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Accounting News Roundup: BDO’s Revenue, FIFO, and a Missing Crook | 12.08.17

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BDO Network Announces Global Revenues Increase to $8.1 Billion [BDO]
Bravo Delta Oscar’s global haul is quaint compared to what Big 4 draw in say, the U.S., but the Financial Times reports that BDO’s global CEO Keith Farlinger cares not one iota about that: “We are not looking to become part of the ‘Big Four’. […] We are not focused on being the biggest. We are focused on being the best.”

On Tax Bill, It’s Trump vs. His Hometown [NYT]
The tax bill sticks it to New York, particularly the SALT deduction, and wealthy donors are trying to coax POTUS to make some changes. But it’s unlikely to happen, as one of his biographers says, “He has this resentment toward the elite in New York that’s very powerful because he was never really accepted and he loves to tweak the people who regard him as a barbarian.”

This Little-Known Tax Plan Takes Aim at Your Trading Account [Bloomberg]
The first-in, first-out treatment of selling securities could cause big tax headaches for investors who have held certain investments for long periods of time. But the tax magicians out there are working on solutions: “Tax firms are already studying ways to help clients preserve tax benefits if Congress passes FIFO. Some investors may be able to avoid FIFO by dividing their holdings between multiple money managers or brokers, segregating low-basis and high-basis holdings, said Mark Nash, a tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.”

Sleepy’s Owner Steinhoff: Accounting Issues Could Affect $7 Billion in Assets [WSJ]
The mysterious accounting irregularities are still not known, although there are some clues: “The developments come months after German prosecutors began investigating whether the company, which has its primary listing in Frankfurt, used off-balance sheet entities to hide losses in its operations and artificially pump up its valuation. Steinhoff had previously denied those allegations, but on Wednesday said it had hired outside accountants to look into its books.”

Seattle crook behind $120M Ponzi scheme missing from prison [SPI]
Darren Berg, who ran a Ponzi scheme that got Deloitte and Moss Adams in some hot water, has disappeared from a California federal prison where he was serving 18 years.

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