Some people are working over 50 hours a week. Others barely have a reason to come in to the office, because they're just going to chat with their friends and make four trips down to Tim Horton's. Is this curious phenomenon limited to just accounting firms? Maybe not, but who cares - if this next...

There's actually a rule on how to treat "stolen property" on your US tax return: " Stolen property. If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless in the same year, you return it to its rightful owner." Someone reported...

If you started, say, an engineering program at one given university, could you switch partway through to a Chartered Accountant prep program instead in the same university's business school, and quickly get all the credits you need to graduate in a mere year and a half? One of the regular CA 'commentators'...

If there's one question students in university may find hard to ask - even though it echoes in their mind all the time - it's "how much am I going to earn if I get hired by a CA firm?" If you're bold and outgoing and have friends who are already employed, this can be easier to find...

I once alluded to instances of ignorant rants being granted precious space in newspapers. The most recent guilty party was written by a Toronto Sun columnist who misunderstands what "smart meters" are supposed to accomplish. Before you ask why I bothered with the Sun, I must explain that I'm...

Every December, about a quarter or a fifth of the UFE writers from the previous September get the bad news - despite their best efforts, they didn't pass the exam. It sucks, but there's no reason to give up. Much advice will then flow forth, and one of the most repeated points - "figure...

As I mentioned earlier, I was slow in checking results this year as I'm far from home - but Ontario candidates can find the ICAO's UFE 2009 results on this page . [Edit - summary of all Canadian UFE 2009 results is up here. ] Congratulations to all those who passed. The ICAO has stopped disclosing...

Hot on the heels of the PwC discussion regarding people getting "packaged off", comes another eye-opening post - this courtesy of Going Concern, which discusses layoffs at Ernst & Young . The post primarily concerns the E&Y offices in the USA, though there's a growing thread of...

An example of "what's it like to be a senior staff" writing seems in order, after all the drama of the nasty early fall combined recruiting, layoff and UFE exam analysis season. The thought of explaining what it's like to run jobs with eager young staff ready to assist you came about...

The sad news I broke ten days ago about "layoffs" hitting writers coming back from the UFE is being discussed in greater detail at mycasite.com . Click here to go to the article and read more details about the unfortunate "welcome back from the exam, pack your desk up right away"...