Hey people. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping pooping on my porch, and it’s another fabulous week. Prayers to those of you in the final stretch of tax season. If any clients are being obnoxious and you don’t have time nor the inclination to tell them off, forward them to the tipline and we’ll give them the old what for. I’m serious.
Anyway, news.
FT reports what we done been telling you: “Deloitte is hit hardest by Trump’s spending clampdown on consultants“
Deloitte is emerging as the biggest early loser from a Trump administration push to axe spending on consultants, ahead of a Monday deadline for the companies to offer price cuts and other concessions.
The Big Four accounting and consulting firm has had at least 129 contracts terminated or slimmed down, according to a Financial Times analysis of data published by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). The figure is more than double that of any other consultancy.
OH. So that isn’t actually what we done been telling you, we’ve just been saying Deloitte was going to be hit extra hard of the Big 4 because federal contracting makes up such a significant part of their revenue. Yeah OK, that’s even worse then.
The great reshuffling has begun at EY:
The EY organization today announces the expansion of EY-Parthenon, unifying the EY organization’s Strategy and Transactions service line under a single, distinctive sub-brand focused on creating value for EY clients, people and society more broadly at the intersection of strategy, transaction services and transformation.
r/Big4 discussion:
EY-Parthenon Rebrand
byu/realneocanuck inBig4
BDO UK appointed a dude with stretched ears to head up ESG diligence.
I’m going to guess 00? Maybe 12mm? Can’t say for sure, maybe I need to email him and ask. That’s the kind of hard-hitting journalism we do here at Going Concern.
Can’t tell from his headshot if he still has the tragus piercing(s) you could see in the headshot he had when he worked at KPMG.
You love to see it! Well, as someone with several large holes punched into her body (the jokes write themselves), I love to see it.
President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order calling on the federal government to phase out the use of paper checks and switch to electronic payments by September 30, with some limited exceptions.
The U.S. Treasury now has approximately six months to phase out paper checks for various purposes, including tax refunds and Social Security payments.
According to the White House, the Trump administration aims to “modernize how the government handles money, switching from old-fashioned paper-based payments to fast, secure electronic payments.”
Related to the above, the National Taxpayer Advocate just published advice on what to do if your tax refund is stolen. If it’s a check, you have to wait a few extra weeks to do anything about it.
If taxpayer’s refunds are stolen, there are steps they can take to address the issue. First, taxpayers will need to contact the IRS to request a refund trace, but will have to wait for a certain period of time after the IRS has issued the refund before making this request:
- Those who elected to receive the refund by direct deposit but their funds were improperly diverted will need to wait 26 days from the date the IRS received the taxpayer’s return.
- Those expecting a paper refund check will need to wait six weeks from the date the IRS issued the refund.
Oh we definitely need to write a full post about this one: “Gen Z accountants to have lessons in ‘picking up the phone’“
Gen Z staff at one of Britain’s leading accounting firms are to be trained on how to have telephone conversations.
Forvis Mazars, the accountancy giant, is launching a “comprehensive learning and development programme” this year aimed at boosting its employees’ “relationship skills”. It will include training on having “challenging” conversations over the phone.
The new training is being set up in response to concerns that Gen Z workers lack the soft skills necessary for work in the City.
Reminder that the oldest Gen Zers are almost 30.
Also that firms have been noticing this issue for a while now, though previously they pinned it on lockdown.
Some more tax scandal goodness coming out of a Big 4 firm in Australia but it’s not PwC this time. ALLEGEDLY.
Former EY partner Peter White “lined his and his friend’s pockets” with secret commissions from clients by failing to disclose relationships he had with companies he used for facilitating illegal tax schemes, the [Australian] Tax Office alleges.
White is being sued by the Commissioner of Taxation in the Federal Court for allegedly promoting three illegal tax schemes to seven clients in the five years to August 2021. The full hearing began on Monday morning.
Andrew Berger, KC, representing the ATO, said White used his position as a senior EY partner to help convince clients to take part in the tax schemes and did not disclose his friend was behind another company they would use to minimise tax.
Grant Thornton has a new boss in Australia and he’s going to try to poach people at the real firms while the consulting business is slow:
New Grant Thornton chief executive Said Jahani says he plans to take advantage of widespread sluggishness at the firm’s four bigger rivals to hire more partners as he takes over the leadership of the local consulting outfit.
Jahani, who grew up as an Iranian refugee in Britain, will take over in June after leading Grant Thornton’s financial advisory for the past six years.
The quote they got from him is great. That is not sarcasm.
“I think a little bit of the gloss has come off the big four brands over the past couple of years,” he said. “It’s given a lot of their people and partners a bit of pause. As more and more partners have come, and they’ve spoken to their colleagues about the culture and work, it has created a bit of a groundswell.”
“That won’t last forever, but it will last for a little while yet,” Jahani said.
We say go for it, guy. Bet a lot of partners aren’t feeling hot about the global EY reorganization underway, they should be easy pickin’.
OK I’m done with this. As always, I would appreciate it greatly if you send me links to anything interesting you read, any Reddit threads you think we should check out, and/or any tips you may feel like sharing with the class. You may email, text (or Signal), or reach out on the (former) bird app. Tipsters are always anonymous. Love ya bye.