Posted by & filed under Marketing & Strategy, Personal Tax, Student life.

Description: The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has launched a unique service to help educate Ottawa residents how to avoid being defrauded. Inside the city’s St. Laurent Shopping Centre mall shoppers will find the the ‘Be Smart Scam Escape Room’ where they can move about three rooms, answering various challenges that will boost their knowledge about scams. After a run in Ottawa, the promotion will move on to Montreal to continue to educate consumers.

Date:  March 22, 2024

Source:  ctvnews.ca

 Link: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/scam-based-escape-room-seeks-to-educate-canadians-on-fraud-1.6819010

Discussion points:

1) Have you or your classmates ever been scammed? What was the nature of the trap?

2) Why do you think the CRA became a lead agency in educating consumers about scams?

3) Figure 3.4 on page 3-14 of Wiley’s Auditing: A Practical Approach illustrates the fraud triangle. How might an understanding of the fraud triangle help protect you from scams?

Posted by & filed under Personal Tax.

Description: Very affordable and easy to operate software has made tax season a lot less tougher than it used to be in the good old days. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has even compiled a list of free or inexpensive software choices to help you along the way. The CRA website is also an excellent source of information organized to help you find answers to your taxing questions. But CPA Brian Quinlan advises to watch out for “lifestyle tax” – big changes such as birth, death, marriage, divorce, and starting a business – as possible indications of when you may need some expert advice.

Date:  March 18, 2024

Source:  thestar.com

 Link: https://www.thestar.com/business/tax-return-software-makes-filing-easy-but-knowing-when-to-hire-a-professional-is-key/article_4e352f12-c054-5654-a794-cc54ff2fda69.html?source=newsletter&utm_email=760BE779956395955CFBBA5C497D22A3

Discussion points:

1) How do you do your tax returns? Do you have a favourite tax software program?

2) Does your post-secondary institution offer a course on personal taxation?

3) The Accounting Matters inset box on the bottom of page 12-7 of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making talks about using a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) for non-strategic investments by individuals. How much can a Canadian contribute to a TFSA each year?

Posted by & filed under Financial Accounting, Marketing & Strategy, Student life.

Description: In January, European officials slapped a $1.8 billion Euro fine on Apple for its practices in the music streaming space. Now the U.S. government is going after Apple for anti-competitive practices in its smartphone business. The Justice Department stated that “Apple undermines apps, products, and services that would otherwise make users less reliant on the iPhone, promote interoperability, and lower costs for consumers and developers.” As might be expected, Apple disagreed strongly, declaring that “we innovate every day to make technology people love — designing products that work seamlessly together, protect people’s privacy and security, and create a magical experience for our users.”

Date:  March 21, 2024

Source:  cbc.ca

 Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/us-justice-dept-apple-1.7150800

Discussion points:

1) How many of the students in your class are iPhone users? How many use another type of smartphone?

2) Do you see Apple’s strategy as anti-competitive?

3) Page 9-30 of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making discusses the value of brand recognition and trademarks, including Apple’s. What was the most valuable brand at the time the text was written? Can you find which is the most valuable brand today?

Posted by & filed under Data security, Financial Accounting, Student life.

Description: Friday was a tough day for McDonald’s restaurants in several countries as system issues brought business to a standstill. Very early Friday morning Brian Rice, McDonald’s Chief Information Officer, reported the chain “experienced a global technology system outage, which was quickly identified and corrected.” Temporary shutdowns appeared to be required in countries such as Japan and Australia, for example.

Date:  March 15, 2024

Source:  cnn.com

 Link: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/15/business/mcdonalds-systems-failure/index.html

Discussion points:

1) Did anyone on your campus experience a McDonald’s shutdown?

2) Do you carry some cash with you so that you can deal with tech emergencies like this when shopping?

3) Problem 6.12 A on pages 6-54&55 of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making asks for a comparison of McDonald’s liquidity and profitability with its competitor Wendy’s. Can you solve this problem with a group of your classmates?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Auditing, Canadian Government, Financial Accounting, Marketing & Strategy.

Description: The Halifax Chronicle Herald is one of Canada’s oldest continuously publishing newspapers, but its future may be in jeopardy following news that its parent company, the Saltwire Network, is seeking creditor protection. Saltwire owes about $94 million, with about one third of that on the books of its largest creditor, Fiera Private Debt. Stephen Kimber, who teaches in the journalism program at Halifax’s University of King’s College, believes that Saltwire made a strategic mistake following a lengthy employee strike by using the Fiera financing to purchase a wide-swath of regional newspapers. Saltwire also owes money to its pension plan as well as millions to the government of Canada.

Date:  March 11, 2024

Source:  cbc.ca

 Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/saltwire-creditor-protection-newspaers-atlantic-canada-nova-scotia-1.7140521

Discussion points:

1) Do you have a local newspaper in your university town?

2) How do you think the decline of local newspapers will influence our democracy?

