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Accounting News Roundup: Pot Taxes Could Get High; EY Wage and Hour Suit Gets Tossed; Stein Mart Found an Auditor | 07.11.13

Half of Banks Have Punished Employees for Corruption, E&Y Says [Bloomberg]
“The damage to shareholder value that can arise as a result of misreporting or corruption can be far greater than regulatory sanctions,” Sanjay Bhandari, a fraud investigator at Ernst & Young, said in an e-mailed statement. “The reputational damage” can last for years, he said.

To Cut Taxes, Tribune Is to Split Into Broadcasting and Publishing Units [NYT]
By spinning off the newspapers instead of selling them, Tribune avoids the tax consequences of a sale in the near term while still allowing the company, now led by Peter Liguori, a longtime broadcasting executive, to focus its efforts on television, including 19 local stations that it acquired for $2.7 billion at the beginning of the month.

Taxes On Recreational Pot Sales Could Top 35 Percent [CBS]
Colorado voters will be asked to approve two state taxes totaling 25 percent on all retail marijuana sales in the November election. They may be asked to approve an additional city tax for Denver. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock wants to add an additional five to 10 percent city tax on top of that. Hancock said the money is needed to pay the costs of regulating the drug.

Man is mum on refusal to pay taxes, his missing millions in gold [KATU]
"Look at the end of the raindbow," he should've said.

Ernst & Young Gets Ex-Staffers' OT Suit Thrown Out [Law360 (Subscription)]
A California federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a putative wage-and-hour class action brought by two former Ernst & Young LLP audit support employees, ruling they couldn't bring suit because of arbitration agreements they had made with the company. U.S. District Judge Ronald M. Whyte on Tuesday tossed the suit brought by Stephen Morris and Kelly McDaniel, who accused Ernst & Young of failing to pay overtime. The former audit staff members were instructed to take their case to arbitration if they wanted to proceed.

Stein Mart, Inc. to Engage KPMG as the Company's Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm [SMRT, Earlier]
If you recall, KPMG's predecessor was PwC.

Evaluating Broad-Based Approaches for Limiting Tax Expenditures [TPC]
Some light reading for your Thursday.

Tax Reform Op-Eds: Phil Gramm, Lawrence Summers [TaxProf]
If you're interested in reading some worn out ideas from a couple of guys whose fingerprints are all over the financial crisis. 

Man applying for job robs Ocala gas station [CF News 13 via Gawker]
A 33-year-old man was filling out a job application at a Martin Oil filling station in Ocala, Florida when, for some reason, he decided to reach into the cash register and steal some money. He fled but was apprehended a few blocks away.

Posted in ANR