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Accounting News Roundup: McGladrey’s Terrible PCAOB Inspection Report; Acting IRS Commish Doesn’t Want to Talk About Money; New COSO Chairman | 06.04.13

McGladrey 2011 Report Follows Trend for Major Firms [CW, Report]
The PCAOB inspected 16 audits at McGladrey from August 2011 through December of that year and founds problems with eight of the audits, in some cases numerous problems in a single audit. Many of the problems related to revenue recognition, allowances for loan losses, accounts receivable, taxes, inventory, and internal control over financial reporting.

Apples, Oranges and Outliers [WSJ]
Many big companies are churning out their own performance benchmarks, scrambling to satisfy investors' demands for a window into nearly every aspect of their business. These newfangled metrics—which range from cost per hire to risk for incidence of child labor—can vary from company to company. Standardizing the way they are calculated so investors can make valid comparisons between companies is a big job. And it isn't just for accountants anymore. New nonprofit groups are cropping up in the U.S. and Europe to help businesses develop and report new benchmarks in a uniform way and decide whether they should be included on balance sheets. In many cases these groups have leapfrogged the U.S.'s official accounting-standards setter, the Financial Accounting Standards Board

Grant Thornton announces expansion in South Africa, Indonesia and Senegal [GT]
Grant Thornton has doubled the size of its Johannesburg office through a merger with PKF, significantly expanded its presence in Indonesia through a strategic alliance with PT GNV Consulting Services and increased the size of Senegal operations through a merger with Excellence Consulting Group. This follows earlier 2013 mergers in Italy and South Africa.

New acting head of IRS says money isn’t the answer [Yahoo!]
The newly appointed acting head of the Internal Revenue Service said Monday that the agency does not need more money to carry out the responsibility of processing applications for tax-exempt status, despite calls during the hearing for increased funding to help the embattled agency's workload. “The solution here is not more money,” IRS acting Commissioner Daniel Werfel told lawmakers during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing, his first public appearance before lawmakers since being named acting commissioner last week. “If you start with more money, that’s the wrong starting point.”

In Lithuania, the Tax Man Cometh Right After the Google Car Passeth [WSJ]
One day last summer, a woman was about to climb into a hammock in the front yard of a suburban house here when a photographer for the Google Inc. Street View service snapped her picture. The apparently innocuous photograph is now being used as evidence in a tax-evasion case brought by Lithuanian authorities against the undisclosed owners of the home.

Protiviti exec Hirth named COSO chairman [JofA]
Robert Hirth, a founding MD of Proviti, takes over for 
David Landsittel. 

Who Benefits from Tax Preferences? You Do. [TaxVox]
“We have met the enemy and he is us.”

How do you get earned income credits if you are in the top 20% of income? [Tax Update]
Very carefully?!

Miami Prostitutes Mistake New Jersey Mom for Rival Hooker, Beat Her Up [Gawker]
No explanation necessary.

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