Since the last one went so well, and since there have been many posts this week on my fellow accountant blogs that I’d like to highlight, here’s another quick round-up of three interesting nuggets:
Dan Meyer of Tick Marks talks about a new standard in the US called FIN 48, which requires companies making assumptions regarding tax-related policies to document and disclose those assumptions and provide a range of possible outcomes.
He asks the natural next question: “With IRS personnel theoretically able to look up these disclosures, will companies be less willing to take aggressive positions?” It’s a good question, and I think we know the answer! I wonder if the same type of standard will show up in Canadian GAAP before we converge with international standards. (Wonder how that convergence thing is going – haven’t heard much lately!)
The Detoured Economist comments on the trouble with being an accountant blogger – namely that we have all sorts of interesting things happen to us every day at client’s, but we’re bound by confidentiality so we can’t share them. I completely agree, but there’s really no way around it.
In his words: “The problem is how to blog about interesting subject that come up over the course of the day without disclosing information about the entity I am auditing. Generalization about the field work…but they are less interesting then the nuts and bolts of actual occurrences.” Amen to that, bro. It’s the nature of the beast.
Dennis Howlett gives some recognition to my fellow Torontonian and 2006 UFE passer, Krupo, for his post on increasing the minimum wage and how it hurts the very poor by reducing the total number of minimum wage jobs available.
This needs saying as frequently as possible until people realize that the minimum wage may help some people, but it won’t help them enough, and it will hurt those who need help more.
I am looking for your answer to question 21, i.e. Carolyn’s question about her father leaving her the cottage in his will or should he transfer it to her now? What was your answer on that?
Hi Gayle,
Did you post this comment on the wrong thread? I think I recall that question from Carolyn. I’m not comfortable offering professional advice in the comments to a blog post. Also, I haven’t done tax planning like that since passing the professional exams. I’ve been focusing more on the audit/accounting side of things, with a little bit of corporate tax when I was still with BDO.