H&R Block announced yesterday that it expects the IRS to get less kind and gentle in the coming years as the Service attempts to close the $345 billion tax gap.
The announcement states that the IRS is nearly doubling its budget for next year and that last year, 1 in 99 individual tax returns were audited as compared to 1 in 202 in 2000.
Maybe the Democrats do want all our money…
Audits Double This Decade [H&R Block Press Release]
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SHOCKER: Joe Francis May Have Attracted Slimy Business People
Joe Francis, perhaps thinking that his strategy to deduct anything related to topless girls might not pan out, is now claiming that he was the victim of three former executives who conspired to embezzle millions of dollars.
“Using shadow companies doing business…the men allegedly filed and then approved phony invoices they wrote themselves. The lawsuit also accuses [one former executive] of filing hundreds of thousands of dollars in false expense reports, for which he reimbursed himself through the company payroll.”
Hard to believe that a pillar of wholesome entertainment like Joe Francis would have attracted people that would take advantage of his lack of knowledge about internal control structures but maybe we don’t know the whole story.
‘Girls Gone Wild’ Founder Accuses CPA of Going Wild [Web CPA]
SEC Still Stonewalling, Considering Slowing Down the PCAOB Even More
The SEC gave Congress a little tease about what happened at the Commission re: totally missing the boat on this Madoff thing. But then again, not really.
Inspector General David Kotz made recommendations about ways that the Commission could improve its oversight over the financial industry because, obv, it had nothing to do with the fact that no one there had the background to detect classic Ponzi schemes.
Some recommendations that Kotz made included giving the PCAOB more oversight including jurisdiction over accounting firms that audit investment advisors and broker-dealers. That’s just what the PCAOB needs, more on its docket because it gets things done so quickly.
Kotz would also like to see an amendment to the Securities Act of 1940 that would require investment managers, including hedge funds, to place their securities with custodians that are registered with a national exchange. Kotz claims that this would prevent investment advisers from fraudulently using the proceeds received from new investors to pay old investors (a la Ponzi).
That’s all fine and dandy but Rep. Paul Kanjorski, of Pennsylvania has been asking for details on the Madoff ball dropping for the last two weeks and the Commission has been stalling. Kotz could only state that the Commission is “proceeding ‘in an expeditious manner.'”
Translation: We don’t have any idea how we missed the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.
Best we can expect, Kotz says, is that the report to be issued by the end of August. Which might be enough time to get Kanjorski involved in a sex scandal and maybe this will all just go away for the Commission.
S.E.C. Previews Its Madoff Report [DealBook/NYT]