Remember: Cash is King!

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, All Articles, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

According to McClatchy News, one in three buyers of U.S. homes is paying cash, which is a record high number. Florida topped all states for all-cash home sales, at 55 percent of cash sales during the first three months of this year. That’s on a par with 54 percent for all of last year and… Read more »

IBM Guards Age Data

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Video Updates.

For approximately a decade, IBM has been giving fired employees information detailing a severance package that asks them to waive age-discrimination claims. This package also included a page listing the job titles and ages of workers being let go, until recently. Now IBM is withholding the information and instead offering the workers with the option… Read more »

Time to Cash In?

Posted by & filed under Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting.

During his eight years as steward of the world’s largest economy, Mr. Bernanke’s salary was about $200,000 a year. Now he makes that in just a few hours speaking to bankers, hedge fund billionaires and leaders of industry. Questions: 1. How much is Mr. Bernanke likely to make this year in speaking fees? 2. What… Read more »

Questions about Sales Tax

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Statement Analysis, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

Is a Twix bar food or candy? In 24 states, a Hershey’s bar is candy but a Twix isn’t. That’s because Twix contains flour, and in those states — which all share a sales tax code — candy is defined as being flour free. And since groceries aren’t taxed, you’ll pay taxes for the Hershey’s,… Read more »

Making An Embarrassing Case Disappear?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Video Updates.

According to Michael Devine, a freelance programmer who is one of the four plaintiffs named in the suit against tech giants Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe, the companies are getting off far too lightly. With cash hoards of over $230 billion collectively, the settlement amount of this class action suit was about one-tenth of the… Read more »

Billing Outlier or Fraud?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Video Updates.

According to the Washington Post, Medicare spent $152 per member in the Huntsville, Ala., medical marketplace — 38 times the national average — for “unclassified” drug injections, including a type of injection used rarely around the country but used thousands of times a year at the Alabama Pain Clinic in Huntsville. Questions: 1. Why is… Read more »

Is the Federal Government a Risk to Turbo Tax: Read the Filings with the SEC?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS.

Free filing of taxes with the Federal government is a concept that has been endorsed by Presidents Obama and Reagan and is already a reality in some parts of Europe. But why isn’t it a reality? Liz Day’s article provides some evidence that the organization, Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) has launched aggressive efforts… Read more »

Brave New World: The Interpretation of Liking a Product on Facebook

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Video Updates.

In an April 16 New York Times article, Stephanie Strom reported that ” General Mills, the maker of cereals like Cheerios and Chex as well as brands like Bisquick and Betty Crocker, has quietly added language to its website to alert consumers that they give up their right to sue the company if they download… Read more »

Billions in American Aid Money Stolen or Wasted?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

Beginning as a small, international humanitarian not-for-profit organization in 1998, the International Relief and Development (IRD) organization has received more grants and cooperative agreements from USAID in recent years than any other nonprofit relief and development organization in the nation — $1.9 billion. Unfortunately, companies such as IRD manage hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth… Read more »