In our 2013 Worknomix survey, we found that on average Americans are taking home $130 less per paycheck thanks to the expiration of the payroll tax holiday in January. In our Paycheck Survey Analysis infographic we take a look at how they are making up the difference and offer some advice to make your paycheck last a little longer. You can also view the full survey results on our Slideshare account here. Check out the infographic after the jump!
As reported by Bloomberg, President Barack Obama needs someone who can manage 90,000 employees, handle a hostile Congress and file impeccable personal tax returns.
Maybe it’s no surprise that he’s gone more than 14 months without nominating a commissioner to run the beleaguered Internal Revenue Service.
“It’s probably almost somebody wearing a Superman outfit,” said Margaret Richardson, who was IRS commissioner from 1993 to 1997.
Whoever Obama nominates to run the U.S. tax agency will have to restore public confidence and employee morale after last month’s revelations that the IRS applied stricter scrutiny to Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status. The congressional attention complicates an already-tough job that requires protecting taxpayer data from hackers and processing more than 230 million returns annually.
According to BusinessWeek, the goal [of the new accounting standards] is to produce more reliable financial statements—for business owners, for their lenders, for their surety bonding companies (if they’re construction companies). Right now the main non-GAAP reporting options are the tax basis and the cash basis of accounting. We developed this framework which is more comprehensive than the other two and which has the ability to be more consistently applied.
As reported by the Independent, concerns rose last night over the close relationship between taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland and the accounting giant KPMG, which dominates RBS’s boardroom and wins a large share of the bank’s multimillion-pound contracts.
News of the ties triggered warnings to RBS to reject candidates who have held senior KPMG posts as they hunt for a chief executive and – potentially – a chairman to replace Stephen Hester and Sir Philip Hampton.
RBS has no fewer than three former KPMG executives on its board, all of whom sit on the nominations committee which will select the new chief executive.
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With the release of the BLS’ “The Employment Situation – June 2013” report just days away, many economists anticipated the nation’s recent job growth trends would continue. After all, the national unemployment rate had contracted to 7.5 percent in April, the lowest rate recorded since December 2008, as an average of 195,750 jobs had been generated per month since January.
Most economists’ projections were a bit lower than 2013’s monthly job creation average, typically ranging from 160,000 to 170,000 but they were virtually accurate.
According to June’s employment report, 175,000 new jobs were added to the national economy last month. The civilian labor force also grew, by 420,000, rising to 155.7 million.
The national unemployment rate rose slightly to 7.6 percent with. many economists noting this rise in unemployment is actually encouraging, signifying that Americans’ confidence in the marketplace is improving, as the nation’s unemployed are beginning to look for jobs once more and are considering themselves active participants in the job market.
As further proof of economic recovery, the total number of Americans pursuing unemployment benefits recently declined, falling to 346,000 during the last week of May, a decrease of 11,000. This contraction was likely directly associated with the private sector, which continues to hire at a steady pace. Since January, 972,000 private sector jobs have been added to the national economy, according to Alan Krueger, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.
In all, 11.8 million Americans are unemployed. 780,000 are considered discouraged workers, as they have given up on their job searches for the time being, lacking confidence in the job market. And 7.9 million Americans are presently working part-time for economic reasons.
With private sector employment steadily rising, and the majority of sectors showing long term gain in 2013, it is a hopeful sign that economic recovery is continuing.
According to some economists’ estimates, at least 200,000 new jobs need to be created per month, on average, in order to significantly lower the United States’ national unemployment rate, which is still well above the norm.
Although last month’s total job creation did not exceed 200,000, economists were still encouraged by its findings, particularly with regards to private sector employment, which increased for the 39th consecutive month.
Nearly 113.8 million professionals were employed within the private sector in May, as hiring was wide-ranging, rising by 178,000. In particular, the following industries reported solid job gains.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Rules that require companies to report the results of their operating segments to investors the way a company’s managers view them are in focus again after U.S. securities regulators settled a suit with truck and engine maker Paccar Inc. over “accounting deficiencies” this week.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a complaint that Paccar had waited too long to break out its aftermarket parts segment for reporting purposes, since management started reporting that unit as a separate segment for its own purposes as early as 2008.
