Accounting
Small accounting firms aren’t off the DEI hook
Some smaller accounting firms are in denial that they have a major role to play in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the accounting profession.
One-third of micro and 13% of small firms say DEI is not a necessary part of their strategy, according to
By and large, experts agree there is still much more work to be done on the DEI front.
Donny Shimamoto, founder of CPA firm IntrapriseTechKnowlogies and the Center for Accounting Transformation, says that among small firms there is a sense of “this doesn’t really apply to us; this is for big organizations,” and “we can’t have representation; we’re too small.”
So what can small firms do, with the limited resources they have, to advance DEI?
Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, the former chair of the American Institute of CPAs’ National Commission on Diversity and Inclusion, says small firms should view their size as their strength: They have an advantage in that there’s less bureaucracy — they can make changes and implement policies in the office without getting caught up in red tape.
She said firms should not underestimate the value of flexibility. Diversity encompasses race, ethnicity and gender, but it also includes parental status, neurodiversity, socioeconomic status, physical ability or disability, and more. Offering hybrid or remote schedules, or offering reduced hour requirements, can be a deciding factor for potential employees choosing between firms.
“Play to your strengths and use that to get them to come and work with you,” Ellison-Taylor said. “It might not follow any conventional model that you’ve ever heard of, but why not start one?”
It’s important for DEI to be a tone set from the top.
“In order for staff to really have buy-in, they like to see that their leaders are actually bought into the various initiatives or the culture of the firm,” said Trevor Williams, audit partner and director of DEI at GRF CPAs in Bethesda, Maryland.
“There’s only so much growth that your firm can do if everybody looks like and thinks like the same cookie cutter,” Williams continued. “You can’t be successful in today’s environment with that type of belief.”
Diverse leadership brings different perspectives to the table.
“If everybody has the same opinion, you’re not going to get the right answer,” said Lexy Kessler, vice chairman of the AICPA and mid-Atlantic managing partner of Top 100 Firm Aprio. “If you have people with different opinions and different backgrounds coming into conversation, then you get to the right answer.”
DEI can improve a firm’s bottom line.
“We work in accounting. If we can start showing people that by continuing their efforts in inclusive initiatives in their firm — that the metrics will get better — I think that they will keep going with it,” said Sandra Wiley, president of Boomer Consulting. “But I think we’ve got to turn the attention to not just what some firm leaders would call fluff and talk about the numbers. Talk about profitability, talk about how many innovative ideas are coming up, talk about the collaboration between teams about engagement, and attracting and retaining good people.”
But it’s up to firms to make change happen. “You can’t wait and hope for the best,” said Anoop Mehta, past chair of the AICPA and current chair of the AICPA NCDI. “You have to put processes in place, and you have to be intentional about it.”
Experts say that now is not the time to pull back. Doing so risks alienating not only diverse talent but also the growing Gen Z workforce who highly value their companies’ stances on critical social issues.
“Pulling back is only going to position your firm as being run by people that don’t care about this kind of stuff,” said Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk, president and manager of the Accounting MOVE Project. “They don’t care about their employees. They don’t care about reaching people outside of the majority of firm employees.”
As part of our annual Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting list, Accounting Today asks candidates to name who they think are the most influential people in the field, and here they are, ranked by the number of votes they received from the 139 candidates.
The top nine are listed below, and you can see Accounting Today‘s
Infinite Ties, an online community built for client accounting services professionals in the U.S., announced the official launch of its site at
The website was created to foster collaboration and the sharing of best practices and resources around CAS.
The founders of Infinite Ties (named for “Technology, Information, Education that leads to Success”) were early adopters in the CAS space.
“The CAS community can often feel like an island,” said co-founder Christine Triantos in a statement. “We recognize the need for CAS members to objectively discuss what’s working, what’s not working, technology solutions, and best practices. Infinite Ties aims to bridge these gaps and create a supportive, connected community.”
