Tax and Ethics

Excessive internal linking is narcissistic

August 19, 2008 General

One of the problems I see with professionals is the extent to which they navel gaze in the deluded belief they are the fount of all accounting wisdom. It simply isn’t true. There’s always someone smarter than you and they probably work somewhere else. So it was with some sadness that I read Tim O’Reilly‘s [...]

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Dear Big 4 help us with tax evaders

July 7, 2008 General

It’s not April 1st, Or is it? Courtesy of this Tweet via Francine I am struggling to overcome laughter convulsions. The FT reports that: The IRS is planning to speak on Tuesday to six accounting firms about how they could help find foreign banks that fail appropriately to identify US customers holding investments or income [...]

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FAS 157 giving US bankers a hard time

July 2, 2008 General

Courtesy of James Governor, I see the New York Times is coooking up a storm over the ‘fair value’ rules being applied under FAS 157. In one corner we have the US investment banks, distressed to find their assets over valued under FAS 157. In the other corner we have commenters, largely calling out Stephen [...]

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Gestation period for an idiot? One day

June 30, 2008 General

It’s only Monday and already we have an article that beggars belief. PwC’s soon to be crowned (tomorrow actually) chief Ian Powell comes out with this stonkingly dopey statement: Mr Powell said limiting auditor liability was the key to helping newcomers develop and for alleviating the risk of a firm collapsing. The profession has long [...]

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Stating the obvious

June 30, 2008 General

Nikki Ross Martin’s analysis of the Poynter Report is well worth reading. Key take-aways: Information security, at the time of the incident, simply wasn’t a management priority; Even had it been a priority, HMRC’s organisational design and the governance and accountabilities underpinning it would have made it extremely difficult for it to be felt as [...]

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Cranky voice, scruffy face and a bitch

June 30, 2008 General

Last Saturday afternoon I had a wonderful conversation with Francine McKenna. Despite our backwards and forwardsing on blog posts, it was the first time we’d spoken. As seems to be the case these days, Francine is exactly as I imagined. Don’t ask me to describe but it was all good and left me with plnety [...]

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PwC's tax charm offensive continues

June 18, 2008 General

I subscribe to PwC’s tax news alert, more out of curiosity these days, especially as Richard Murphy is doing such a sterling job in keeping tax avoiders honest. This week’s alert deserves special mention: Various factors continue to add to speculation that we will not see a detailed consultation document on foreign profits this summer. [...]

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The parlous state of audit

June 3, 2008 General

Prem Sikka’s analysis of the audit profession is spot on. Audits are increasingly becoming worthless. What struck me though was the extent of comment that added fuel to Prem’s bonfire. In particular, this from Bitterweed struck an amusing chord: Sarbox ? We call it arsebox. Bunch of arse that has to be ticked every quarter. [...]

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On meeting HMRC (sort of)

May 22, 2008 General

While in Berlin I happened upon Ben Newton, an Inspector with HMRC who’s got something to do with SAP’s HMRC implementation back in the UK. He was talking about shared services, one of those topics du jour that  is outsourcing by another name. We chucklede about how most people think it’s about throwing IT over [...]

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