Professor Elam

In a case reminiscent of the KPMG $450M non deductible fine by the IRS, a BDO former partner

plead guilty to conspiring to tax fraud.  Please read this article.

Now, things are not quite as they appear. After all

People do not go to cpa firms merely to have their tax returns prepared, HR Block can do that

They seek hlep in avoiding taxes, which is not the same as tax evasion….

Tax personnel are of course like all firm members urged to maximize the profit in their section of the cpa firm

And believe me, when they do, they are put on display at the annual meeting, the point being, if the rest of you would emulate this behavior we could really make some money

In the KPMG case, the tax partners were 'thrown to the wolves' in my opinion after being hailed as real 'producers' for the firm.

KPMG paid the non deductible fine without ever being tried!  the Feds were fearful that too much prosecution would collapse KPMG ala Andersen and there would simply not be enough big cpa firms to do all the intl work

My point being, as teh song says, one day you are the windshield, the next day you are the bug…

We shold highlight this as a contemporary topic in audit and tax class.