; MNP Hacked; Deloitte’s Super Bot | 4.17.20
EY’s Run of Bad Press Continues
Accounting News Roundup: Shutdown; Former EY Partner Sues Firm; Hong Kong Audit Regs | 01.22.18

The post Successful Whistleblower Slings Some More Mud at EY appeared first on Going Concern.

— David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, said in a message to the investment bank’s 34,000 staff worldwide last Sunday, in which he responded to allegations from 13 junior bankers who said they worked more than 95 hours a week on average and are victims of workplace abuse.

While Solomon told his underlings that “It’s great that this group of analysts went to their management,” it’ll always be Goldman Sachs über alles. From CNN:

Solomon echoed the bank’s statement from last week that pointed to “historic” volumes adding to bankers’ workloads.

“Clients are active, and volumes in a lot of our businesses are at historic highs,” he said. “Of course, the combination of the pandemic and all this activity put stress and strain on everyone at Goldman Sachs.”

Goldman Sachs boss says ‘go extra mile’ despite 95-hour week [BBC]
Goldman Sachs CEO responds to analyst survey describing ‘inhumane’ workplace [CNN]

Related article:

You Can Easily Replace ‘Investment Banking’ with ‘Public Accounting’ In These Reactions to the Goldman Sachs Workplace Abuse Claims

The post Goldman Sachs CEO Must Have Been a Big 4 Partner In a Previous Life appeared first on Going Concern.

— Ken Charman, CEO of uFlexReward, a London-based data company that tracks and compares pay figures across companies, said about the recent resignations of KPMG U.K. Chairman Bill Michael and Deloitte U.K. Deputy CEO Dimple Agarwal, who also was the firm’s diversity and inclusion chief, after employees of the two Big 4 firms complained about their behavior toward staff.

Deloitte Bullying Claims Show Big Four Cultures Resist Change [Bloomberg Law]

Related articles:

KPMG U.K. Chairman Makes Himself Scarce After Calling His Staff Whiny Little Bitches
Right or Wrong: Bill Michael Is No Longer KPMG U.K. Chairman Because He Didn’t Mollycoddle Millennials and Zoomers
Another Big 4 Executive Bites the Dust In the U.K.

The post Big 4 Firms’ Reward Structure Contributes to Their Bullying Ways, Says Guy appeared first on Going Concern.

— Paul Moorhouse, the lawyer representing Deloitte Australia partner Colin Brown, said in federal court on March 5.

Brown, an audit partner, is accusing Deloitte of age discrimination by unfairly forcing partners to retire once they turn 62 years old.

Deloitte has admitted it has an “expectation” partners retire at 62 and a practice of discussing retirement in the months leading up to that, but the firm denies it forces them to leave.

The case is expected to continue on April 20.

Deloitte retirement case making it ‘very difficult’ to stay [Australian Financial Review]

Related articles:

Big 4 Lawsuits: Ex-PwC Partner vs. PwC, Deloitte Partner vs. Deloitte Australia, Watchstone vs. PwC U.K.
Big 4 Lawsuits: Ex-PwC Partner vs. PwC, Deloitte Partner vs. Deloitte Australia, EnviroNet vs. EY

The post Guy Suing Deloitte Australia Can’t Believe Everyone At the Firm Is Giving Him the Cold Shoulder appeared first on Going Concern.

“[W]e’re going to kick you in the teeth, right? And when you punch us back, we’re going to smile at you. And when you knock us down, we’re going to get up and on the way up, we’re going to bite a kneecap off. All right? And we’re going to stand up and it’s going to take two more shots to knock us down. And on the way up, we’re going to take your other kneecap and we’re going to get up and it’s going to take three shots to get us down. And when we do, we’re going to take another hunk out of you. Before long, we’re going to be the last one standing. That’s going to be the mentality.”

— Dan Campbell, new head coach of the Detroit Lions, during his introductory press conference on Thursday.

Dan Campbell references kneecap biting, ‘The Big Lebowski’ in entertaining introduction as Detroit Lions coach [ESPN]

The post Here’s the Mentality You Should Have When Dealing with Clients This Busy Season, Courtesy of the Detroit Lions’ New Head Coach appeared first on Going Concern.

“The IRS remains dedicated to improving service to taxpayers, modernizing its systems and maintaining the integrity of the tax system, while also protecting the health of its workers and American taxpayers. The way the IRS has responded to the challenges we faced this year serve to highlight the significant role that the IRS plays in the overall health of our country—in 2020 and beyond.

“As I look back over the past year, I’m still extremely proud to be able to say, ‘I’m Chuck Rettig, and I work with the Internal Revenue Service.’”

— Commissioner Charles Rettig wrote in the agency’s fiscal year 2020 report, which was released on Tuesday.

[IRS]

The post At Least There Is One IRS Employee Who Is Proud to Say He Works For the IRS appeared first on Going Concern.

Deloitte, infected in late June according to the Journal’s analysis, said in a statement it “has taken steps to address” the malware but hasn’t “observed indications of unauthorized access to our systems at this time.”

