Ed. note: Have a safe and happy holiday out there, everyone. We hope a good chunk of you are rocking the out of office message this weekend and can get some much-deserved rest and relaxation, and that the rest of you can at least fit in a nap and a text message to your grandma. We’ll be back Monday with the usual end of the year phoned-in trash. Merry Christmas!
The Future of Accounting: How a New Generation Can Tackle the World’s Biggest Challenges [Bloomberg Tax] As the tax and accounting landscape changes, it’s natural to wonder what that means for the profession. Carmine Di Sibio, the Global Chairman and CEO of EY, writes that he’s “never seen a more important, inspiring moment to be an accountant.”
How companies are responding to rising pressure on wages and benefits [Journal of Accountancy] In the fourth-quarter edition of the Business & Industry Economic Outlook Survey released by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, respondents predicted an average increase of 4.3% in salary and employee benefit costs in the year to come — the highest such measurement in at least 12 years.
KPMG blocks referrals to former insolvency unit over Silentnight scandal [Financial Times] KPMG will not refer any work to its former UK restructuring business Interpath Advisory in the latest fallout from the scandal over the sale of bed manufacturer Silentnight to a private equity firm. The decision is part of KPMG’s attempts to repair its image after a series of fines and investigations.
PwC Hong Kong purchases land plot in The Sandbox [Cointelgraph] PwC Hong Kong, an international subsidiary of the global PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) organization, announced Thursday its emergence in the metaverse space with the acquisition of LAND in the popular world The Sandbox. Though the cost of its LAND asset was undisclosed, it was noted that PwC Hong Kong intends to construct a Web 3.0 advisory hub to facilitate a new generation of professional services, including accounting and taxation.
A Survey of Tax Analytics and Automation Technologies [CPA Journal] Tax departments are always looking for ways to streamline their processes and procedures, and provide greater value-added services to management. Tax analytics and automation technologies present new opportunities to corporate tax departments, and the benefits will trickle down to small and medium-sized businesses as the technologies diffuse. The authors surveyed larger companies on the deployment of tax analytics and automation, and the lessons learned in the process.
Spotlight on tax season [Journal of Accountancy] CPAs assessing the start of this year’s round of client tax return preparation can take some satisfaction in knowing that they’re not likely to face a repetition of last year, when retroactive tax law changes required revisiting many of the returns they’d already completed.
Auditors investigated four unlawful actions over Fairfield Halls [Inside Croydon] Twelve months after Grant Thornton was asked to conduct an audit of the botched and budget-busting refurbishment of the Fairfield Halls, their report has yet to be published. The delay seems likely to be because the auditors have discovered evidence of unlawful conduct.
There’s Inside Information in SEC Filings [Bloomberg Opinion] A good plot for, like, an insider-trading Hollywood thriller would be if the villains hacked into the computers of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC, after all, is maybe the world’s greatest repository of material information about public companies. Companies are constantly filing earnings releases, merger announcements, management changes, proxy fights, all sorts of material news on the SEC’s Edgar system. If you hacked into Edgar you could … well, in a movie, I guess you could delay every filing by like 10 minutes, to give you a chance to read and trade on it?
Are practitioners ready for new pricing models? [Accounting Today] The tax and accounting profession has long talked about evolving to subscription services and pricing. Some have made the leap. Others are still trying to hammer out the details — and the potential benefits.
Privacy and Trust Are in Jeopardy If IRS Gains Power to Monitor Bank Accounts [U.S. Chamber of Commerce] Implementing a new mandatory reporting regime whereby banks must monitor and collect data on their customer’s accounts will hurt not only banks but also the businesses and communities that rely upon their services.
The post Friday Footnotes: Accounting’s Future; PwC Plants a Flag on the Metaverse; Netflix For Professional Services? | 12.24.21 appeared first on Going Concern.
