No Accounting for Taste podcast ep11: Big Four fines, MTD and advisory firms
byThis week accountant and business coach Carl Reader joins the podcast to chew over the latest news and insight from the accounting industry.
Stories covered in this week’s episode include the FRC cracking down on ‘seriously poor’ audit practices from the Big Four in light of recent scandals, how small practitioners are reacting to the government’s Making Tax Digital scheme and what the ubiquitous term ‘advisory services’ means for accounting practices.
The pod also tackled the curious case of the missing comma that cost a company in America $5m. The story centres on a group of delivery-truck drivers from Maine sued their employer, Oakhurst Dairy, for unpaid overtime and lost wages.
The state of Maine’s overtime laws outlined activities that did not qualify for overtime, which included the following excerpt:
The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of:
(1) Agricultural produce;
(2) Meat and fish products; and
(3) Perishable foods.
The key point is the missing comma between “shipment” and “or.” In the drivers’ view, that meant the entire clause “packing for shipment or distribution of…” was one activity, not two separate ones, exempt from overtime.
The drivers argued that since they had distributed, but not packed, the products, they were owed overtime wages. The appeals court agreed, ruling the passage ambiguous.
Enjoy the podcast, and if you’d like more information on the stories discussed here are the links:
- Big Four face fines of up to £10m for poor audit work
- Small Change content series
- What we’ve been reading: Hockey accountant, coffee, and Oxford comma
And remember to get your entries into the Accounting Excellence awards by 20 April, and if you like webcasts then you’re in for a treat on 19 April. At 11am a star-studded panel of guests join Richard Hattersley for the ‘New year, new software’ webcast, while at 2pm former Deliveroo CFO Philip Green joins our business editor Francois Badenhorst to discuss how to build a finance team for growth.
To listen to the show click the play icon in the box at the top of this article, visit our Soundcloud page or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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Contributions from the AccountingWEB.co.uk editorial team.