Along with Deloitte, a WSJ analysis revealed that the suspected Russian hackers behind the SolarWinds breaches at U.S. government agencies also gained access to major U.S. technology companies, at least one hospital, and a university.

Some of the other victims include:

• Cisco Systems Inc.
• Intel Corp.
• Nvidia Corp.
• VMware Inc.
• Belkin International Inc.
• California Department of State Hospitals
• Kent State University

The WSJ said it identified infected computers at two dozen organizations that installed tainted network monitoring software called SolarWinds Orion that allowed the hackers in via a covertly inserted backdoor. It gave them potential access to a goldmine of sensitive corporate and personal data.

SolarWinds said that it traced activity from the hackers back to at least October 2019 and that it is now working with security companies, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies to investigate the attack, according to the WSJ.

SolarWinds Hack Victims: From Tech Companies to a Hospital and University [Wall Street Journal]

Related articles:

Deloitte Tries To Play It Cool After Cyberattack
Data Breach at Deloitte Hitting Too Close to Home for Accountants
New York Attorney General Wants to Know What’s What Re: Deloitte Hack

The post Don’t Worry Everyone, Deloitte Says Everything Is Fine After SolarWinds Hack appeared first on Going Concern.

— Tory MP Bob Seely, a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said about a report by The Telegraph that revealed the Big 4 firms in the U.K. have employed more than 2,000 members of the Chinese Communist Party, including at least one partner in every firm.

According to The Telegraph:

At least 400 KPMG staff had CCP membership in 2016 according to documents seen by the Telegraph – with one partner praised by a Chinese state website for “making the red gene take root”.

Meanwhile EY and Deloitte each employ more than 800 party members, including Deloitte’s deputy director in China. Some senior staff at PwC are members too, including at least one partner.

Big Four auditors employ hundreds of Chinese Communist Party members [The Telegraph]

The post TIL: There Are a Slew of Chinese Communist Party Members Who Work At the Queen’s Big 4 appeared first on Going Concern.

[Emerson Electric CEO David Farr] had just gotten off the phone with KPMG LLC, Emerson’s auditors since 1938, and he was steaming. The problem: It was June and they were still working from home.

“Look. I make s—, and you can’t tell me how I’m making s— when you’re sitting in your goddamn living room,” Mr. Farr recalled yelling days after the interaction. “Get your a— out to my factories, look at my people on the line, and tell me if they’re telling me the truth or lying. That’s what you’re supposed to do. That’s why I pay you $25 million a year.”

Mr. Farr felt remote work was bad in the long-term, so much so that he had advised his son to get back on the road for his job as a field marketing manager for Caterpillar Inc. in Atlanta before the company began bringing people back.

Travel, pay for it yourself, ask for forgiveness later, Mr. Farr barked at his son.

The Covid Crisis Taught David Farr the Power and Limits of Leadership [Wall Street Journal]

The post KPMG Auditors Working From Home During a Pandemic Was a Major Inconvenience For One CEO appeared first on Going Concern.

“You’re methodical, you think about numbers and percentages. The personality type … it’s a good fit. Learning to be resilient and not letting the bad experiences get you down is how to make it in the end.”

— Brice Pavey, an audit associate at Anders CPAs + Advisors in downtown St. Louis, said about working in accounting and training for the 2024 Paris Olympic trials as a marathon runner.

Gwen Jorgensen would be proud.

St. Louis accountant has dreams of running in the Olympics [KSDK-TV]

The post TIL: There Are Similarities Between Being an Auditor and Training as an Olympic Marathon Runner appeared first on Going Concern.

— Katrina Schmidt, a resident of Washington, DC, when asked her thoughts on MSNBC political analyst and election night “map guy” Steve Kornacki being named one of People’s Sexiest Men of 2020.

Rejoice, Nerds! Steve Kornacki Has Shattered the Hotness Glass Ceiling [The Washingtonian]

The post Deloitte Consultants Are Wannabe Nerds Who Aren’t Sexy, Says Woman appeared first on Going Concern.

“The fact that I am [sitting] here being accused of dishonesty, and have never been dishonest in my business life … is frankly outrageous. This whole case here is just a witch hunt and if [the FRC] can’t win the case, which they shouldn’t based on the facts, then it is simply a process of trying to trash my name in the press.” [Italics emphasis added.]

— David Costley-Wood, a restructuring partner at KPMG U.K., said during a Financial Reporting Council disciplinary tribunal hearing Nov. 24.

Italics were added to “witch hunt” because according to an Oct. 28, 2019 article by The Nation, Donald Trump tweeted those two words a total of 294 times from the start of his presidency up until when the article was published.

Anyhoo, back to Costley-Wood’s hearing. Law360 reported today:

KPMG restructuring adviser David Costley-Wood accused the Financial Reporting Council of trying to discredit a meeting from August 2010 — with Silentnight, HIG Capital and prospective administrators, in which he tried to prevent the bedding company from entering into administration — by making fresh allegations of dishonesty against him during his cross-examination.

