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Accounting News Roundup: Report: PwC India Cooked Books; Grant Thornton Eyes Expelled BDO Firms Down Under; A PCAOB Roadshow | 03.12.12

PwC India dressed up books to show profits [ET]
Serious violations of accounting principles as well as major financial irregularities have been detected in several entities of PricewaterhouseCoopers India (PwC India), which would seem to indicate that the company has been wrongfully dressing up its own books and those of its network audit firms in order to remain profitable. Several PwC India top honchos, including chairman Deepak Kapoor and some senior directors, signed backdated invoices, which smells of large-scale financial manipulation, and could spell further trouble for the company already tainted by being the auditor in the high-profile Satyam scam of 2009. 

They Have Very Short Memories [NYT]
House Republicans, Senate Democrats and President Obama have found something they can all support: a terrible package of bills that would undo essential investor protections, reduce market transparency and distort the efficient allocation of capital. Of course, supporters don’t describe it that way. They say the JOBS Act — for Jumpstart our Business Startups — would remove burdensome regulations that they claim have made it too difficult for companies to raise money from investors, impeding their ability to grow and hire. Never mind that reams of Congressional testimony, market analysis and academic research have shown that regulation has not been an impediment to raising capital. In fact, too little regulation has been at the root of all recent bubbles and bursts — the dot-com crash, Enron, the mortgage meltdown. Those free-for-alls created jobs and then imploded, causing mass joblessness.

JOBS Act enables Chinese fraud [Chinese Accounting Blog]
And God knows we could use more of that.
 
Grant Thornton eyes BDO’s Victorian and NSW practices after BDO International expels them from global network [SC]

Accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton Australia has stepped up merger talks with the Victorian and New South Wales practices of rival BDO, after BDO International expelled the practices late last week, citing “unreasonable risks.” The potential merger comes at a tricky time for the professional services industry, with some major firms shedding staff amid falling revenues. BDO International chief executive Martin van Roekel said in a statement released on Friday that the decision to terminate the BDO Victoria and New South Wales offices had “been taken in the best interests of the international BDO network.
 
KPMG appoints Simon Collins new UK chairman [Accountancy Age]
Replacing John Griffith-Jones who is retiring.
 
Obama’s hamburger problem [DCJ/Reuters]
DCJ: "If President Barack Obama can persuade Congress to reduce the corporate income tax rate to 28 percent from 35 percent, he will move tax rates closer to what other modern countries charge. But his plan to treat “manufacturing” as a special category, with a 25 percent tax rate, brings us to what I call Obama’s hamburger problem. The problem is how to define manufacturing. To paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart on obscenity, I know manufacturing when I see it; I just don’t know how to define it in tax law. Assembling automobiles is considered manufacturing. So what about assembling two hot protein discs with special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions — all on a sesame seed bun?"
 
PCAOB Chairman Doty Takes His Mandatory Auditor Rotation Proposal On Tour [Re:Balance]
Jim Peterson: "Of all the goofy reasons for government inaction, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s new tactics on mandatory auditor rotation may take the prize. A release on March 7 from Chairman James Doty announced the extension from last December to the end of this April, for still further comments – along with public meetings in Washington on March 21–22 and, according to his interview with 'Accounting Today,' a roadshow of 'meetings of similar importance in at least three or four cities around the country.' Those searching for sense are left agape."
 
Stock Compensation, Tax Law, Financial Reporting and Facebook's IPO [Accounting Onion]
Tom Selling tries to educate a couple of Senators.
 
56% Think America Is Overtaxed [Rasmussen via TaxProf]
Grover Norquist is doing a happy dance somewhere.

 

Posted in ANR