Archive
Reuters blog archive
from Tax Break:
Calendar
Some important dates in the week ahead:
Monday, May 20
Securities and Exchange Commission accountants address SEC financial reporting at the Compliance Week annual conference. Washington.
Monday, May 20 - Tuesday, May 21
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants conference on income and estate taxes and high-income taxpayers, and other topics. Las Vegas.
Monday, May 20 - Wednesday, May 22
The Council on State Taxation program on state income and franchise taxes. New Orleans.
Tuesday, May 21
* Apple's chief executive officer and chief financial officer testify at Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing on multinational corporations shifting profits offshore. 9:30 a.m. ET, Dirksen Senate Office Building. Washington.
from Nanette Byrnes:
Calendar
Some important dates in the week ahead:
Monday, May 20
Securities and Exchange Commission accountants address SEC financial reporting at the Compliance Week annual conference. Washington.
Monday, May 20 - Tuesday, May 21
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants conference on income and estate taxes and high-income taxpayers, and other topics. Las Vegas.
from MacroScope:
Letter of the Lew: Treasury comments on change of guard at troubled IRS
Here are comments from a U.S. Treasury official on Secretary Jack Lew’s meeting with incoming Acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel this morning, following a scandal of political targeting that cost the previous acting commissioner his job. Treasury officials knew about the problem as early as last June, according to this report in the Wall Street Journal:
Secretary Lew met with incoming Acting IRS Commissioner Werfel this morning and directed him to conduct a thorough review of the organization in an effort to restore public confidence in the IRS and ensure the organization is providing excellent and unbiased service to the taxpayer. Secretary Lew also requested that he take actions immediately as appropriate, and that within the next 30 days, Werfel report back to the President and him about progress made in three areas: 1) ensuring staff that acted inappropriately are held accountable 2) examine and correct any failures in the system that allowed this behavior to happen and 3) take a forward-looking systemic view at the agency’s organization.
from MacroScope:
Possibility of Spanish downgrade looms over euro zone
Spanish government bonds have had a good run since the European Central Bank said it would protect the euro last year. But some analysts say the threat of a rating downgrade to junk remains an important risk.
Credit default swap prices are discounting such a move, according to Markit. Spain is only one notch above junk according to Moody's and Standard & Poor's ratings, and two notches above junk for Fitch. All three have it on negative outlook. Bank of America-Merrill Lynch says it sees a “high probability” of a sovereign rating downgrade in the second half of the year.
from MuniLand:
California launches the best new source of muniland data
Last December I wrote about a project sponsored by California Treasurer Bill Lockyer that is now up and running:
In the past year, three California cities have filed for bankruptcy. This casts a pall on the bonds of other California cities, because investors wonder if they also contain buried fiscal issues. In an effort to create more transparency, a new open source ratings project was recently launched:
from Alison Frankel:
Wal-Mart’s whistle-blower problem: Public revelations trump privilege
Attorney-client privilege confers powerful protection over confidential corporate documents. But according to arulingThursday by Chancellor Leo Strine of Delaware Chancery Court, once documents have become public - even if by dubious means - they can be used in litigation.
In May of 2012, shareholder lawyer Stuart Grant of Grant & Eisenhofer opened a thick packet he'd received in the mail. On behalf of clients, Grant had recently sent a demand for information to Wal-Mart, following up on The New York Times' stunning revelations about the company's attempt to shut down an internal investigation of alleged bribery of Mexican officials. Wal-Mart lawyers had said they would respond to Grant's books-and-records demand, and Grant told me in an interview that he at first thought the envelope contained that response. Grant quickly realized that the mailing was not, in fact, official corporate correspondence: He had been sent a 190-page trove of confidential Wal-Mart documents.
from Nicholas Wapshott:
Austerity is a moral issue
Security worker opens the door of a government job center as people wait to enter in Marbella, Spain, December 2, 2011. REUTERS/Jon Nazca
In the nearly five years since the worst financial crash since the Great Depression, the remedy for the world’s economic doldrums has swung from full-on Keynesianism to unforgiving austerity and back.
from Breakingviews:
How to have a good argument about economics
By Edward Hadas
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
As the Great Stagnation stretches out into the indefinite future, the level of GDP and the growth rate are widely judged to be too low. Voters are unhappy and the debate on how to respond is loud but inconclusive. What is the right mix of stimulus, austerity, structural changes and monetary policy? Something better is possible. Here are five simple rules for a more productive dialogue.
from Breakingviews:
Wells Fargo boss takes turn on soapbox
By Jeffrey Goldfarb
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
John Stumpf may be easing his way onto the soapbox. The Wells Fargo chief executive runs the biggest U.S. bank by market value, at $210 billion, but has kept a lower profile than many of his peers. Lately, though, he has been critiquing regulation more, tiptoeing into a role filled until recently by JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon.
from Tax Break:
Essential reading: Apple CEO to propose tax overhaul, and more
Welcome to the top tax and accounting headlines from Reuters and other sources.
* Apple CEO Tim Cook to propose tax overhaul. Cecilia Kang - The Washington Post. Apple chief executive Tim Cook plans to propose a “dramatic simplification” of corporate tax laws when he testifies for the first time before Congress next week, just as lawmakers are considering an overhaul of the tax code. Link
* U.S. Republicans eye Obamacare on the back of IRS controversy. Stephanie Kirchgaessner - The Financial Times. The Internal Revenue Service controversy threatens to complicate implementation of Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare law, reinforcing Republican opposition to funding the agency’s work on the legislation at a critical moment. Link
