FEI Weekly

December 21, 2017

Will your paycheck change in February? And the most spoiled generation may not be the one you'd expect.

200,000 AT&T Employees Get a Special Bonus, Thanks for Tax Reform

Business Insider

In a press release yesterday, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said that once tax reform was signed into law, the company plans to invest $1 billion in the U.S. in 2018 and pay a special $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000 AT&T U.S. employees. AT&T wasn't alone in touting its plans to spend a portion of its windfall on workers. Boeing also announced what it described as a $300 million "employee-related and charitable investment" stemming from the tax cuts.

Will Your Paycheck Change?

Fox Business

Now that the GOP has passed its sweeping tax reform legislation, it may not be long before some employees see those changes reflected in their paychecks. President Trump said Americans could expect bigger paychecks beginning in February, which may hold true for those who will both experience reduced rates under the new tax system and have taxes withheld from their weekly income.

The Most Spoiled Generation Is Not the One You'd Expect

Vox

Author Bruce Gibney argues that boomers, not millennials, are to blame for the country's economic problems. According to Bruce, boomers have committed “generational plunder,” pillaging the nation’s economy, repeatedly cutting their own taxes, financing two wars with deficits, ignoring climate change, presiding over the death of America’s manufacturing core, and leaving future generations to clean up the mess they created.

Grant Thornton Hit With $1.5 Million Penalty

Accounting Today

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) said Wednesday it has imposed a $1.5 million civil penalty against Grant Thornton LLP and censure the firm for violations of quality control standards and for audit failures. GT’s quality control violations occurred in connection with its assignment, support and monitoring of two engagement partners in its Philadelphia-based financial services practice during 2013 audits.

Richard Branson on Turning Failure into Success

CNBC

With work winding down to get ready for the massive shift in how to recognize revenue, the next major accounting change exercise still awaits—lease accounting. Luckily, the FASB plans to give companies some relief to ease their transition to the new accounting rules. They will change the lease rules to permit companies to adopt the new accounting beginning in 2019 without requiring restatement of historic periods. The FASB is also proposing to simplify the accounting for lessors, dropping a requirement to separately recognize lease and non-lease components in rental agreements.