PwC fined $19 million over costly LCF audit failures
UK property developer sues PwC alleging ‘negligent’ tax advice
"As the American foreign correspondent TD Allman, who died this year, put it: 'Genuine objective journalism not only gets the facts right, it gets the meaning of events right.' John Lyons passes that double test. It is journalism of the highest standard."
John Lyons named Journalist of the Year at 2024 Kennedy Awards
I 've always believed the basic requirement for investigative journalism is lucky timing. So how do I explain catching the flu & being too sick to go to the Kennedys? Rookie move! Fortunately the excellent
Truth, Justice, And Taxation: Towards An Ethical Framework For Tax Practitioners
Is It Too Much to Ask that the Defraud Conspiracy Crime Require Fraud?
In United States v. Lingat, (S.D. N.Y. No. 1:21-cr-00573 Dkt # 191 Opinion & Order 7/30/24), CL here& GS here [to come], the court rejected the defendants’ motions for acquittal after conviction. The defendants asserted as a principal basis for the motions United States v. Coplan, 703 F.3d 46 (2d Cir. 2012), here, cert. den. 134 S. Ct. 71 (2013) which questioned the Klein defraud conspiracy (the § 371 defraud conspiracy) for which the defendants were convicted. In affirming the Klein defraud conspiracy convictions, Coplan strongly questioned the validity of the Klein conspiracy but was compelled to follow Supreme Court opinions approving the broad interpretation of the defraud conspiracy.
Yet another accounting firm has reported a data breach, this time Heier Weisbrot & Bernstein of Gibbsboro, New Jersey and the details are a bit scarier than just bad actors caught digging around in the firm’s files. In this case, an unauthorized someone or someones got into HW&B’s tax software and attempted to file fraudulent tax returns.
This is what they said in a consumer notification filed with the attorney general of Maine on August 7 (emphasis ours):
Hackers Tried to Help This Firm Get Through Theirq Tax Return Backlog, Fraudulently
Was your Social Security number leaked to the dark web? Here’s how to know and what to do
Hackers may have stolen the Social Security numbers of every American. How to protect yourself
LA Times via Yahoo: “…Data breaches have been so common over the years, some security experts say sensitive information about you is almost certainly available in the dark corners of the internet. And there are a lot of people capable of finding it; VPNRanks, a website that rates virtual private network services, estimates that 5 million people a day will access the dark web through the anonymizing TOR browser, although only a portion of them will be up to no good.
If you suspect that your Social Security number or other important identifying information about you has been leaked, experts say you should put a freeze on your credit files at the three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You can do so for free, and it will prevent criminals from taking out loans, signing up for credit cards and opening financial accounts under your name. The catch is that you’ll need to remember to lift the freeze temporarily if you are obtaining or applying for something that requires a credit check. Placing a freeze can be done online or by phone, working with each credit bureau individually. PIRG cautions never to do so in response to an unsolicited email or text purporting to be from one of the credit agencies — such a message is probably the work of a scammer trying to dupe you into revealing sensitive personal information.
- For more details, check out PIRG’s step-by-step guide to credit freezes.
- You can also sign up for a service that monitors your accounts and the dark web to guard against identity theft, typically for a fee. If your data is exposed in a breach, the company whose network was breached will often provide one of these services for free for a year or more.
- As important as these steps are to stop people from opening new accounts in your name, they aren’t much help protecting your existing accounts. Oddly enough, those accounts are especially vulnerable to identity thieves if you haven’t signed up for online access to them, Murray said — that’s because it’s easier for thieves to create a login and password while pretending to be you than it is for them to crack your existing login and password…”
The Tax Practitioners Board has successfully obtained a $1.8 million penalty against an individual who prepared tax returns for a fee without being registered with the tax agent regulator.
Jayden Van Dyke was fined by the Federal Court after admitting to preparing and lodging 3,359 income tax returns while not meeting the registration requirements.
A court order also requires Van Dyke be permanently restrained from providing tax agent services while not a registered tax agenThe Tax Practitioners Board has successfully obtained a $1.8 million penalty against an individual who prepared tax returns for a fee without being registered with the tax agent regulator.
Jayden Van Dyke was fined by the Federal Court after admitting to preparing and lodging 3,359 income tax returns while not meeting the registration requirements.
A court order also requires Van Dyke be permanently restrained from providing tax agent services while not a registered tax agent as defined under law.
The court judgment by Justice Abraham explained that Van Dyke did not provide tax agent services in the usual fashion done by a registered tax agent.