The FRC alleged on Monday that Costley-Wood had allowed the pensions regulator to believe that a “fake” note recording the meeting was created at the time, when it was in fact created 13 months later in response to a request for information from the watchdog.

Costley-Wood said he attended the meeting with the “sole intention” of persuading HIG not to put Silentnight into administration. He said he was facing opposition from a prospective administrator, who wanted to put the company into insolvency for the administration fee.

“What I really don’t understand is there is an insolvency practitioner at this meeting trying to persuade HIG to put it into administration, and I come along and try to persuade HIG not to — yet I am the person being accused of misconduct,” Costley-Wood said.

The FRC is alleging that KPMG and Costley-Wood were “seriously conflicted” when they arranged the sale of Silentnight, the U.K.’s largest bed and mattress manufacturer, to buyout fund HIG Capital, according to the Financial Times. The sale in 2011 took the form of a prepack administration.

FT reported on Nov. 16:

The watchdog claimed KPMG had courted HIG as a client for about nine months before it was appointed as administrator to Silentnight, meaning it had an “interest in pleasing HIG”. This presented a conflict with its duties to the company’s creditors and shareholders.

KPMG then “assisted” HIG in its plan to force a liquidity crisis at Silentnight by acquiring and then calling in some of its debt, the FRC claimed. This allowed HIG to purchase the business out of insolvency while its £100m pension liabilities were transferred to the UK’s pensions lifeboat, the Pension Protection Fund.

KPMG Partner Accuses FRC Of Running ‘Witch Hunt’ At Trial [Law360]
KPMG ‘helped’ buyout fund dump £100m Silentnight pensions liabilities [Financial Times]

The post KPMG U.K. Restructuring Partner Channels Angry Donald Trump During Disciplinary Hearing appeared first on Going Concern.

— Spotlight on Corruption, an anti-corruption campaign group based in the U.K., wrote in a recent letter to the Crown Procurement Service, asking it to examine if government business should be awarded to EY in the future.

The SoC called on the government to prevent EY from being able to bid on U.K. government contracts for three years—basically because of EY’s propensity for shitty auditing, thus leading to scandals that have rocked companies like Luckin Coffee, Wirecard, and NMC Health.

Call for three-year ban on EY bidding on public contracts [The Guardian]

The post EY Shouldn’t Be Awarded Any New U.K. Government Contracts For Three Years Because EY Is Bad, Says Some Group appeared first on Going Concern.

— Andy Majkut, owner of Majkut CPAs in Elyria, OH, said about a deer shattering a double-pane window at his office last month.

If that’s not the craziest thing Majkut has seen during his career in public accounting, what is? Let’s speculate:

• He was mooned by a client.
• He was on an inventory count of human body parts.
• He walked in on two co-workers getting down and dirty in the conference room.
• He worked with colleagues who were planning for the Rapture.

Your suggestions are welcome.

One for the books: Ohio accountant startled when deer crashes through office window [Fox 23 News]

The post A Deer Crashing Through His Office Window Apparently Isn’t the Craziest Thing to Happen to Ohio Accountant appeared first on Going Concern.

— Georg Holm, bassist for the legendary Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, said about the band’s accountant Gunnar Ásgeirsson, who worked at PwC.

I’ve got a few Sigur Rós albums on CDs that I burned from friends, but I can’t say I’m their biggest fan, much like the band’s members aren’t the biggest fans of P. Dubs and paying taxes, according to The Guardian:

Sigur Rós have claimed they face financial ruin or even jail following an “unjust and draconian” second prosecution for tax evasion.

The band members have admitted they evaded 151m Icelandic krona (£840,000) in taxes between 2011 and 2014. They have pleaded guilty, apologised and paid back the money, plus fines and interest. The band claim they were unaware of the tax evasion and blame their accountant.

However, they face a second trial at a separate Icelandic court. The band, which now includes just two of the original members, claim that the second trial is a breach of European convention on human rights rules on double jeopardy. They say the second court is likely to impose an additional fine of at least 200% of the tax evaded. Some of the band’s former members say they would not have the funds to pay and would find themselves jailed.

Seems like everything is not All Alright for Sigur Rós, amirite?

Sigur Rós criticise ‘unjust’ second trial for Icelandic tax evasion [The Guardian]

The post Sigur Rós Isn’t a Huge Fan of PwC or Paying Taxes appeared first on Going Concern.

— Accenture lawyers said in the consulting firm’s challenge to Deloitte Consulting being awarded a $135 million contract by the state of Florida to modernize the state’s Medicaid system.

Deloitte, Accenture, IBM, and other consulting firms competed for the contract, with the agency ultimately entering into negotiations with Deloitte and Accenture before choosing Deloitte.

Accenture and IBM are protesting the contract, saying the criteria was changed in the middle of the procurement process and that the AHCA didn’t factor in Deloitte’s previous work on the state’s crappy unemployment system.

Accenture’s and IBM’s challenges were sent to the state’s Division of Administrative Hearings on Sept. 14. Administrative Law Judge G.W. Chisenhall has been assigned to hear the cases.

