NYSSCPA Members in the News

Scott Adair (Rochester)
Retirement planning mistakes to avoid
WROC News 8
CPA Scott Adair discussed some retirement planning mistakes to avoid Monday on News 8 at Sunrise. "The Economic Policy Institute says approximately half of working families are not saving for retirement, which is a significant amount of people who are really jeopardizing their future," said Adair.

James Bowers (Syracuse)
People News – Sept. 23, 2016
Accounting Today
NEW YORK - James Bowers, partner-in-charge of the railroad industry at Bowers & Co. CPAs PLLC, Syracuse, has been chosen to receive the 2016 Urbach CPA Community Builders Award from the New York State Society of CPAs and the New York Council of Non-Profits for his leadership in recovering a number of nonprofits throughout his career.

Other Accounting and Financial News Stories

Same-Day Paycheck Deposits Finally Arrive…40 Years Later
Wall Street Journal
Electronic paychecks for many U.S. workers could soon start arriving faster. A major change to the plumbing of payments started Friday when the bank-owned Automated Clearing House Network, known as ACH, took a step closer to real-time money movements for the system’s roughly $42 trillion of direct deposits, bill payments and other transfers each year.

Too Close For Comfort? E&Y to Pay $9.3 Million For Independence Violations
Bloomberg BNA
In the first enforcement action of its kind, the SEC charged Ernst & Young and former personnel with violations of the auditor independence rules arising from improper personal relationships between two former audit partners and client personnel. The firm agreed to pay $9.3 million to settle the charges. According to Andrew J. Ceresney, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, “Ernst & Young did not do enough to detect or prevent these partners from getting too close to their clients and compromising their roles as independent auditors.”

Accountant’s Content Vault Offers Free Client Communications for CPA and Accounting Firms
CPA Practice Advisor
CPAs and accounting firms now have access to a free solution that will help them implement a comprehensive and professional client communications program: The Accountant’s Content Vault. MEDOWS Media Group launched The Accountant’s Content Vault to support tax and accounting firms which are often lacking the in-house expertise, resources and budget needed to create effective client communications, disseminate key updates and implement an effective content marketing strategy.

Fed Targets Big Bank Commodity Lines
Wall Street Journal
The Federal Reserve on Friday proposed new rules that could drive banks out of the business of owning, trading and moving commodities—such as oil and aluminum—by making those lines too expensive. The long-awaited proposal, designed to force banks to do more to protect themselves against environmental disasters that might cause huge liabilities, would require banks to hold billions of dollars of extra capital in their physical commodities businesses.

How to Pay for College With Less Stress
New York Times
In this our quadrennial season of financial hope, we might wish that the major presidential candidates would reckon with one of the large and looming numbers in our lives. Maybe this particular pair of multimillionaires hears the parents and grandparents who are confounded by college price tags that seem to start at six figures. But the candidates’ plans don’t hold out much cause for hope.

PwC shares 10 'important lessons learned' on diversity and inclusion in new report
Accounting Today
As part of their third annual Global Diversity Week, PwC launched a new report on Tuesday examining the firm's diversity and inclusion initiatives. Titled The PwC Diversity Journey: Creating Impact, Achieving Results, the report covers PwC's efforts and statistics in building a more diverse workforce. "Embracing diversity and inclusion makes business sense and more importantly is the right thing to do," writes Bob Moritz, chairman of PwC International, in the report. "By sharing our thoughts, ideas, and programs, we are hoping that we can contribute to a broader discussion, one from which we can all learn and benefit together, as we work collectively to make an impact around the world."

Banks Face Costly, Complex Technology Upgrades
Wall Street Journal
Even as banks build new technology in response to threats from fintech upstarts, some of their existing systems are struggling to keep up with new regulations. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the past several months has fined Deutsche Bank AG, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Barclays PLC over failure to report of derivatives trades in a timely and accurate way. The problem: technology issues in the banks’ back-office systems for accurately or rapidly reporting trades of swaps, which are bets on the direction of interest rates, commodities and other assets.

IRS and Courts Often Differ on Tax Penalties
AccountingWEB
The law authorizes the IRS to assess stiff, nondeductible penalties against individuals who miss the deadlines for filing returns. Generally, the penalty is 5 percent of the balance due (after subtracting taxes previously paid through withholding and estimated payments) for each month that the return is late, up to a maximum of 25 percent. But whether the courts will sustain penalty assessments depends on the particular circumstances.

The Looming Storm in Insurance
Wall Street Journal
The insurance industry is in a tight spot. This is most obvious in property reinsurance, but that is one symptom of a squeeze across the sector. Global catastrophe reinsurance prices fell this year below levels last seen in 2001 before the destruction of the World Trade Center, according to Guy Carpenter, a risk and reinsurance specialist owned by brokers Marsh & McLennan.