Firm News: Oct. 3, 2014

ILLINOIS

More than 1,100 Certified Public Accountants gave back to their communities as part of the Illinois CPA Society’s CPA Day of Service on Friday, September 19. The 5th Annual CPA Day of Service included volunteer work at nearly 150 community and non-profit organizations as CPAs wearing blue CPA Day of Service t-shirts donated their time and effort in villages, towns and cities across the state to pack food, clean parks and recreation centers, renovate houses, care for animals and provide employment assistance. … Wolters Kluwer, CCH announced the launch of its new CCH® Apportionment Suite, enabling tax professionals to determine apportionment, proper sourcing of items and final calculation of specific state apportionment percentages. The innovative solution, particularly benefitting corporations with business operations in multiple locations, provides practitioners with resources to navigate evolving apportionment rules on a state-by-state basis, effectively plan for the future, and meet compliance obligations.

LOUISIANA

To provide businesses with timely updates and analysis on legal events surrounding state and local taxation, the law firm of Jones Walker LLP today launched its latest blog, Cooking with SALT - www.CookingwithSALTLaw.com 

MASSACHUSETTS

David Landau & Associates LLC has opened its third office, in Boston, MA, which will be the primary location serving New England. The expansion into Boston will allow DLA to continue to grow its Internal Audit, Forensics, Valuation & Litigation Support, Compliance and Advisory Services practices in the New England area.

MICHIGAN

From adoption to housing to veterans, Plante Moran will support 17 non-profit organizations during fiscal 2015 through its staff-driven community service initiative, Plante Moran Cares. Now in its seventh year, PM Cares connects staff of one of the nation’s largest certified public accounting and management consulting firms with volunteer opportunities designed to improve the well being of members in their local communities. Through hands-on volunteering and creative fundraising initiatives, PM Cares furthers the firm’s longstanding “We care” mission while strengthening staff ties in each of its offices in Michigan, Ohio and Illinois. … UHY LLP is opening its third Michigan office in downtown Detroit’s financial district. UHY’s first Wayne County office will be open for business on the sixth floor of the Chrysler House (previously known as the Dime Building) sometime in November. The 23-story historic skyscraper is located at Griswold and Fort streets near Campus Martius Park.

NEW JERSEY

Approximately 70 executive women, including 20 professionals from the Eatontown and Roseland, NJ offices of CohnReznick LLP, participated in the Firm’s 5th Annual Executive Women’s Forum Golf event. The event, which was suitable for all levels of golfers, was held on September 17th at Forsgate Country Club in Monroe Township, NJ and offered lunch, a hands-on clinic, and 9-hole game. … EisnerAmper has been honored with the 2014 When Work Works Award for its use of effective workplace strategies to increase business and employee success.

NEW YORK

The United States is heading for its highest Initial Public Offering activity since 2000, according to new research released by Top 100 firm CohnReznick LLP. The report indicates that 2014 IPO activity is on track to surpass 2013 figures, with 230 IPOs taking place during the first three quarters of the year, compared with 180 for the same time period in 2013. CohnReznick anticipates IPO activity for the year will exceed 315 deals, marking the highest level since 2000. If the strong market activity keeps pace through the end of the year, new IPOs can be credited with injecting an estimated 250,000 new jobs into the U.S. economy. … Dannible & McKee LLP Partners Victor Vaccaro and Kenneth Gardiner were featured speakers at the 2014 American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials Subcommittee on Internal/External Audit Annual Meeting, held August 10-13 in Savannah, Georgia. The annual meeting for accounting professionals and transportation officials included informative panels and presentations by a full schedule of State and Federal speakers, as well as transportation and financial industry experts. Vaccaro presented on “Performing Effective Contract Closeout Procedures,” and Gardiner presented on “Identifying Risky Architecture and Engineering Firms Using Ratios and Other Financial Analysis Tools.” … The American Institute of CPAs, the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy and Prometric announced that testing for the Uniform CPA Examination in the Middle East will be open to all qualified citizens and permanent residents of India beginning October 1, 2014. … Lumsden McCormick’s Making A Difference committee challenged law firm Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel, LLP to a week of caring. Dubbed the City of Good Neighbors Corporate Donations Drive, the collections took place at each individual office the week of September 22, 2014 with the collection of needed items for four local charities- the Buffalo City Mission; Catholic Charities of Buffalo; Food Bank of WNY; and SPCA Serving Erie County. … PwC launched the fourth installment of its 2014 Annual Corporate Directors Survey, focused on strategy and risk oversight. According to the survey, although boards are dedicating significant attention to their risk oversight responsibilities, three-quarters of directors say they do not currently have substantial discussions about corporate social responsibility issues including human rights, climate change, carbon emissions and resource scarcity. l

OHIO

Ciuni & Panichi Inc., Cleveland, has been named a NorthCoast 99 Winner for the seventh consecutive year.

ONTARIO

New and complex business challenges, fueled by rapid technological changes, are reshaping views on good governance and emerging risks across a broad spectrum of industries. As those challenges evolve, internal audit’s knowledge of processes, governance, and risks place it in a position to help business and government successfully navigate through them. A four-day conference beginning Sunday, Oct. 5, will gather some of North America’s top internal audit executives from the public and private sectors to address whether the profession is ready to step up to fulfill that role. The theme of the 7th Annual National Conference of The Institute of Internal Auditors – Canada is Rising to New Challenges. More than 700 internal audit leaders, practitioners and government executives are expected to attend the conference, at the Westin Hotel Ottawa.

TENNESSEE

Decosimo has been named as a member of the 2014 CSO50 by IDG’s CSO Magazine. Chosen by a panel of information technology experts, the CSO50 is presented to 50 organizations which have demonstrated that their security projects and initiatives have created outstanding business value and thought leadership for their companies. Decosimo earned the CSO50 distinction for the firm’s implementation of the Sharefile Secure File Transfer system, which focused on creating data rooms, electronic collaboration areas and short-term client portals. Through the process of replacing the firm’s legacy system with the Sharefile Secure File Transfer system, Decosimo established a cutting-edge platform that provided faster and more secure access to files with the ability to integrate other data management products within the new system.

TEXAS

PKF Texas has been honored with the 2014 When Work Works Award (formerly the Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Excellence in Workplace Effectiveness and Flexibility) for its use of effective workplace strategies to increase business and employee success. This is the eighth consecutive year we have received this award. … Bloomberg BNA and Mayer Brown are co-hosting a tax conference for energy companies focusing on maximizing value. The conference will be held in Houston on November 17-18 at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in downtown Houston. Developed specifically for energy industry financial and tax leaders, the conference focuses on increasingly complex tax issues affecting today’s global energy companies and will feature the latest insights and perspectives from government, advisory firm and corporate experts.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Thomson Reuters and KPMG LLP have teamed up to provide services and technology to help companies moving goods across borders in Latin America comply with trade and customs regulations. The announcement follows the Thomson Reuters acquisition of Softway, a leading provider of global trade management software solutions across Latin America. Softway solutions helps enable companies to automate and manage complex global trade processes, comply with customs regime protocols, and help ensure tax and tariff compliance. Combined with Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE global indirect tax and transfer pricing solutions, Softway is the leader in trade compliance management in Latin America.