• QuickPress

    Report Finds Shift in Accounting Firm Hiring

    CPA firms are turning to nonaccounting graduates in increasing numbers, a new AICPA survey reveals. Nonaccounting graduates constituted 31% of all new graduate hires in public accounting in 2018, an increase of 11 percentage points over 2016, according to the 2019 Trends in the Supply of Accounting Graduates and the Demand for Public Accounting Recruits. To read the full article in Journal of Accountancy, click: Report Finds Shift in Accounting Firm Hiring.

  • Practice Management - QuickRead Featured

    Managing Professional Liability Litigation Against Accounting Firms

    Part III of III This is Part III of a three-part series discussing the basic components of a professional liability lawsuit brought against an accounting firm and its partners, and factors a firm’s managing partner should consider before and during this type of litigation for utilizing applicable insurance coverage, maximizing effectiveness of defense, and, where possible, bringing the controversy to conclusion by settlement. Part I covered the current litigation environment for accounting firms, relevant provisions in engagement letters, responding to subpoenas, professional liability insurance, and the risk of instigating a professional liability counterclaim in a fee collection action. Part II…

  • Practice Management - QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story

    Managing Professional Liability Litigation Against Accounting Firms

    Part II of III This is Part II of a three-part series discussing the basic components of a professional liability lawsuit brought against an accounting firm and its partners and the factors a firm’s managing partner should take into consideration before and during this type of litigation for utilizing applicable insurance coverage, maximizing effectiveness of defense and, where possible, bringing the controversy to conclusion by settlement. Part I covered the current litigation environment for accounting firms, relevant provisions in engagement letters, responding to subpoenas, professional liability insurance, and the risk of instigating a professional liability counterclaim in a fee-collection action.…

  • Practice Management - QuickRead Featured

    Managing Professional Liability Litigation Against Accounting Firms

    Part I of III This is Part I of a three-part series discussing the basic components of a professional liability lawsuit brought against an accounting firm and its partners; and the factors a firm’s managing partner should consider before and during this type of litigation for utilizing applicable insurance coverage, maximizing effectiveness of defense and, where possible, bringing the controversy to conclusion by settlement. Part I focuses on the current litigation environment for accounting firms, relevant provisions in engagement letters, responding to subpoenas, professional liability insurance, and the risk of instigating a professional liability counterclaim in a fee-collection action. Part…

  • Case Law - QuickPress

    Seventh Circuit Applies ‘Independent Investor’ Test to Help Determine Reasonable Compensation

    Payments an accounting firm characterized as consulting fees were really disguised dividends and should have been taxed as corporate income, the Seventh Circuit held on Thursday. The payments reduced the firm’s income to zero, and the court applied the “independent investor” test to recharacterize them as dividends paid to the firm’s owners.   Alistair M. Nevius at the Journal of Accountancy, in the article Accounting firm payments to owners flunk independent investor test,  reports:   The Seventh Circuit held that an accounting and consulting firm organized as a C corporation could not deduct payments to related entities because they were dividends, not…