Florida considers hiring same firm behind state unemployment website to build Medicaid system [Orlando Weekly]

Related articles:

Florida Governor Is Not Impressed with Deloitte’s Handiwork
Awarding Deloitte a New State Contract Just Goes to Show That Florida’s Leadership Is Dumb
Deloitte Consulting Winning Florida’s $135 Million Medicaid Contract Has Left Accenture and IBM Feeling a Bit Pissy
Deloitte’s Winning Bid Amount for $135 Million Medicaid Contract Is Being Kept Secret by Florida for Some Reason

The post Deloitte Consulting Is Irresponsible, Lacks Integrity, and Is Unreliable, Says Accenture appeared first on Going Concern.

Why? Not only have most Australian Green Dotters taken a 20% cut in pay since May (which CEO Richard Deutsch said was “the least worst option” to preserve as many jobs as possible at the firm), but they also ended up having to witness the firm bringing the hammer down on 700 of their colleagues in June.

One anonymous Deloitter who talked to The Sydney Morning Herald recently expressed his or her displeasure with how the firm handled its pandemic austerity measures (bold emphasis added):

One of the Deloitte employees said pay packets should have been immediately reinstated once the company cut jobs. “After all the pay cuts were to avoid job losses.”

“After the redundancies the headcount matched production of the firm and therefore everyone is busy with work – no reason therefore to continue pay cuts. The only reason to continue pay cuts it to protect partner profit.”

Staff signed up to the in-house superannuation scheme also had life insurance payouts reduced by 20 per cent and many claim they were not told about these changes before they were implemented.

The employee said morale at the company had been destroyed as trust in the company’s strategy has been eroded. “This has hit employees hard. The integrity of the firm is gone.”

The 20 per cent pay cuts applied only to workers earning more than $65,000, are set to be reversed on October 1. Partner pay was cut by 25 per cent.

This person isn’t the first Deloitte Australia employee to flame management over the pay cuts. An analyst in audit and assurance got his 15 minutes of fame around the usual chatter sites in April by sending the following letter to Deloitte bigwigs.

Enjoy!

To the Deloitte Executive (1) by Jason Bramwell

‘The integrity of the firm is gone’: Deloitte, KPMG staff angry at pay cuts [The Sydney Morning Herald]

Related articles:

Winners and Losers in Accounting: Coronavirus Edition
Layoff Watch ’20: Deloitte’s Purging Continues, This Time In Australia

The post Pandemic Pay Cuts Didn’t Sit Well with One Deloitte Employee In Australia appeared first on Going Concern.

“Most would have accepted a pay cut because they thought it would save jobs.

“In their final weeks they were not at peak earning capacity while being charged at their normal rate. These are acts of bad faith.”

— Carly Stebbing, founder and principal of employment law firm Resolution123, when asked about Deloitte Australia cutting staff pay by 20% and then cutting the jobs of more than 700 employees, which Stebbing called an “act of corporate bullying.”

Deloitte cuts more than 700 staff in eight days [Australian Financial Review]

Related articles:

QOTD: Deloitte Australia COO Begs Partners to Stay Billable
Layoff Watch ’20: Deloitte’s Purging Continues, This Time In Australia

The post Deloitte Australia Has This Corporate Bullying Thing Down Pat appeared first on Going Concern.

“When the times are good, [PwC] hires young talent en masse, let them work through day and night, and when it comes down to it, put the team out on the street.”

— an unnamed PwC Switzerland employee, when asked what they think about the firm’s cost-cutting measures due to COVID-19, which include deferring promotions and raises, partners taking a 20% salary reduction, and possible layoffs.

PwC stops promotions and wage increases [Inside Paradeplatz]

The post Person From Switzerland Has the PwC Playbook Down Pat appeared first on Going Concern.

— Tim Ryan, PwC US chairman, when asked during an interview if he has learned anything about PwC that he didn’t know before the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘Conditions for change have never been better’: Tim Ryan on CEOs’ big challenge [Protocol]

Related article:

QOTD: Tim Ryan Isn’t Worried About Poaching at PwC Because of Heart or Something

The post What Tim Ryan Learned About PwC During the Pandemic Also Applies to Roofers appeared first on Going Concern.

— said an anonymous clothing manufacturer based in northern England, who said Deloitte has ignored his company’s offers to make medical gowns for healthcare workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic since mid-March.

So here’s what’s going on in the U.K.: The Cabinet Office hired Deloitte several weeks ago to advise government officials on personal protective equipment purchases. In March when the coronavirus hit England, it became apparent that healthcare workers were quickly running out of masks, gloves, and gowns, and a whole helluva lot more was needed.

So the government flashed a large spotlight in the London sky, like the Bat-Signal but instead of Batman’s emblem it had a silhouette of Boris Johnson’s head and messy hair, and asked manufacturers and wholesalers to make more PPE.

The government set up an email address specifically to receive offers from manufacturers and put a team of Green Dotters in charge of going through all the emails.

And that’s when the problems began, according to The Telegraph:

The email address was overwhelmed with offers – more than 8,000 at the last count. They ranged from major manufacturers like Airbus, to schools to make 3D visors and even elderly ladies offering the use of their sewing machines.

