Accounting and Financial News Stories

How to Get a Free Degree From Your Future Employer

Bloomberg

It’s a nice enough perk when your company helps pay for your education. Here comes a little twist: an employer bankrolling degrees for future workers. KPMG announced on Thursday that it will pay for young adults to get master’s degrees in accounting after they graduate from college1 and before they join the firm full-time, partly to prepare them to be “data-age auditors.”

Treasury Proposes to Close Estate and Gift Tax Loophole

ThinkAdvisor

The U.S. Treasury Department has issued a new regulatory proposal that would “close a tax loophole that certain taxpayers have long used to understate the fair market value of their assets for estate and gift tax purposes,” according to Mark Mazur, the Treasury's assistant secretary for tax policy. “It is common for wealthy taxpayers and their advisors to use certain aggressive tax planning tactics to artificially lower the taxable value of their transferred assets,” Mazur writes on the Treasury’s blog.

CPA: New Jersey Worst Tax State for Traders

Bloomberg BNA

New Jersey's refusal to allow deductions for losses makes it the worst tax state in the U.S. for traders, according to a CPA who authored a treatise on the subject. “New Jersey's restrictions on deductions translate to higher effective tax rates,” Robert A. Green, a certified public accountant and chief executive officer of Green & Co., said during an Aug. 2 webcast.

Case Study: How Experience and Need for Diversity Grew a Vibrant CPA Firm

AccountingWEB

The absence of minority-owned CPA firms in Boston prompted the recent creation of a new practice, an emerging firm that also aims to be a haven to help African Americans become accountants. After working more than 25 years for Daniel Dennis & Company LLP (DD&Co.), previously the largest-full-service minority-owned CPA firm in Boston, Randall Davis became his own boss.

New Tool for Central Banks: Buying Corporate Bonds

Wall Street Journal

Central banks have a new favorite tool for boosting lackluster growth: corporate-debt purchases. Two months after the European Central Bank started buying corporate bonds, the Bank of England said Thursday that it would adopt a similar strategy. It will buy as much as £10 billion ($13.33 billion) of U.K. corporate debt starting in September as part of a larger package of stimulus measures, including £60 billion of additional government-bond purchases.

Tax Pros Question Legality Of New IRS Estate Transfer Rule

Law 360

The Internal Revenue Service’s recent attempt to value transferred interests in partnerships and corporations for estate tax purposes more fairly could backfire under court scrutiny, according to experts who say the agency may have exceeded its regulatory powers by artificially inflating the market value of these transfers. The IRS, seeking comment from the public, on Tuesday proposed new regulations meant to prevent the undervaluation of transferred interests in corporations and partnerships for estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax purposes.

IRS Rolling Out Mandatory ITIN Renewals

Accounting Today

The Internal Revenue Service is making some important changes in the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number program that will require many ITIN holders to renew their numbers under a law passed by Congress last December. The IRS plans to begin the renewals in October. The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act, also known as the PATH Act, requires ITINs that have not been used on a federal tax return at least once in the last three years to be renewed.

Tax-Avoiding Mergers Find Champion in U.S. Chamber of Commerce

New York Times

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit on Thursday to block new rules issued by the Obama administration that prevent American corporations from merging with foreign-based companies and moving their headquarters abroad to save on taxes. The business group, along with the Texas Association of Business, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Austin, Tex., saying the administration was overstepping its authority in issuing the rules.

Cash Flies Commercial and Other Secrets of Moving Money

Wall Street Journal

Even in an age of electronic money and digital-payment apps, there is still big demand for cold, hard cash. The Obama administration’s secret airlift of $400 million worth of cash to Iran earlier this year, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, is a reminder of that. Yet the business of moving cash around the world remains a largely secretive and burdensome specialty—one that fewer and fewer banks are willing to undertake.