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Footnotes: Scamming Scammers; Blame the Accountants; Lucky Lotto Winners | 03.31.14

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

U.S. Firms Hold Record $1.64 Trillion in Cash With Apple in Lead [Bloomberg]

Go Ahead, Blame the Accountants You see, it wasn't MF Global's fault that it bought all of that European debt or went bankrupt. Blame the accountants! As if Corzine, who once was co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, was the sort of Wall Street executive who made investing decisions based on advice from accountants. [Bloomberg View]

The $2.4 Billion Tax Question for Caterpillar [WSJ]

Va. couple wins lottery three times in same month Filed under: people having a better busy season than you [USA Today]

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg only made $1 in base salary last year [BBW]

The IRS totes ruined Bitcoin [CNNMoney]

A group promising to protect seniors from scams has scammed seniors [Consumerist]

Life at Deloitte does not include understanding the definition of "coincidence" [Twitter]

Hasbro is crowdsourcing new Monopoly rules [The Economist]So

Someone got creative about cheating the HOV lane… and was caught [Daily Mail]

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Caption Contest Finalists: Auditing Is Craptacular

Who knew servants of the capital markets could be so creative? Since democracy is alive and well here at GC, it’s about time to get the vote on this one going.
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Here are the finalists:

A. If you think that’s bad, you should see where the prior year work papers are kept.
B. You think this is bad, the intern’s desk is inside the bathroom.
C. The audit staff showed the client who is boss by blocking entry to the restroom until the accountants provided the requested PBC’s.
D. Don’t think the .05% raise was the only benefit to becoming a senior manager.
E. In retrospect, the auditors realized that they shouldn’t have expressed so much concern over where the client was going.
F. Upon their arrival to their workstation, the audit team quickly understood the reasoning behind the under-accrual for utilities expense for the months of January through March.

More Money Talk

money.jpgIn another follow up, we got a decent thread going last week when we brought up starting salaries for your soon-to-be new associates that will be messing up your dinner orders this fall and winter.
We got a request to open up the discussion to number crunchers at all levels so that everyone can get a good idea of who is paying what, where.
Our requester was kind enough to give their details: First year tax senior associate, Houston, Big 4 firm, makes $67k.
More, after the jump


Anonymous Coward 49 in last week’s thread segues nicely as well, listing the amounts for audit professionals at the Radio Station Dallas office for the associate and senior associate levels. Coward notwithstanding, we would say that they are well informed, so we don’t expect all of you give that level of detail but we would request the following:
• Level – Associate, Senior, Manager, etc. We know there are partners reading so please, feel free to share and make us all jealous.
• Practice – Audit, Tax, Advisory, Transaction Services, and Consulting for you Green-dotters.
• City and Firm – We want details from every corner. If you’re a senior associate at Rothstein Kass or Miller Kaplan and you know you’re making bank compared to those Big 4 losers, let ’em know it.
All right, get on with it.

Our Attempt to Give an Outlook on 2010

Thumbnail image for 2010.jpgAs is the wont of many fine publications, we’ll take a moment of your otherwise 100% chargeable day to dispense our outlook for 2010.
Many stories that were big in 2009 will be again and some stuff will just come out of nowhere. Here’s our stab at what we think you’ll be reading about in this corner of the blogosphere:
• Layoffs – Will forced ranking continue or will we go back to the heyday when only new associates that ran naked through the hotel lobby at national training get let go?
• The return of raises? – We’ve already got one guarantee courtesy of Bob Moritz but what about the rest of usual suspects?


• The PCAOB’s fate – The SCOTUS decision could put an end to the Monday morning QBing.
• IFRS vs. U.S. GAAP – Despite our sincerest wishes, the debate about who will use what and when it will happen and who will overlook everything is far from figured out.
• Fraud – It’s a part of our lives. Accept it.
• The latest on the CPA Exam – Thanks to our resident expert, you will pass in 2010. Or maybe you won’t.
• Taxes – Whether it’s the IRS’s latest demonstration of efficiency or the latest attempt by Charlie Rangel to disqualify himself from his job, we’ll be sure you know everything worth knowing.
And of course we’ll be covering the latest rumors floating around your favorite firms. Whether it’s inappropriate use of email, the latest asinine cost-saving initiatives, the banishment of music, Tim Flynn’s whereabouts we’ll cover it.
Keep us updated by sending us tips and suggestions to tips@goingconcern.com and we’ll serve it up.