Hundreds of emails sent to the Cabinet Office address by wholesalers and manufacturers have been met with the same automated reply.

“Thank you for your offer of support,” the message reads. “We will be back in contact shortly to establish more information around the potential opportunity.”

For many firms, that was last they heard. Despite repeated emails and phone calls, the Deloitte team never replied.

Which is exactly what happened to the dude whose quote we used.

But hey, at least Deloitte has done a bang-up job in the U.S. building systems for states, like Florida, to flawlessly handle all their residents’ unemployment benefits claims during the coronavirus crisis.

‘Useless’ Deloitte accused of PPE failings amid COVID-19 deal secrecy [openDemocracy]
How the decision to take control of PPE is coming back to bite the government [The Telegraph]

The post Please Don’t Call Deloitte If Your House Is On Fire appeared first on Going Concern.

— Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said about the state’s unemployment claims website, CONNECT, which was built by Deloitte Consulting in 2013 when Rick Scott was Florida governor.

The system has pretty much been a pile of shit from Day 1. The Tampa Bay Times reported in late March:

But as auditors made clear last year, state officials failed to fix fundamental problems with the site dating back to its launch in October 2013, when Florida’s unemployment rate was falling.

Building a new unemployment site was one of Scott’s top priorities, and the contract to build it was awarded to Deloitte Consulting, a major contractor whose high-powered lobbyists at the time included Brian Ballard, the co-chair of Scott’s inaugural finance committee.

Deloitte had problems from the start. Two years before the site launched, the Department of Economic Opportunity was warning the project wasn’t working right and and had fallen behind schedule. Department officials were threatening to fine Deloitte $15,000 per day until it revised its final design. At one point they threatened to fire the company.

When the site launched, website glitches locked thousands of recipients out of the system and delayed their payments by weeks.

The site, in violation of state law, required applicants to sign in with their Social Security numbers, and the site had so many problems that people found their claims denied or were paid claims when they weren’t qualified for.

To add insult to injury, the site cost taxpayers $77 million, $14 million more than originally estimated.

Now, as thousands of newly out-of-work Floridians are trying to file claims for unemployment benefits and receive payments during the COVID-19 pandemic, the website keeps crashing.

And here comes the lawsuits:

The first action was filed Thursday against Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. It seeks to compel payments through the reemployment system that have not been made.

A lawsuit was also filed Friday against the governor, DEO and Deloitte Consulting, LLC, who had been contracted to develop the web-based claims site years ago. The suit alleges negligence in creating and administering the system.

“Persons like Plaintiffs named herein have not been able to obtain benefits that they should have been able to obtain due to gross negligence and/or negligence of defendants. The system design and/or implementation is a failure,” it states.

Can you hear that laughing sound? That’s coming from the state of Rhode Island.

Gov. DeSantis says unemployment system was ‘designed to fail’ [Florida Politics]
Ron DeSantis was warned about Florida’s broken unemployment website last year, audit shows [Tampa Bay Times]
Lawsuit filed over state unemployment system, attorneys call it a “colossal failure” [WFTS-TV]

The post Florida Governor Is Not Impressed with Deloitte’s Handiwork appeared first on Going Concern.

— Andrew Griffiths, chief operating officer of Deloitte Australia, during a Zoom meeting with partners on April 15.

The firm’s overall utilization rate dropped from about 71% in the last week of March to about 66% in the first two weeks of April. This was against a planned rate of 72%.

Audit and assurance was the lone bright spot, with a utilization rate of 78%. However, consulting had a utilization rate of around 68% in the first two weeks of this month, from 72% in March. Utilization has fallen to as low as 61% across Deloitte Australia’s financial services, risk advisory, and tax divisions.

Deloitte cuts staff pay 20pc to save partners 50pc [Australian Financial Review]

The post Deloitte Australia COO Begs Partners to Stay Billable appeared first on Going Concern.

As the first female CEO of a major professional services firm, Cathy Engelbert learned a valuable lesson: Never trust a spreadsheet made by men.

“No spreadsheet ever yielded a great result for women,” says Engelbert, who recently became commissioner of the WNBA after a 33-year career at Deloitte. That’s because the assumptions behind the numbers inevitably reflect the perspective of a male-dominated business.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert on Texts From Kobe Bryant and the Tyranny of Spreadsheets [Worth]

The post Former Deloitte CEO Disses Men and Their Spreadsheets appeared first on Going Concern.

— Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, said during an appearance on CNBC’s The Exchange on Feb. 26. She added that while the Fed is taking a wait-and-see approach, it might have to lower interest rates if the economy weakens enough as a result of the coronavirus.

Here is the video of Swonk’s appearance on The Exchange talking about the economic impact of the coronavirus:

The post Grant Thornton Economist Says Coronavirus Is an ‘Economic Pandemic’ appeared first on Going Concern.

— Bob Charron, tax practice leader at Friedman, told Accounting Today when asked what challenges CPAs will face during this year’s busy season.

