KEY ACCOUNTING INDUSTRY INSIGHTS AND UPDATES – JULY 2024

1. IRS Will Resume Paying ERC Claims — Slowly:

The Internal Revenue Service plans to begin slowly paying some of its older claims for the fraud-plagued Employee Retention Credit this summer after coming under pressure from Congress, but it's not formally lifting its moratorium on processing newer claims as it finds the vast majority of them are improper. Read More

2. Supreme Court upholds US tax on foreign business income:

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 2017 tax on American-owned businesses' foreign profits, rejecting an appeal that could have saved companies hundreds of billions of dollars. Read More

3. IRS drafts revised Research Credit form:

The Internal Revenue Service released a revised draft version of Form 6765, the Credit for Increasing Research Activities, on Friday after hearing comments about an earlier version of the form, only days after the IRS relaxed some of the documentation requirements for claiming the tax credit. Read More

4. PwC U.K. is Doing Quiet Layoffs—and It’s a Brilliant Example of What Not to Do:

PwC in the U.K. is asking people who take a voluntary severance package to keep the reason for their departure hush-hush. Read More

5. Trump’s Plan to Stop Taxing Tips Could Cost Up to $250 Billion:

A bill introduced by Republican lawmakers would ax federal and employment taxes on tips, but doing so could come at a price. Read More

6. EY's UK boss to step down as firm hunts for successor:

Ernst & Young's U.K. boss Hywel Ball is planning to step down as the Big Four audit firm prepares to split up his role. Read More

7. Vertex Acquires Artificial Intelligence Sales Tax Capabilities from Ryan, LLC

The new Vertex AI capabilities leverage proprietary and private Large Language Models (LLM) to deliver Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (GPT) capabilities combined with “human in the loop” tax expertise. Read More

8. KPMG Collaborates with Databricks for Audit AI:

The firm’s ongoing alliance with Databricks will further accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence within KPMG’s audits. Read More

9. EY to Invest $1 Billion in Effort to Attract New Accountants:

The firm said the investment includes a boost in compensation for entry-level accountants as well as other tech-related initiatives. Read More

10. PCAOB Modernizes Its Rules by Strengthening Accountability for Contributing to Firm Violations:

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) today approved the adoption(PDF) of an amendment to PCAOB Rule 3502, previously titled Responsibility Not to Knowingly or Recklessly Contribute to Violations. The rule, originally enacted in 2005, governs the liability of an associated person of a registered public accounting firm who contributes to that firm’s violations of the laws, rules, and standards that the PCAOB enforces. Read More

11. IRS tries to use AI to close tax gap:

The Internal Revenue Service is turning to artificial intelligence to help select tax returns to audit in an effort to narrow the tax gap, but it needs to use this new technology consistently and transparently, according to a new government report. Read More

12. U.S. lawmakers accuse Nigeria of taking Binance exec hostage:

U.S. lawmakers accused Nigeria of taking a Binance Holdings Ltd. executive "hostage" and urged President Joe Biden to help secure his release. Read More

13. Many nonprofits missed filing deadline:

Between inflation and reduced contributions, charities and not-for-profits are being squeezed, and even though millions of them are tax-exempt, a lot of them need extra help and time to file their Form 990 with the Internal Revenue Service. Read More

14. SEC hedge fund fee disclosure rule struck down by US court:

A federal appeals court struck down the Securities and Exchange Commission's rules requiring hedge funds and private equity firms to detail quarterly fees and expenses to investors — a significant setback in the regulator's clampdown on the private funds industry. Read More

15. China weighs record fine for PwC over Evergrande audits:

China is poised to impose a record fine on PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and suspend some of the global auditor's local operations over its role in one of the nation's biggest alleged financial fraud cases, according to people familiar with the matter. Read More

16. IRS plans to make free tax prep permanent:

China is poised to impose a record fine on PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and suspend some of the global auditor's local operations over its role in one of the nation's biggest alleged financial fraud cases, according to people familiar with the matter. Read More

17. Treasury, IRS propose guidance on clean electricity tax credits:

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service released proposed guidance Wednesday on the Clean Electricity Production Credit and the Clean Electricity Investment Credit in an effort to spur renewable energy development. Read More

18. PwC to resell ChatGPT Enterprise

Big Four firm PwC announced that its U.S. and U.K. firms have signed a deal with OpenAI to become its first reseller for ChatGPT Enterprise and the largest user of the product. This means that, beyond just helping clients leverage ChatGPT Enterprise, the generative AI bot will be implemented across PwC's entire workforce in order to further scale its AI capacities. Read More

19. KPMG agrees to merge U.K. and Swiss operations:

KPMG partners voted to merge the professional services firm's U.K. and Swiss businesses, creating a unit with about $4.4 billion of revenue. Read More

Christopher Rivera

Director, Client Relations

Christopher Rivera, Chris serves as a Director of Client Relations and Business Development at Entigrity. He is an expert at leading and managing teams actively from the front. His expertise in sales, training, coaching, mentoring and influencing combined with his competitive nature makes him a strong leader.  Chris has traveled through the length and width of the country and has spoken with more than five thousand CPAs, understanding their challenges and limitations. On the grounds of that, he can now easily provide opinions and solutions that can be immensely helpful to the professionals. He has also represented Entigrity at a number of major accounting conferences and networking events.