The Trial Balance is CFO’s weekly preview of stories, stats and events to help you prepare.
Part 1 — Harris admin’s planned unrealized capital gains tax may boost PE
As private equity (PE) firms continue to buy stakes in public accounting, the outcomes of the upcoming U.S. presidential election may further their ability to inject dollars into firms.
Baker Tilly CEO Jeff Ferro, who detailed to Forbes his company’s deal with private equity firm William Blair & Co., is one of many leaders in public accounting who have closed deals with private equity groups in recent years.
This uptick, which some say is due to firms needing cash to develop technology, explore consulting products and even pay employees more, is notable as the quality of work these firms are putting out, particularly in the audit space, is increasingly failing to meet standards in many cases.
In the context of the upcoming U.S. election, it’s worth noting businessman and investor Mark Cuban’s recent comments. Cuban has been in communication with the Harris campaign about her tax plan and is a supporter of her campaign. He told CNBC earlier this month that he believed if Harris is elected and able to execute her tax plan on unrealized capital gains, it will “kill the stock market and be the ultimate employment plan for private equity.”
As Blake Oliver of the Accounting Podcast has also noted, private equity’s impact on equity partnership roles within public accounting is significant.
Not only are equity partner roles a substantial difference in compensation, but with the number of hands in public accounting’s equity pot increasing, equity-paired roles may become fewer and less lucrative if the trend continues, lessening the value of a non-equity partner position and further damping the industry’s growing talent problem.
Part 2 — This week
Here’s a list of important market events slated for the week ahead.
Monday, Sept. 23
- S&P flash U.S. services PMI, Sept.
- S&P flash U.S. manufacturing PMI, Sept.
Tuesday, Sept. 24
- Consumer confidence, Sept.
Wednesday, Sept. 25
- New home sales, Aug.
Thursday, Sept. 26
- Initial jobless claims, week ending Sept. 21
- Durable goods orders, Aug.
- GDP (second revision), Q2
Friday, Sept. 27
- PCE index, Aug.
- PCE, YoY
- Core PCE index, Aug.
- Core PCE, YoY
- Consumer sentiment – final, Sept.
Part 3 — Duke-Fed and Grant Thornton data
Among the content set for this week, CFO.com will publish stories based on data from the Duke University and the Federal Reserve Banks of Richmond and Atlanta quarterly CFO survey and Grant Thornton’s Energy CFO survey, as well as the weekly CFOs On the Move column.