An inside look at the 2020 tax season [Accounting Today]

The post This Tax Season Is Going to Be Easier Than Last Year’s, Right? RIGHT? appeared first on Going Concern.

— Lawrence Pon, CPA, told the Washington Post when asked about outlandish tax deductions he’s had clients try to claim.

People try to claim the darnedest tax deductions to reduce their bills [Washington Post]

The post No, You Can’t Deduct a Harley as a Medical Expense appeared first on Going Concern.

— Richard Bove, an analyst at Odeon Capital Group LLC, told the Wall Street Journal when asked why accounting expertise seems to be no longer required for the CFO role. According to data from Korn Ferry, only 36% of CFOs in the 1,000 biggest U.S. public companies last year were CPAs—a six-year low.

Our friend Blake Oliver hypothesized on LinkedIn why Wall Street doesn’t care about that anymore:

Could it be that all these new accounting standards aren’t actually making the financial statements more useful to investors?

Maybe? Any other reasons you guys can think of?

Why You Don’t Need to Be an Accountant to Be a CFO [Wall Street Journal]

The post CPAs No Longer Have to Be CFOs When They Grow Up appeared first on Going Concern.

“When I talked to him, we talked about, frankly, talent and how do we retain more talent in the U.S., in particular talent that goes to top schools and so forth. He was very much in favor of retaining that talent in the U.S. so EY can hire them. So that was pretty good.”

— EY Global Chairman and CEO Carmine Di Sibio, who told Yahoo Finance about his brief chat with President Trump during the International Business Council meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22.

Related article:

Big 4 CEOs Crash Davos’ Economic Party

The post Donald Trump Is Apparently the New Head of Recruiting at EY appeared first on Going Concern.

— Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Missouri), member of the House Committee on Financial Services’ Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets, to FASB Chairman Russell Golden regarding the FASB’s decision not to conduct an economic impact study before implementing its current expected credit loss (CECL) standard.

Here’s a video of Luetkemeyer’s tongue-lashing of Golden during the oversight hearing on Jan. 15:

Bipartisan scolding of FASB chief raises lender hopes of softer CECL [American Banker]

The post FASB’s CECL Standard Is a Disaster Waiting to Happen appeared first on Going Concern.

— Daniel Sutherland, a partner at the U.K. business law firm Fox Williams, when asked if a large decline in profits and recent layoffs at KPMG U.K. will eventually lead to an existential crisis.

The post KPMG Is the Cockroach of the Big 4 appeared first on Going Concern.

— Tim Ryan, PwC US chairman, when asked on the Fox Business show Mornings with Maria if there’s a lot of poaching going on at PwC.

Related articles:

EisnerAmper Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Part I
Weaver Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Part I
Blumshapiro Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Part I

The post Tim Ryan Isn’t Worried About Poaching at PwC Because of Heart or Something appeared first on Going Concern.

— Mark Vorsatz, Andersen Global chairman and Andersen Tax CEO, who is a former Arthur Andersen partner, on why Andersen Global firms only provide legal and tax services.

[Bloomberg Tax]

The post There’s a Good Reason Why Andersen Global Firms Don’t Do Audit Work, Chairman Says appeared first on Going Concern.

— President Trump, when asked if he would release his tax returns, which he claims are still under audit by the IRS.

[Roll Call]

The post Notorious Liar Most Likely Telling Another Lie About His Finances appeared first on Going Concern.

Cooper, who moderated the discussion, mentioned that people do not have linear careers anymore and that he still thinks of his career in a linear way, even though that’s probably an old-fashioned way of thinking about it.

After talking about the courage it takes for people “to raise their hand to do different things” and the “reskilling” that is going to be required, Engelbert said “everybody is worried about the robot apocalypse, and are we not going to be doing what we are doing today in five to 10 years?”

Well, we found out that nobody is more worried about the robot apocalypse than Engelbert’s own son (6:42 mark of video below):

It is an interesting time, and people are worried. I have a teenage son who came to me the other day and said, “You know, mom, I’m afraid a robot is going to take over my job someday.” And I said, “Thank goodness he’s actually thinking about this kind of stuff rather than playing video games and things like that.”

Poor kid. This is actually the second time his mom has told a large audience about his robot fears in the past few weeks. Speaking at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit on Sept. 20, when asked about the evolution of artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation in and outside tech companies, Engelbert said:

I’m much more of an optimist on this than anyone because as I look at it, technology, we’ve seen this movie before. I realize now it’s exponential, it’s changing fast, people are worried about the robot apocalypse. Even my own son, when he was 15 years old, two years ago, who was interested in baseball and Xbox and that was about it, came to me and said, “Mom, I’m worried about something,” and I said, “What are you worried about?” He said, “That a robot is going to take over my job someday.” And I was like, “Yes! He’s worried about something real!”

And as it turns out, Engelbert has used her son as an example a couple of other times within the past year or so. In a LinkedIn post on March 21, 2017, she wrote:

Take life sciences. When I began working with the industry, clients didn’t have opportunities to leverage digitized data to quicken the drug discovery process. And it would be years before robots could precisely grip test tubes, vials, and petri dishes to help with sensitive lab tests. That was a human’s job!