In April 2003, a New York Times article discussed the push by federal prosecutors to crack down on accounting fraud in which one expert said, “These have become the hot, sexy cases.”
What followed were the convictions of chief executives including Jeffrey K. Skilling of Enron, Bernard J. Ebbers of WorldCom and John J. Rigas of Adelphia Communications.
Read the rest on the New York Times.
As reported by MarketWatch, treasurys posted gains on Wednesday after mixed economic data helped keep the safe-haven debt well bid ahead of a closely watched Friday jobs report.
The 10-year note yield, which moves inversely to price, last traded 6 basis points lower at 2.095%. The 30-year bond yield was down 6 basis points at 3.250%, while the 5-year note yield was down 4 basis points at 1.023%.
A government report Wednesday, according to the Washington Times, found significant deficiencies in how the U.S. Marshals Service accounts for overtime and supplemental pay for law enforcement officers; identifies more than $275,000 in unsupported costs associated with district-level salaries, fleet cards and purchase cards; and concludes that the agency needs to take multiple actions to strengthen its internal controls to ensure it is adequately preventing waste, fraud and abuse.
The report, by the Justice Department’s office of inspector general, says that agency supervisors responsible for assigning overtime hours did not have concrete guidance on how much overtime was appropriate, and that the matter was left primarily to their own judgment.
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Credit: CNN Money Buzz Blog
Last year, one of the biggest financial scandals ever erupted over how banks set the Libor. The reverberations continue today, with cities like Baltimore leading a class-action lawsuit over the manipulation, and accusations flying that billions — or even trillions — of dollars were involved.
But what is the Libor scandal? And does it really still matter?
Libor Scandal: An Overview
The London interbank offered rate (Libor) is a benchmark based on reports of various banks. Libor is supposed to be set based on a poll of banks, and the rates they are offering. However, in 2012, Barclays PLC, one of the most venerable banks in the world, admitted to manipulating the process. Barclays paid a fine, and indicated that other banks colluded to manipulate the Libor in ways that meant more profits for banks. Barclays insisted that this manipulation has been happening since before the financial crisis of 2008. Read the rest of this entry »
Reporting Leases, China Bonds, Consumer Bureau: Compliance
As reported by Business Week, accounting changes that would require companies to report more of their leases as assets and liabilities may encourage businesses to structure shorter-term rental agreements that could hamper the ability of lessors to predict cash flows, according to Fitch Ratings.
The International Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board last week proposed rule changes in an effort to improve transparency for a company’s leverage, assets and risks to which it is exposed from entering into leasing transactions. Most leases aren’t currently reported on a lessee’s balance sheet, a system that has been criticized for not fully reflecting a company’s finances.
Lease-Accounting Rules: Tinker, Don’t Trash
According to CFO Magazine, the current proposal to overhaul lease-accounting rules is off base, because for most lease transactions, the existing rules work well.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board and International Accounting Standards Board should not throw away decades of experience and force lessors to spend millions of dollars updating their accounting systems to address a limited set of weaknesses in the rules. Users and preparers of financial statements would be better served if the current rules were merely tightened to address the areas that make them vulnerable to manipulation.
As the release date of the BLS’ “The Employment Situation – April 2013” neared, most economists remained encouraged, in spite of March’s initally disappointing employment figures, as only 88,000 new jobs were generated.
Prior to the release of the BLS’ latest jobs report, some financial experts predicted 140,000 jobs would be created in April, while others were even more positive, anticipating a rise in employment of 150,000.
Despite their optimism, economists’ projections were actually lower than the BLS’ published results, as 165,000 jobs were added to the national economy last month. Long-term unemployment decreased to 4.4 million, a decline of 258,000, when compared to March’s data. Since April 2012, the total number of long-term unemployed has decelerated by 687,000.
Even though the national underemployment rate rose to 13.9 percent and the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls decreased to 34.4 hours, April’s jobs report was quite positive for the most part. With total employment increasing by 293,000, and total unemployment declining by 83,000, the national jobless rate dropped to 7.5 percent, the lowest rate recorded since December 2008.
