Recent Posts
News•Feb 27, 2026
Friday Footnotes: Deloitte Consolidates; Wild Rumors Fly About KPMG Clients’ Earnings | 2.27.26
Deloitte announced a sweeping consolidation of its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) member firms into a single €20 billion practice, slated to launch on 1 June 2026. The move will unite 132,000 staff under a new Deloitte EMEA structure and trigger a leadership reshuffle in the UK. Meanwhile, KPMG appointed Christian Athanasoulas to head its U.S. Legal Services division, building on the firm’s recent approval to operate a law practice in Arizona. In parallel, speculative chatter on Polymarket linked large earnings‑bet positions to companies audited by KPMG, sparking unverified insider‑trading rumors.
By Going Concern
News•Feb 19, 2026
Should We Be Concerned That More Than Half of New CPA Licenses Issued in This State Last Year Went to...
In 2025 Washington’s State Board of Accountancy issued a record 2,086 new CPA licenses, a 16.3% increase from the previous year. Remarkably, more than 60% of those licenses were awarded to international candidates who sat the exam at overseas testing...
By Going Concern
News•Feb 18, 2026
Another Early AI Accounting Startup Just Bit the Dust
Botkeeper, an early AI accounting platform founded in 2015, announced its closure after eleven years despite achieving high‑accuracy transaction coding and a sophisticated AI suite. The company raised substantial venture capital and built an “Infinite” platform that could reconcile data...
By Going Concern
News•Feb 13, 2026
Friday Footnotes: Italian Tax Cops Go Sniffing Around KPMG’s Office; Depreciation Is AI’s Latest Victim | 2.13.26
The latest Friday Footnotes roundup highlights three intertwined trends reshaping accounting and finance. Big‑tech firms’ $3 trillion cap‑ex plans are prompting aggressive depreciation adjustments, as Meta’s $2.6 billion earnings boost shows the earnings‑management risk. Meanwhile, Italian tax authorities have raided Amazon managers’...
By Going Concern
News•Feb 12, 2026
EY Is Bumping Up a Financial Services Leader to the Big Assurance Chair
EY announced that Joe Link will assume the role of Americas Vice Chair – Assurance on April 1, succeeding Dante D’Egidio, who moves to US managing partner. Link brings nearly three decades of financial services experience and will oversee a...
By Going Concern
News•Feb 4, 2026
Another Big 4 Ditches Their Executive Assistants For Offshore Ones Instead
KPMG Australia announced it will outsource roughly 200 of its 260 executive assistants to the Philippines, representing about 75% of its EA function. The move is part of a broader cost‑cutting initiative after advisory revenue fell 18% and overall revenue...
By Going Concern
News•Feb 3, 2026
The AICPA Gets the “Professional” Validation They Wanted, Early Career Pipeline Still on Fire
The U.S. Department of Education’s draft rule would have capped graduate student loans and initially classified accounting degrees as non‑professional, threatening higher‑limit borrowing for CPA candidates. The AICPA and NASBA quickly submitted strongly worded letters contesting the classification. In response,...
By Going Concern
News•Jan 29, 2026
It Seems People Are Still Confused About How to Handle Our First Tax Season Without Checks
In March 2025 President Trump signed Executive Order 14247, mandating the elimination of paper checks for all federal payments by September 30 2025. The order, citing $657 million in annual Treasury costs and fraud risks, forces taxpayers, businesses, and vendors to transition to...
By Going Concern
News•Jan 27, 2026
Dear IRS, Give Us the Practitioner Party Line NOW
The article revives a 2020 tweet urging the IRS to create a “practitioner party line” that lets tax professionals on hold talk to each other. It explains the nostalgic concept of party lines from the pre‑internet era, where callers shared...
By Going Concern
News•Jan 15, 2026
IRS and SBA Employee Allegedly Ran Pandemic Fraud Ring Right Out in the Open on Instagram
Attallah Williams, a former SBA loan officer and IRS tax‑examining technician, has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the government by submitting fraudulent Covid‑relief applications. Over a three‑year period she allegedly secured more than $3.5 million from four programs—EIDL, PPP, EIDL...
By Going Concern
News•Jan 13, 2026
Audit Firm Runs Afoul of PCAOB Rules By Taking Same As Last Year Way Too Literally
The PCAOB sanctioned Southfield‑based Zwick CPA, its owner Jack Zwick, and audit manager Jeffrey Hoskow for multiple violations during the 2022 audit of energy company Genie. The firm failed to plan risk assessments, gather sufficient evidence on revenue and internal...
By Going Concern