Dramatic shifts in the how and the where of the future of work recently prompted my 15-year-old to ask, “Mom, are robots going to take my job someday?” …

I told him: “Don’t worry—I’ve never met a machine with courage and empathy.”

Her son was also brought up in a May 11, 2017, Quartz article:

The prospects of an automated, robotic future isn’t just the obsession of labor economists and science fiction writers. It’s also unnerving 15-year-old boys.

When Deloitte CEO Cathy Engelbert’s son told her he worried there wouldn’t be a job for him when he graduated, the head of one of the largest accounting and consulting firms in the world did what any good parent would do: She sat him down in front of The Jetsons.

The Jetsons, an early 1960s cartoon about a family in the far future, “was way ahead of its time,” Engelbert tells Quartz. The show explored society’s anxieties about automation and the future of work. George Jetson, the father, works two hours a week, and the family’s housework is performed by Rosie, the robot maid. Even the family dog, Astro, is reliant on automation—he is walked on a treadmill.

“I wanted him to see that in the ’60s and ’70s, we worried about it, too,” Engelbert said.

The point Engelbert is trying to make is a good one, as the fears about robots taking jobs away from workers in all industries are valid. She said at the recent Yahoo Finance AMS:

I think there’s actually real opportunity around incorporating AI or bots with human ingenuity in creating opportunity. And we’re seeing it in our business every day. … Our talent is more psyched about what they are doing, especially millennial, digital, Gen Z talent.

I think there’s more of an opportunity to shift and change jobs. I mean, we already have 6.7 million jobs out there that haven’t been filled, so I think the skills gap is something we really need to focus on. What are the skills for those jobs? Are those jobs that people are going to want to have? Are they subject to automation and maybe we can free up other jobs with this HI shift?

It is something I deal with every day because every day we are deploying a new technology. I read the other day, instead of mass unemployment, mass redeployment. It’s going to take money and capital to redeploy and reskill.

But her son’s gotta be like, “Jeez, mom, you know what I told you when I was 15? GIVE IT A REST ALREADY!!!”

The post Deloitte CEO Cathy Engelbert Is Still Talking About Her Teenage Son’s Fear of Robots appeared first on Going Concern.

From Crain’s New York Business:

For New York’s largest accounting firms, the biggest tax overhaul in decades has put significantly more work on their staffers’ plates.

But it’s not just New York CPAs who are still struggling to wrap their heads around the sweeping changes to the tax code. Accounting Today recently spoke to enrolled agents and CPAs from California, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, and Minnesota, many of whom lamented the complexities of the new law and the lack of guidance from the IRS.

David Lifson, CPA, partner at New York-based Crowe LLP, told Crain’s that keeping up with all the tax changes requires about 50% more time this year than it did last year.

But you know who doesn’t give a shit? Clients. They want to know, like, right now, how the tax changes will impact their financial futures.

Lifson explained what the life of a CPA is like nowadays dealing with impatient tax clients:

[C]lients are returning with myriad questions, turning tax season into a yearlong process.

“Clients want to make a plan for three to five years, but we’re not fortune tellers and wizards,” Lifson said. “There’s always uncertainty in tax law because there are changes all the time—and there’s still the likelihood of much more.

“The changes on Dec. 22 were just the beginning,” he added, “as Republicans introduced three more bills this month. Clients can take positions today, but they have to keep checking with me to see if anything has changed.

CPAs may have hemorrhoids, cornered the market on blue button-up shirts, and have poor personal hygiene, but what they don’t have is a crystal ball.

Image: iStock/nullplus

The post CPA Reminds Tax Clients ‘We’re Not Fortune Tellers and Wizards’ appeared first on Going Concern.

The post Enron Whistleblower: WikiLeaks > SEC appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Sarah Jurado, a spokeswoman for Ernst & Young in the UK, who sounds like she’s got the talking points down, quoted in Bloomberg.

The post Did We Also Mention Our Flexible Work Schedule Arrangements? appeared first on Going Concern.

If you want to call attention to bullshit political games, we humbly suggest, “bullshit political games.” Not this:

“This is a huge loophole for Enron-type accounting … In the rule they pass tomorrow they are going to reiterate that the chair of the budget committee has the authority to come up with his own estimate of the budget impact of various pieces of legislation.”

So aggressive revenue recognition, abusing mark-to-market accounting and SPEs = marginalizing the Congressional Budget Office. Got it?

Dems Accuse GOP Of ‘Enron-Type Accounting’ And Assaults On CBO [HuffPo]

The post Does Anyone Think Chris Van Hollen Actually Knows What ‘Enron-type accounting’ Is? appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Anthony Sabino, professor of law and business at St. John’s University

The post But What if the Auditors Were Fools? appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Steve Forbes can’t quite believe what he’s hearing.

The post Some People Need to Get Some Perspective on This Tax Cut Compromise appeared first on Going Concern.

The post Google CFO: We Win, Facebook Wins, Everybody Wins! appeared first on Going Concern.

