Friday Footnotes: EY Toilet Cleaners Protest Pay; People Feel Some Type of Way About CPA Limitations | 6.13.25
Footnotes is a collection of stories from around the accounting profession curated by actual humans and published every Friday at 5pm Eastern. While you’re here, subscribe to our newsletter to get the week’s top stories in your inbox every Tuesday and Friday.
Comments are closed on Friday Footnotes and the Monday Morning Accounting News Brief by default. If you have something to say about any stories linked here you are welcome to email the editor, text us at 202-505-8885, or hit us up on Twitter @going_concern. See ya.
Ongoing Drama
Strong feelings on limiting the use of CPA [Journal of Accountancy]
I touched a nerve with my recent article, “Display That CPA.” Thousands of people read the article, and many went on to comment on social media or share thoughts with me through a poll. The response, sometimes heated, confirmed that this is an issue that employers and individual CPAs are wrestling with. I appreciated hearing from everyone.
Earlier: AICPA Bigwig Says Go Ahead and Get ‘CPA’ Tattooed on Your Forehead, You Earned It
Tax
HMRC’s Making Tax Digital project labelled ‘pointless’ by a major accountancy firm [This is Money]
Businesses and the self-employed will have a higher reporting burden, making His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs’s digital project ‘pointless’, a major accountancy firm has said. Blick Rothenberg said ‘Making Tax Digital’, which requires taxpayers to report quarterly rather than annually, would not lead to any additional revenue for HMRC. Fiona Fernie, a partner at Blick Rothenberg says: ‘This will not change their actual tax liabilities or the payment dates on which income tax has to be paid. Which begs the question, what is the point of MTD?’ HMRC has previously said that MTD is designed to make it easier for businesses to keep on top of their tax affairs.
Mexico Transfer Pricing Audit Revenue Boom Just Getting Started [Bloomberg Tax]
Mexico’s revenue from tech-fueled transfer pricing audits will continue to grow as the government focuses more on enforcement and keeps investing in new auditing tools, tax practitioners say.
Talent
Accounting firms becoming more reliant on overseas talent, survey finds [Accounting Times]
Barf at pinning this on the so-called accountant shortage. The jig is up, you guys, you can stop now.
Almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of accounting firms said that the Australian employment market is more reliant on overseas talent than it was five years ago, Robert Half has found. Only 11 per cent believed that the job market had become less reliant on international hiring. “Despite easing employment market conditions, the talent shortage persists in many sectors,” Nicole Gorton, director at Robert Half, said.
Attention, firms! If you’re hiring, you’ll want to check this week’s top remote accounting candidates from Accountingfly. No chaff, only wheat.
Underreaction of the Week
I am so goddamn sick of hearing about AI [r/deloitte]
Big 4
EY faces protest over cuts to cleaning staff [Financial News]
Cleaners have protested outside EY’s London Bridge base over cuts to their workforce and pay. “EY wants to make more profit from the back of these low-paid workers,” organisers said. “They make millions every year but they still want to cut the pay of the people who clean their toilets.”
It’s official: LEGO is a well-being purchase, according to Deloitte [Brick Fanatics]
“Knocking out a four-hour Lego build in under two hours is a great stress reliever!”
NCAA Player Pay Deal Asks Deloitte to Measure the Unmeasurable [Bloomberg Law]
A massive NCAA settlement with student-athletes involves a mechanism for limiting name, image and likeness deals to “fair market value,” which could prove difficult for even the world’s largest accounting firm to reliably measure. Deloitte’s model will estimate an acceptable range for each deal rather than a specific value. But it will still have to draw lines, potentially in gray areas, to determine what NIL deals constitute pay-for-play. “I think that’s a laudable goal. I don’t think it’s achievable,” said IP and sports attorney Mike Ingersoll of Womble Bond Dickinson.
Audit
P&O Ferries hires tiny four-person accounting firm to replace KPMG [The Guardian]
P&O Ferries has hired a tiny four-person auditing firm to replace the Big Four accountant that resigned from approving its annual accounts in March. The move appears to raise further questions over the governance and financial health of the company, which has attracted a string of negative headlines after its controversial sacking of 786 mainly British ferry workers in 2022 – whom it then replaced with low-cost agency staff from countries including India, the Philippines and Malaysia.
UK accounting watchdog fines KPMG $1.7 million for Carr’s Group audit breaches [Reuters]
KPMG and audit engagement partner Nick Plumb failed to ensure compliance with applicable independence requirements, the Financial Reporting Council said. “In this case, whilst the quality of the audit work performed by the two firms is not brought into question, the breaches were serious,” FRC Deputy Executive Counsel Jamie Symington said in a statement published on its website.
PCAOB Publishes Annual Report on Broker-Dealer Audits [PCAOB]
The PCAOB has released its “Annual Report on the Interim Inspection Program Related to Audits of Brokers and Dealers.” A separate publication – “Supplementary Information Related to Audits of Brokers and Dealers” – accompanies the annual report.
Firm Watch
Grant Thornton appoints new COO and CFO [Consulting.us]
Grant Thornton US has appointed Elliott Findlay as chief operating officer and Rick Surett as chief financial officer.
Tonneson + Co Joins Plante Moran [INSIDE Public Accounting]
Southfield, Mich.-based IPA 100 firm Plante Moran (FY23 net revenue of $1.01 billion) has announced that Boston-based accounting and advisory firm Tonneson + Co, will join the firm, effective July 1.
Police search Grant Thornton offices in Caritas investigation [Luxembourg Times]
Searches were “recently” carried out at the offices of the company, which acted as the auditing firm for the charity when the embezzlement of €61 million came to light, public broadcaster 100,7 reported on Thursday, citing sources. It is unclear what items, if any, were seized during the searches, and there is no suggestion the company is accused of any wrongdoing.
Cherry Bekaert Achieves Top 5 Hedge Fund Auditor Ranking Following Acquisition of Spicer Jeffries LLP [PR Newswire]
What a weird thing to brag about.
Cherry Bekaert is pleased to announce its inclusion on Hedge Fund Alert’s 2025 list of Top Hedge Fund Auditors. This distinguished list ranks the top CPA firms by the number of SEC-registered hedge funds audited. Following the recent acquisition of the business of Spicer Jeffries LLP, Cherry Bekaert is now ranked first among middle-market accounting firms.
Private Equity
Elliott Davis Announces Strategic Growth Investment from Flexpoint Ford [INSIDE Public Accounting]
As part of this new chapter, John Otten has been named CEO effective July 1. Otten, who has held several leadership roles over his 28-year tenure at Elliott Davis, succeeds Rick Davis, who led the firm for more than 18 years and will transition to an advisory role.
