Going Private

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Corporate Restructuring.

Description: It appears that the owners of the Canadian arm of Sirius XM radio are planning to take the company private. This means that the US bsed company Sirius  XM Holdings Inc and several major Canadian investors will have to acquire the shares that are publicly held, estimated at over 30 percent of over 100… Read more »

Alphabet tops Apple

Posted by & filed under Financial Reporting and Analysis.

Description: In the battle between the two huge letter A tech companies, Apple and Alphabet, Alphabet (formerly known as Google), has supplanted Apple as the largest company in the world as measured by market valuation. Apple had held the top spot since replacing Exxon in 2012. Alphabet, the new holding company that owns Google and… Read more »

Tax rates: Who’s highest?

Posted by & filed under Canadian Economy, Personal Tax.

Description: This week the New Brunswick government released its budget for the coming fiscal year. And one budget item got first page attention on the front page of Canada’s national newspaper, the Globe and Mail. The Globe featured an article noting how New Brunswick’s budget promises a tax cut for the wealthiest citizens in order… Read more »

Where are the savings?

Posted by & filed under Canadian governments, Managerial Accounting.

Description: Federal Auditor General Michael Ferguson released his latest report on Tuesday. One of the key findings seems to be around the relatively new department, Shared Services Canada, founded in 2012. Shared Services Canada has a mandate to consolidate various information services throughout the government’s 43 departments by 2020, but Mr. Ferguson’s work points out… Read more »

Google and taxes

Posted by & filed under Accounting Theory, Taxation.

Description: Google has settled a six year tax audit with the British government; the amount owing – 130 million British pounds. And Google faces a similar tax bill in Italy while the government of France threatens to collect about three times as much from the Internet search-engine king. But don’t feel too sorry for Google…. Read more »

TD Bank sued in Ponzi scheme

Posted by & filed under Auditing, Fraud.

Description: TD Bank is being sued in Ontario Superior Court for $5.5 billion for its role in correspondent banking for the Stanford International Bank.  Stanford’s founder, Allen Stanford, is serving a 110 year prison sentence for leading a fraud that removed $5.5 billion from the pockets of over 20,000 investors. The claim filed against TD,… Read more »

Think twice before using company email

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Ethics.

Description: One major outcome of the Ashley Madison security failure last year was the number of public-sector email addresses implicated as users. The hack revealed users at the RCMP, the Canada Revenue Agency, the Justice Department and the armed forces were using their employers’ email service to search the Ashley Madison site. This raises questions… Read more »

Debt loads troublesome

Posted by & filed under Canadian Economy, Financial Reporting and Analysis.

Description: The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) is concerned. But this time it’s not about government forecasts. Rather, this week the PBO warned that Canadians debt to income level has reached a point not seen in over 25 years. House prices and other pressures are expected to raise those debt to income levels to close to… Read more »

Watch that password

Posted by & filed under Data security, eCommerce.

Description:  Splashdata is a tech company that has developed a software tool for managing passwords. And each year Splashdata entertains and educates us by publishing a list of the 20 worst passwords. This year’s worst two are unchanged from the previous results – “123456” and “password” still top the list. And what makes it worse,… Read more »

Employees will get paid

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Advanced Accounting.

Description: This is a bit of good news in what has been a week of bad news for Goodwill Industries of Toronto, Eastern, Central and Northern Ontario. Last Sunday when employees arrived for work, they found the doors were locked. The organization is experiencing cash flow problems and employees were wondering if they would be… Read more »