The post IFRS: Four. More. Years. appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Tyler Durden

The post Wanted: Big 4 Bean Spillers appeared first on Going Concern.

~ President Obama is making us nauseous.

The post At Least Someone Is Optimistic About the Tax Cut Stalemate appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Joe Kristan has a morbid outlook.

The post Memo to the Wealthy: Death Is Looking Like a Good Option appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Deloitte Global Chairman John Connolly, responding to UK lawmakers about the risk of a Big 4 failure.

The post Your Concern About a Big 4 Failure Is Duly Noted appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Nancy Folbre, economics professor the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The post Fiscal Chickenhawks appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Joe Kristan hasn’t considered the risk of tryptophan hangovers.

The post Tax Cuts Can Wait appeared first on Going Concern.

~ From a report issued by the Government Accountability Office

The post GAO: SEC Basically Needs to Replace Their Entire Accounting System appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Former Senate Budget Chairman Pete Domenici who, along with Alice Rivlin, rolled out their fiscal deficit solution today that includes a 6.5% national sales tax.

The post Spreading the Sacrifice Around appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Erskine Bowles

The post We’ll Drag Them Kicking and Screaming if We Have To appeared first on Going Concern.

~ The soon-to-be former Speaker of the House is willing to talk about this one.

The post Nancy Pelosi Will Have You Know That She Wasn’t Responsible for the New 1099 Requirement Sneaking into Healthcare Reform appeared first on Going Concern.

~ The status message of an accountant in China who was fired a few days later, thus preventing her from ranking any of her attractive co-workers.

The post This Is How Email Scandals Start appeared first on Going Concern.

~ The Illinois Senator doesn’t like the sales pitch from Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson.

The post Dick Durbin Isn’t Buying This Fiscal Commission Report appeared first on Going Concern.

~ One of those “letters” that legislators write to bureaucrats as a form of grandstanding. This particular letter was from Max Baucus, Chuck Grassley, Sandy Levin and Dave Camp to Doug Shulman

The post Congress: Come Hell, High Water or Spiteful Democrats, We’ll Patch the AMT in the Lame Duck Session appeared first on Going Concern.

The post New Jersey Should Send a ‘Thank You’ Note to California and New York appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Brian Gladden, CFO of Dell, comes off a little sassy discussing the possibility of the company going private.

The post Keeping the SEC Out of Our Hair Is Always on the Table appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Robert Frank, on Washington’s rejection of Initiative 1098.

The post Washingtonians Mind Their Own Wallets appeared first on Going Concern.

The post Wanted: Big Brothers, Big Sisters for Accountants appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Francine McKenna says it’s a longshot.

The post Handicapping Ernst & Young appeared first on Going Concern.

~ The Russian Prime Minister won’t be waiting until 2011 to make up his mind.

The post Vladimir Putin Is a Proud Member of the IFRS Fan Club appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Dick Patten, President of The American Family Business Institute, says the estate tax is toast now that Senate candidates like Sharron Angle, Ken Buck and Rand Paul are on board with the AFBI’s “Death Tax Repeal Pledge.”

The post Death to Death Tax Denial appeared first on Going Concern.

~ The aforementioned Lynn Turner, cringes at the thought of low prices.

The post The Big 4 Greeters Aren’t Necessary, Thank You appeared first on Going Concern.

~ William K. Wolfrum wants everyone to chip in.

The post A Non-Discriminatory Faith Tax appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Stephen Pedneault, a veteran forensic accountant, isn’t crazy about all the benefits of technology.

The post Tree Huggers Are Indirectly Responsible for Undetected Fraud appeared first on Going Concern.

~ William G. Gale, Miller Chair at the Brookings Institution and co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center

The post What Happens When Congress Says, “We’ve Got Time. We’ll Get to It” appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Craig Jennings, federal fiscal policy analyst at OMB Watch, doesn’t have much faith that Congress.

The post Betting on Estate Tax Inaction appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Pastor Cary Gordon, of Cornerstone World Outreach in Sioux City, Iowa, has some strange ambitions.

The post Iowa Pastor Practically Begging the IRS to Sue Him, Consume His Life for Years to Come appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Dhani Mau, over at our sassy (former) sister site Fashionista, avoids the ED drugs.

The post Does That Make PwC Crestor? appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Sir David Tweedie talking up the new rules that were published by the IASB today.

The post Off-Balance Sheet Accounting 2.0 appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Deloitte Global CEO Jim Quigley (who must have been making the rounds today) doesn’t see a return to the Big 5.

The post So ‘Global 6 Accounting Organization’ Is Out of the Question? appeared first on Going Concern.

The post Old Rich Guy Makes It Clear Where He Stands on Taxes appeared first on Going Concern.

~ It isn’t known what the Credit Agricole Securities analyst thinks of the auditors.

The post Citi Failed to Impress Mike Mayo appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Headline over at Bloomberg BusinessWeek

The post Exquisite Insults: PCAOB Edition appeared first on Going Concern.

~ Ezra Klein is not seeking reelection.

The post You Won’t Hear This on the Campaign Trail appeared first on Going Concern.