3) Pages 14-8 to 14-10 of Wiley’s Auditing: A Practical Approach discusses the Going Concern issues an auditor must consider. If you were the audit partner responsible for Saltwire’s financial statement audit this year, what type of disclosures might you consider?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Student life.

Description: Lots of people love to play Wordle – the daily game featured by the New York Times. And because of the game’s popularity, as might be expected imitators have flocked in on the action. But now the Times is fighting back with take-down notices to the duplicators. The Times is seeing the imitators as violating its trademarks and copyrights.

Date:  March 12, 2024

Source:  ctvnews.ca

 Link: https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/the-new-york-times-is-fighting-off-wordle-look-alikes-with-copyright-takedown-notices-1.6805091

Discussion points:

1) Do you or any of your classmates play Wordle?

2) If you were an employee at one of the publishers of the look-alikes, what strategy would you advise your management to adopt in face of the take-down notices?

3) Pages 8-29&30 of Wiley’s Understanding Financial Accounting discusse both trademarks and copyrights. What are the difference between these two types of intangible assets?

Posted by & filed under Financial Accounting, Student life.

Description: Last week a judge at the British Columbia Supreme Court approved Apple’s offer to pay up to $14.4 million to settle a class-action suit regarding its iPhone 6 and 7. At the heart of the case was a contention that Apple used software updates that deliberately slowed down the old phones once the iPhone 8 was on the market. Those who may have one of these old models ‘Tucked away in the sock drawer’ can hope to receive up to $150 if their phone matches the criteria.

Date:  March 4, 2024

Source:  cbc.ca

 Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/apple-settlement-british-columbia-supreme-court-1.7098096

Discussion points:

1) How many of your classmates owned an iPhone 6 or 7? How many are planning to go after their piece of the settlement?

2) The story notes that Apple did not admit any wrongdoing. Why would a company adopt this strategy?

3) Page 11-21 of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making discusses Apple’s practice of stock splits. Why is no journal entry required for a stock split?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Financial Accounting, Student life.

Description: Business insolvencies in January were about double of what they were in January 2023. One factor cited for the problem was the requirement to pay back loans of up to $60,000 under the Canada Emergency Business Account program by January 18. Simon Gaudreault of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says that “Insolvencies are just the tip of the iceberg, unfortunately” as some businesses simply close down without filing the paperwork.

Date:  March 5, 2024

Source:  ctvnews.ca

 Link: https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/canadian-business-insolvencies-more-than-double-in-january-led-by-bankruptcies-1.6795358

Discussion points:

1) Have any of your favourite businesses in your campus town gone insolvent in recent months?

2) Do you have any interest in pursuing a career dealing with business insolvency cases?

3) Pages 2-8 and 2-9 of Wiley’s Understanding Financial Accounting discuss the going concern assumption. What type of action must a company take with respect to its financial statements if the going concern assumption is no longer appropriate?

Posted by & filed under Auditing, Student life.

Description: The Auditor General of New Brunswick, Paul Martin, has decided that his Office will examine contracts for travel nurses paid for by the taxpayer. The contracts came under scrutiny after a national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, published an article on the use of high-cost travelling nurses in a number of provinces during the staffing crisis associated with the pandemic. The New Brunswick Nurses Union had called for an audit earlier, noting that some of these contracted nurses were billed at over $300 an hour. That rate is about six times the wage paid to a local nurse.

Date:  March 6, 2024

Source:  cbc.ca

 Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/travel-nurses-audit-new-brunswick-paul-martin-private-cost-1.7135256

Discussion points:

1) Did that original Globe and Mail article find the travel nurse issue in your province? https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-how-canadian-hospitals-grew-dependent-on-expensive-out-of-town-nurses/

2) Do you know any students graduating from nursing on your campus? Are any of them pursuing jobs as travelling nurses?

3) Page 14-35 of Wiley’s Auditing: A Practical Approach tells us of the two categories of assurance engagements. Which of these two do you think the Auditor General of New Brunswick will be pursuing in the travelling nurses audit?

Posted by & filed under Data security, Student life.

Description: The University of Waterloo has asked for all 29 vending machines from Swiss company Invenda be removed from campus following word that the machines have a type of facial analysis capability. The matter came to light when one of the vending machines displayed an error message relating to “facial recognition,” prompting student responses on Reddit and in a campus journal. For its part, Invenda says that no data was being stored and that the primary use of the cameras was to move machines from a standby mode to a sales mode by detecting when a consumer was standing in front of one.

Date:  February 27, 2024

Source:  cbc.ca

 Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/vending-machine-facial-analysis-invenda-waterloo-1.7126196

Discussion points:

1) Are the vending machines on your campus watching you?

2) Would you be concerned if a vending machine like this was placed on your campus?

3) Page 6-5 of Wiley’s Understanding Financial Accounting lists five key limitations of internal control. Even when a company has controls in place to protect customers’ data, which of these limitations do you see might pose a problem and allow customer information to be compromised?