Will there be an Uber for accounting?
Although Blake Oliver wrote the definitive answer to this question back in April, the question of "will there be an Uber for accounting" is one that people are still asking. The answer is, of course, no. The "on-demand service" business model does not suit the accounting profession, not even for compliance-centered services. Those will be fully-automated soon enough.
But I get it, we're coming off Labor Day weekend, I'm sure a lot of accountants are asking themselves, "How could I work less in the future?" Disrupting the traditional business models and methods of accounting firms is a must when trying to answer that question, but creating the "Uber for Accounting" will not be it.
Elsewhere in startups and disruption: Tech Veteran Departs Silicon Valley’s Grilled Cheese Play
EU vs. Apple
Lots of people are still talking about the EU's decision to demand that Apple pay back $14.5 billion in taxes. Among them:
- The company's general counsel claims that their statutory rate in Ireland is 12.5% and "We don't understand where the Commission's figures are coming from."
- President Obama carefully chose his words, saying, “There’s always a danger that if one of us acts internationally,” without calling out the EU specifically.
- A spokeswoman for the head of the European Commission says the move was political but "should not be confused with [the issue being] politicized."
- This Salon article states that while "Europe forges ahead, aggressively moving to close corporate tax loopholes," the US has only one idea: "even more tax breaks."
There's plenty more where that came from, but it's the Tuesday after Labor Day, let's not work too hard, right?
Has Donald Trump released his tax returns?
Nope! And he doesn't believe that anyone cares whether he releases them or not:
“I think people don't care,” Trump said Monday afternoon in Ohio of his tax returns, which he has not released. “I don't think anybody cares, except some members of the press.”
Trump said he’s provided the “most extensive financial review of anybody in the history of politics” and because he’s under a “routine audit,” he’s not able to make his tax returns public.
In fact, he can make his tax returns public while they're under audit and recent polls have suggested that voters do care, but facts have never stopped Donald Trump before and they are not going to stop him now.
Elsewhere in candidate tax return news: It's being reported that Mike Pence's "short read" tax returns will be released next week.
Previously, on Going Concern…
In Open Items: Federal taxation or SALT.
In other news:
- Whom to Vote For? Employees Tend to Follow Their Leader
- The End of Accounting?
- A St. John’s University accounting student was shot and killed at the J’Ouvert festival in Brooklyn.
- Is “Accounting” Really Accounting?
- A little litterbug.
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