Search Results for: ever reads

Accountants coping with change. PTIN fees tossed out. New audit report from PCAOB.

Image courtesy of Dollar Photo Club

A few interesting reads for accountants.

  • If we keep learning, robots will free us up from dreary work but won’t take away our jobs
  • Federal court keeps PTIN requirement in place but overturns the fee requirement
  • PCAOB expands standard auditor’s report

5/30/17 – Bill Sheridan at Business Learning Institute – Robots aren’t stealing our jobs. They’re setting us free. – Mr. Sheridan describes how we as accountants could thrive as computers take away the basic number crunching parts of our work.

Those tasks we do that can be automated will shift. That will leave the strategic thinking, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and anticipation to us.

In my little brain, I have a way to describe this – So let’s say you have a program that can review 100% of disbursements instead of you drawing a sample of 40 or 60 items. Cool.

In any client that still uses humans to run their organizations, how many exceptions do you know think you will need to address?

Like a persistent vampire in a horribly bad horror movie, IFRS just won’t stay dead in the U.S.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

I thought IFRS in the US was dead. In case you didn’t know, I have a fairly strong opinion on the issue.

A presenter at the CalCPA’s Accounting and Auditing Conference on April 25, 2017 had the following comment on IFRS at the end of the presentation:

Death, taxes, cockroaches, and IFRS aren’t going away.

My immediate thought:

Unfortunately, that now seems to be true.

IFRS is baaaack

He perceives the pendulum of discussion on IFRS is swinging back to the topic being on the table.

His comments consistently contained the inference that IFRS is one body of knowledge, consistent in its application in every country across the planet that has adopted the rules.

Fun reading for accountants

Manual accounting records. Anyone miss those? Didn't think sol. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Manual accounting records. Anyone miss those? Didn’t think so. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

A few fun reads for accountants:

  • Why no Hollywood movie will ever show a profit.
  • Adrienne Gonzalez is back at Going Concern, talking about the idea of TBTF Big 4 firms possibly, maybe, becoming SIFI (not likely to ever happen, but a fun read anyway).
  • Talent shortage appearing in the CPA world.
  • Research from Management of an Accounting Practice now available.

9/14/11 (yes, 2011) – The Atlantic – How Hollywood Accounting Can Make a $450 Million Movie “Unprofitable” – If you have never taken a look at the astoundingly creative accounting in Hollywood, this article will give you a superb introduction.

Several years ago I took a fraud education CPE course in which the instructor went on a tangent to explain why no Hollywood movie has ever made a profit and none of them ever will.

Common findings on audits during peer review

Image is from AICPA. Used under Fair Use since, after all, I am promoting three of their products.
Image is from AICPA. Used under Fair Use since, after all, I am promoting their products.

The AICPA’s annual Audit Risk Alert General Accounting and Auditing Developments—2016/17 provides a useful summary of common peer review findings on audits.

What I like about this particular list is that it is short enough to actually provide focus. Frequently such lists have the filter set so broadly that the list covers practically all the findings that have surfaced during all peer reviews. Sometimes I’m left with the feeling that a list of findings reads like a list of every single step you need to perform during an audit.

Here is the short list provided in the risk alert, along with my explanation:

Incorrect dating of audit report – The auditor’s report needs to be dated no earlier than when sufficient appropriate audit evidence has been obtained to support the opinion. This means …

There are more issues revealed by the Panama Papers leaks than just tax evasion. Some contrarian opinions on how to look at offshore banking.

Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

The primary focus in media coverage is on tax evasion. There are other ways to look at the offshore industry. There are more and deeper legal issues involved. The tax evasion concerns under discussion are just the starting point on the list of issues that ought to generate irritation.

Following articles provide a variety of alternative views of what is going on in the Panama Papers leaks. That the articles I mention contradict each other illustrates my point that there are more issues involved than just tax evasion.

4/7 – Jason Zweig at Wall Street Journal – Panama Papers: A History of Tax Evasion from Ancient Rome to the French Revolution to 19th-Century New Jersey

Question for you to ponder: Why have people been hiding their money for over 2,000 years?

In 1934 when Switzerland made it a crime for a banker to reveal a customer’s name, they were a bit behind the curve. Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Bermuda were tax havens a couple of decades earlier. As a depressing note, the Swiss offered confidentiality for a fee all the way back in 1789.

More good stuff for auditors – 3/3/16

Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

A few articles for CPAs.

  • A ‘virus’ that can infect your quality control system.
  • How to quickly check if someone is licensed.
  • Risks of working for the Big 4.
  • Deep background on the Private Company Council.

2/10 – CPA-Scribo – How Internal Viruses Affect Accounting Firms – No, not the kind of viruses you were thinking. This is caused by staff doing a quick search on the ‘net to find a sample note and pull down an erroneous example, which spreads to most financial statements issued over the next year.

Charles Hall provides a frighteningly real illustration how such a virus could hit a firm.

