NYSSCPA Members in the News

Joanne S.  Barry – Executive Director and CEO
The Top People in Public Accounting – 2016
Accounting Today
Having Dionne Warwick at your annual dinner isn’t necessarily a sign of influence — but it doesn’t hurt either, and the fundraising opportunity it created is just one very conspicuous example of the ways Barry is rethinking things at the New York society. Others include a major new conference on sustainability accounting, a proposal to open membership to non-CPA professionals, and using IT and big data solutions to target prospective members.

Anthony Mangiameli (Rochester)
Talking payroll taxes on Labor Day
WROC Rochester First
Labor Day was created more than one hundred years ago to celebrate the social and economic achievements of the American worker. Now, we all see some of our hard work get taken away from our paycheck in the form of payroll taxes. It's easy to lose sight where that money goes and how that may benefit us. CPA Anthony Mangiameli says there are actually two payroll taxes. 6.2% goes to the Social Security Administration. There's also a Medicare tax of 1.8% which goes to the Medicare fund. They're both withheld directly from the paycheck.

Other Accounting and Financial News Stories

New Back-Office Tech Can Be a Merger’s Best Friend
Wall Street Journal
It took Horizon Pharma PLC just six weeks to integrate the financial information of newly acquired Crealta Holdings LLC into its software systems. After its roughly $510 million deal for the specialty drugmaker closed in January, Horizon had to get the software to capture sales, inventory and other data from Crealta’s business so it could be added automatically to Horizon’s financial reports.

 B2B PAYMENTS Accountants Awaiting Corporate Expansion Boom
PYMNTS.com
Professional accountants that also serve as executives in their own corporations have high hopes for their businesses. Reports late last week said a new research report by the American Institute of Certified Professional Accountants found that CPAs are predicting some of the highest levels of corporate expansion seen in its quarterly Economic Outlook Survey.

Five figures that will decide New York's immediate future
Crain’s New York Business
With New York back from summer vacation, here are five indicators that deserve special scrutiny this fall, listed in order of their importance: Hillary's numbers outside the city. In July, the Quinnipiac poll showed Trump holding his own in the suburbs and winning upstate. In August, Siena found Clinton winning in both those regions. 

U.S. Works Toward an Interest-Rate Rise
Wall Street Journal
Coming off the long Labor Day weekend, U.S. investors return to work with more evidence that economic growth is on the upswing. Friday’s employment report didn’t blow it out of the water, but job gains remained steady with wage growth outpacing inflation. That prompted Goldman Sachs to increase its estimated odds the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates later this month to 55% from 40%.

 S.E.C. Whistle-Blower Program’s First Chief Joins Law Firm
New York Times
Sean X. McKessy, the founding director of the whistle-blower program at the Securities and Exchange Commission, is joining a law firm in Washington, where he will be an advocate for individuals coming forward with information about fraud or improprieties in their workplaces. Mr. McKessy, 49, began overseeing the S.E.C.’s whistle-blower program in 2011, a year after the Dodd-Frank law ordered the agency to create the unit.

U.S. Government Bonds Reverse Early Gains After Jobs Report
Wall Street Journal
U.S. government bonds reversed early gains Friday as the latest employment report fell a little short of expectations, leaving continued uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s policy outlook. The U.S. economy added 151,000 new jobs in August, compared with the forecast of 180,000 by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. Average hourly earnings for private-sector workers rose by 3 cents, or 0.1%, from the previous month.

The Incredible Shrinking Obamacare
New York Times
During the debate over Obamacare, both supporters and opponents assumed the giant law would transform the American health care system. The supporters argued that the system would help Americans purchase health insurance through carefully regulated state exchanges. President Obama envisioned a day when consumers could shop for health coverage “the same way you’d shop for a plane ticket on Kayak or a TV on Amazon.” In 2010, the Congressional Budget Office estimated there would be 21 million Americans using the exchanges by now.

Central Banks and Markets: Mind the Confidence Gap
Wall Street Journal
The usual relationship between central bankers and investors is that the former worry about the latter showing signs of “irrational exuberance.” Right now, though, it is investors who appear to be more worried than policy makers. Repeatedly since the global financial crisis, central banks have mobilized in response to events that threatened to derail economies. The Federal Reserve has engaged in three rounds of quantitative easing; the European Central Bank has steadily ramped up its efforts to buoy the eurozone; the Bank of England is back in easing mode thanks to Brexit.