Ban called for tax work by auditors
Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, has called on the recently established US accountancy oversight board to ban accounting firms from undertaking major tax work for its audit clients.
Link: SEC takes no chances with watchdog chairman
Volcker expressed disappointment that the SEC has pulled away from plans to stop sophisticated tax work from being done for clients by their auditors. The plans were dropped after the Big Four lobbied the SEC earlier this year against the move.
Speaking to the FT, Volcker said that by doing such aggressive tax planning, accounting firms could breach the maxim that they should not audit their own work.