Recent jobs revisions were also very encouraging, as February’s total job creation rose from 268,000 to 332,000, the highest monthly total since May 2010. And March’s previously disappointing figures improved, rising to 138,000. As a result of these revisions, 208,000 new jobs have been generated per month, on average, since November 2012.
In fact, new jobs have now been added to the national economy every month since March 2010. A majority of these positions have been generated by the private sector.
“The economy has now added private sector jobs every month for 38 straight months, and a total of 6.8 million jobs have been added over that period,” said Alan Krueger, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. “Over 800,000 private sector jobs have been added over the last four months.”
Although we are still working toward full recovery, most of the results of April’s jobs report indicate that steady economic progress is occurring. Since January, unemployment has decreased by 673,000, while nonfarm payroll employment has risen by 169,000 per month, on average, since April 2012. In addition, average hourly earnings continued to progress in April, rising to $23.87, the sixth consecutive month of increases.
Although some private sectors, like information, reported job losses, a majority added employees to payrolls last month, including each of the following sectors.
If you are spending your evening searching summer vacation destinations online, you most likely are also wondering what will happen to your workload and clients while you are away. As an accountant, the end of the fiscal year falling in the middle of summer and near the July 4th holiday can pose an extra challenge. But instead of not taking the time off or coming back to a pile of work, you have a third option – hire a skilled temporary accountant to fill your shoes while you are relaxing on the beach or hiking in the mountains.
Many single accountant firms, larger accounting practices and even accounting departments within businesses are now hiring temporary accountants to fill short-term needs. Recently Entrepreneur.com ran a story on the increasing trend of businesses hiring temporary workers to fill specialized skilled positions. “With many temporary help companies now offering specialized employees, many business owners have learned that they don’t have to settle for low skill levels or imperfect matches,” says Entrepreneur.com in the article “Hiring Temporary Employee.” “Because most temporary help companies screen — and often train — their employees, entrepreneurs who choose this option stand a better chance of obtaining the quality employees they need for their business.
Here are four ways that hiring a temporary accountant for vacation coverage can benefit your company or firm: Read the rest of this entry »
Careers are tough to navigate – so don’t do it alone.
Take a lesson from Dan Martell, a serial entrepreneur who’s built and sold two companies, Spheric Technologies and Flowtown.
Throughout his amazing professional experiences, he’s learned one key lesson – behind every professional success story is at least one amazing boss, close friend, or trusted advisor. That fact holds true regardless of whether you’re an entrepreneur, consultant, accountant, or other industry specialist.
“A mentor is someone who’s been there, done that, and is willing to help you out,” Martell said in his personal blog. “It’s that simple.”
Mentors come in all shapes and sizes. They’re CEOs, managers, parents, aunts, and uncles. What’s most important is that these individuals inspire you to be your best. They’re a sounding board when you’re stressed and your voice of reason when your head is lost in the clouds. Here’s what you need to know about finding that perfect someone: Read the rest of this entry »
If you’re not on LinkedIn, you’re missing out on key networking opportunities. With more than 200 million registered users, the platform is the world’s ultimate social network for professionals. Not to mention, it’s an amazing resource for discovering new companies, keeping track of your connections, eyeing new job prospects, meeting new people, and pursuing new ventures.
LinkedIn is a power-tool for keeping your contacts organized in one place – with minimal effort too. With minimal social investment and time commitment, you can casually keep a pulse on what’s happening in your industry and peer community.
Even recruiters say that you should make sure you’re using LinkedIn to its fullest potential. You may be on LinkedIn, but how actively do you use it? Are you dedicated to building new connections, sharing status updates, and monitoring connections?
And what about your profile?
Beyond sharing your title and company, do you actively showcase who you are by collecting recommendations, sharing feedback about others, and endorsing your peers’ skill sets? For your LinkedIn presence to truly take off, you need to invest in your personal brand and it’s in your best interest to get started right away. Read the rest of this entry »
