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Accounting News Roundup: IFRS, Big 4 Lawsuits and Millennials Say Things | 12.06.16

IFRS

Since nationalism and protectionism are all the rage these days, it should be no surprise that SEC Chief Accountant Wesley Bricker has said that US GAAP will the accounting standards of choice "for the foreseeable future," according to the Wall Street Journal. In fact, it's not that much of a stretch to suggest that the anti-globalist stance in the US began with the opposition to IFRS. It lacks the same fervor as opposition to say, free trade deals, and the SEC has managed to drag it out with a lot of hemming and hawing, but you'd be hard pressed to find a company that's pushing for IFRS adoption in the US.

Government

The Washington Post reports that the Department of Defense spends a quarter of its $580 billion budget "on overhead and core business operations such as accounting, human resources, logistics and property management." The Defense Finance and Accounting Service even got a special mention from the Secretary of the Navy in June 2015 as an "egregious" example of waste. No respect, I tell you. No respect.

Lawsuits

Law360 has a couple obscure cases, one featuring KPMG and its ongoing battle over an audit it performed of a former owner of the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars. Meanwhile, Deloitte, along with law firm Sidley Austin, has been accused of helping investment group Aequitas run a Ponzi scheme.

Millennials say the darnedest things

"7 things Millennials should not say to supervisors" is the title of this Journal of Accountancy article and I suppose, "My mom wants to call you to talk about my review. Is this OK?" should be avoided, but I could probably make a case for the other 6 if I had to.

For example, "I can't work with this person anymore," is totally appropriate if you've been constantly harassed or bullied. "I'm unhappy in my current role," seems pretty appropriate if…you're unhappy in your current role. If a supervisor is a good listener, then they might not even mind when someone asks if their mom can call to talk about a review. It's just that the answer will be, "No. But you and I can talk about it."

Has Donald Trump released his tax returns?

Nope! But Alec Baldwin offered to stop his impersonation of Trump on SNL if the President-elect released his tax returns. Since Twitter seems to be DJT's preferred method of communication and negotiation, I give this offer a 50/50 chance.

Previously, on Going Concern…

I wrote about Deloitte Brazil covering up some bad auditing.

In other news:

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