Why I am so optimistic – 2

200 years ago subsistence agriculture was the norm across the planet. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
200 years ago brutal poverty was the norm across the planet. Not so today. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

Previously mentioned when I look at long-term economic trends I am incredibly optimistic. When I look at the headlines this morning or news from the political world, I am very discouraged.

(Cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)

To see one illustration of why I am so optimistic for the long-term, check out a column by Glenn Reynolds at USA Today: Actually, things are pretty good / Free markets and free inquiry have changed the historic ‘norms’ of poverty and violence.

Earlier post summarized in one paragraph what caused this radical improvement.

Here are a final two points from the article I’d like to highlight:

Second, it is possible for us collectively to turn back history.

Minor updates on bank fiascoes and settlements

Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

A few articles on various bank fiascos: first private settlement for manipulating LIBOR, two rumored criminal investigations for selling MBS’s, and a billion dollar settlement for money laundering.

11/13 – Reuters – Barclays in $120 mln settlement of Libor case – lawyers – Barclays is first out of the gate settling private lawsuits in US for manipulating Libor. …

Minor updates on the banking fiascos: Forex settlements and a new fiasco

Settlements of private lawsuits are continuing. Also, settlements with CFTC underway for another rate manipulation scheme.

6/18 – Wall Street Journal – Banks’ Civil Forex Settlements Near $2 Billion/ Barclays, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs and HSBC recently signed agreements to settle case  – The settlements for private litigation over manipulation of foreign exchange rates are moving forward. Article says HSBC has settled up for $285M, Barclays for $375M, Goldman Sachs is in for $129.5M, and an unknown amount for BNP.

By my calculation that brings the total for seven banks to …

Speculation on upcoming bank settlements

Not much news on the bank fiasco front in the last week or so. Here are two articles pondering what settlements are on the horizon.

5/26 – Alison Frankel at Reuters – Forex class action deals may hint banks braced to lose Libor appeal – Citigroup settled up for $394M with private parties over manipulation of forex.

Article points to one settlement I missed:

1/5 – Reuters – JPMorgan settles currency manipulation lawsuit in U.S. – Morgan will settle up with about $100M.

Deutsche Bank ponies up $2.5B for cooking Libor; industry wide settlements approaching $9B.

The dubious distinction of drawing the largest fine for manipulating Libor goes to Deutsche Bank. Their total tab is now $3.5B. That leaves UBS in a distant second place at $1.6B.

Check out two articles on April 22:

Deutsche Bank will pay slightly over $2.5 billion to settle up for manipulating Libor, Eurbor, and Tibor (Tokyo interbank). Several specific Directors and VPs will be fired.

A subsidiary company in Britain will plead guilty to violating American criminal laws.

Deutsche Bank in final negotiations for their Libor manipulation. If they settle at $1.5B, it would bring cumulative Libor fines to $7.6B.

Leaks to Dealbook suggest Deutsche Bank could have a settlement in May with DoJ, NY DFS, CFTC and Financial Conduct Authority in London. Amount of settlement is looking to be over $1.5B and involve a guilty plea to a criminal charge by a British sub of the bank.

Report is Deutsche Bank Nears Plea Deal Over Libor Manipulation.

Several comments in the article refer to ‘discounts’ given to the first-to-settle, which was UBS. Also comments that the last to settle pays a premium.

I’ve started tracking the Libor and Forex settlements in a spreadsheet.  There are too many banks dealing with too many regulators on too many issues to keep everything straight in my little brain.  Good infographic on settlements from WSJ here.

The suspense and wait continues – Scott London sentencing for insider trading rescheduled from February 27 to April 21

Since there has been so much traffic today checking out posts about the scheduled date for Scott London’s sentencing for his admitted insider trading (thank you for the mention, Going Concern!), I thought to check the federal document system before turning in for the night.

Guess what I found?

The sentencing has been continued from February 27 to April 21.

Previously mentioned there were four documents filed under seal.

As of yesterday morning, all four entries had a date of 2/18/2014 and said:

SEALED DOCUMENT- Under Seal Document (mat) (Entered: 02/19/2014)

When I looked a few minutes ago, item #45 still had a date of 2/18/2014 but the comment has been changed.  It now reads:

SEALED DOCUMENT- Under Seal Document – Sentencing hearing set for 02/27/14, continued to 04/21/14 at 8:00 a.m. (mat) Modified on 2/24/2014 (jag). (Entered: 02/19/2014)

That means the sentencing which had previously been scheduled for February 27 has now been moved to April 21, 2014.

Everyone who had been looking forward to a generous serving of popcorn and schadenfreude on Thursday will have to wait another 2 months. 

Update:  According to the comments on the docket, sentencing has been continued to the following dates: 10/21/13, 12/9/13, 1/27/14, 2/6/14, 2/27/14, 4/21/14.

Other tidbits: Passport was surrendered on 4/17/13. Turned in $50K on 4/19/13, which is presumably the estimated proceeds of the then-alleged insider trading.