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Accounting News Roundup: Forever Tax War; GE’s Fresh Blood; KPMG’s Carillion Excuse | 02.26.18

KPMG partners criminal charges pcaob sec

Washington’s Fight Over Taxes Is Only Beginning [NYT]
With so many provisions expiring, especially for individuals, and the GOP taking a quick and dirty approach to lawmaking, tax pros will have to stay on their toes for years. “This is anything but tax simplification,” KPMG’s vice chair of tax said.

Treasury Official, Critical of Parts of Tax Law, Quits [WSJ]
Dana Trier, “one of the rock stars of tax” and a now-former deputy assistant secretary for tax policy, had made some critical comments of the new tax law, some as recently as last Thursday. On Friday, he left Treasury. Regarding the work left to be done, Trier still had the grit: “I have enough of a big ego to think that they’ve lost something when they’ve lost me, but I think they can do it.”

GE names accounting, turnaround experts to board [Reuters]
Former FASB chair Leslie Seidman will join General Electric’s board after the company announced a massive write-down on its insurance business earlier this year and, now, restatements.

Someone is wrong on the internet, a KPMG excuse debunked [FT]
In testimony before U.K. MPs, a KPMG partner explained “that he had taken comfort from the fact that 73 per cent of broker reports were positive or neutral on Carillion when he signed off on the accounts” of now-defunct construction company Carillion. That hasn’t convinced everyone.

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Previously, on Going Concern…

In Open Items, Are there casual accounting jobs?

From the archives: Will This Intern’s Trip to the Drunk Tank Jeopardize His Career Aspirations?

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