It is impossible to avoid the radio and television commercials for H&R Block and Turbo Tax this time of year: And they all pretty much have the same theme: We get you the maximum refund possible!

They've got it all wrong.

In the last three years, an increasing number of participants at my staff training seminars have shared they were asked technical accounting and auditing questions by their firm's peer reviewer.  Specifically, they were asked questions about the theory behind the practice aids they used on audits.  I'm surprised that this peer review technique isn't more common because the substance of a CPA firm's system of quality control is the knowledge base of its personnel.  My expectations are that in the near future more peer reviewers will be testing a firm's staff resource base by a

I've noticed on Twitter a bunch of tweets from younger people complaining that accounting is boring.  This may very well be true for those who are not accountants.  Non-accountants include those individuals who once loved accounting until they took, and were flunking, intermediate accounting in college and then switched their major to marketing, a much less challenging discipline than accounting, to say the least.  I suspect that they are the main culprits sprea

Just before Christmas, Joe and I installed a spa on our new deck.  The spa had been in the lower floor ofthe house.  This was not a good idea in Pennsylvania.  Then two things happened in quick order.  (1) We got our first electric bill with the spa outside and the truly cold weather having arrived.  Bill went up a bit, as expected, but not enough for real concern.(2)  One month leter we got our first bill with the spa outside, the cold weather,  AND the rate increase.  We have a full electric house (gas is not available,  I hate fuel oil, a

I previously suggested in this blog that the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), and other standard-setters throughout the world should establish a single, global registry of financial reporting standards. The fundamental premise of my suggestion is that having a global registry would accelerate the elimination of differences in financial reporting standards among countries while maximizing the benefits that we would derive from more-similar standards, without expecting anyone to give up quality, sovereignty, or anything else they're reluctant to give up. This post is the first of many that will describe why a "single sandbox" approach makes more sense than expecting the whole world to agree on a single set of standards or a single standard-setter.

Am I the only CPA attracting whacko, cheap, mean-spirited, stupid, desperate, lazy, crooked, brain-dead, sloppy, crazed clients?

Because of the increasing complexity of U.S. GAAP, some CPA firms are considering accounting and reporting alternatives during engagement planning.  Here is a brief discussion of some of the most common.

Using an Alternative Reporting Framework:

If it wasn't already enough burden on small businesses reporting under U.S.