The online community’s training resources include monthly webinars, templates for common CAS practice requirements, and interactive forums.
“We have trained team members on specific CAS theory and techniques, and we also understand that finding CAS-specific training can be difficult,” Triantos stated. “Our goal is to provide accessible, high-quality training and resources to help CAS professionals excel.”
“We are passionate about CAS and wholeheartedly want to help CAS professionals be rockstars in this space,” co-founder Michelle Welch said in a statement. “Infinite Ties is not just a platform; it’s a movement towards excellence and innovation in CAS. We’re excited to see the positive impact it will have on the industry.”
Membership is $99 per month for up to five team members and more information is available on the
Anthony Kwan/Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloom
Lawyers for Roger Ver, the cryptocurrency advocate known as Bitcoin Jesus, urged a U.S. judge to dismiss his tax evasion indictment in their first court filing since his April arrest in Spain.
U.S. prosecutors
Ver’s lawyers argued Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court that the exit tax, applied by the Internal Revenue Service to U.S. citizens who
The exit tax improperly demands “millions of dollars from expatriates in taxation that would not apply to anyone else,” Ver’s lawyers wrote.
Ver, a U.S. expatriate, awaits a Spanish judge’s decision over whether he will be extradited to America to face tax fraud charges. As he planned to expatriate, prosecutors allege, Ver hid the number and value of Bitcoin he owned and controlled personally and through his California-based companies, MemoryDealers and Agilestar. Ver worked with a law firm and appraisers on the exit tax, but gave them false information about his Bitcoin, and an exit tax return filed in 2016 failed to report the Bitcoin he owned personally while underreporting the value of his companies, prosecutors charge.
But Ver’s lawyers argued that prosecutors ignored evidence showing he had no intent to violate U.S. tax law.
“I want to make sure that my exit tax payments are as clean as possible, with no room to have trouble from the IRS in the future,” Ver wrote in a 2013 email, according to the filing.
The indictment also alleges Ver “fraudulently misrepresented and concealed” from the IRS the crypto that his companies sold in 2017 for about $240 million. But the filing claims Ver and his prior lawyers tried to figure out what he owed the U.S. amid unclear guidance on how the tax laws applied to crypto.
“Although Ver had long engaged the government in discussions regarding a civil resolution of this matter, the government has never been able to articulate the taxes purportedly owed,” they wrote. “Instead of continuing those discussions in good faith, but while Ver’s prior counsel remained under the impression that discussions were ongoing,” the U.S. announced his indictment.
Ver’s lawyers also argued that IRS agents violated his attorney-client privilege in December 2017 by conducting an unannounced interview of one of his tax lawyers. In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court took up a case on the issue that didn’t name the parties but matched Ver’s circumstances. The court dropped that case in 2023 without issuing a ruling.
In an interview with Bloomberg New in late October, Ver said he spent a month in jail before getting out on bail and moving to Mallorca, where he’s received a steady stream of visitors. An outspoken critic of the U.S. government, he said he’s being persecuted by prosecutors.
“They don’t like me, and they don’t like my political views, and they just came at me every which way,” Ver said.
Ver said he’s spending his days talking to his lawyers on Zoom, practicing Brazilian jiujitsu and entertaining friends visiting from overseas. He’s attended Bitcoin meetups, where he said he was well received.
When crypto began, Ver embraced its promise. He started buying Bitcoin in 2011 for less than $1, spreading the vision of using crypto and touting its potential. He earned the “Bitcoin Jesus” moniker for his evangelical-like advocacy of the original cryptocurrency.
He was an early investor in Blockchain.com, a crypto company once valued at $14 billion, payment processor BitPay and digital-asset firm Ripple. When the Bitcoin network underwent a software upgrade he opposed in 2017, Ver broke with the community, switching to a split-off called Bitcoin Cash. He said his current holdings include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether and Zano.
A Justice Department representative declined to comment.
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