Moving On Up

The list of the largest accounting firms was in last week’s Business First. Strothman & Company is ranked as # 6, the highest we have ever been. It is also interesting to note that our firm is ranked higher than Ernst & Young, Ray’s previous firm. Congratulations Ray! In fact, we are larger than 3 of the 4 international firms.

It is interesting to note that the international firms had a total of 117 CPAs in Louisville in this year’s survey. That total was 203 in 1993 and 286 in 1984. In 2010, there was a total of 611 CPAs working for the Top 20 firms. In 1993 and 1984, that total was 461 and 447, respectively. So, in 2010, international firms made up 19% of total Top 20 firm CPAs, versus 44% in 1993 and 64% in 1984. Interesting, huh?

You also might like to know that Strothman & Company is a now a member of the “G400”. The American Institute of CPAs has a Major Firms Group which consists of the Top 100 CPA firms in the U.S. Their next group is the G400, which consists of the next 400 largest U.S. firms. The AICPA told us that we are one of the top 5 largest Kentucky-based CPA firms.

Estate Taxes - This Will Be Interesting

As you may know, there are currently no estate taxes for anyone dying in 2010. The conventional wisdom is that Congress would pass a new estate tax law this year and make it retroactive to January 1, 2010. However, at least two very wealthy people (and probably more) have died during 2010; Dan Duncan (worth about $9 billion) and George Steinbrenner (worth about $1.1 billion). Click on their names for related articles. If Congress makes new estate taxes retroactive, their estates would undoubtedly fight this all the way to the Supreme Court. It will be interesting to see what happens.

New Health Care Law

I was wondering if anyone knew whether I could pick my own End of Life Counselor or whether the government would appoint one for me? Somebody said that they were going to let IRS auditors be the End of Life Counselors, but I'm sure that was just a rumor.

Help For Haiti - Part II

G.O. Ministries has been a client of ours for a number of years. They are a ministry that serves the Dominican Republic, but that also has contacts across the border in Haiti (Haiti and the Dominican Republic are on the same island in case you didn't know). Since the devastating earthquake, they have focused their resources to bring aid and relief to the people of Haiti. They have ensured us that 100% of the donations that they receive for the relief fund will be spent in the relief effort. Click here for their web site and to give.

Help for Haiti

I saw a poll last night that said over 50% of respondents had not given anything to the Haiti relief effort. I thought this was high, and am guessing that many people don't know where to give their money. Becky and I gave money to World Vision International. They had people on the ground in Haiti before the earthquake took place, and are in a good position to get aid to the people quickly. Also, their Chief Financial Officer is Larry Probus, a CPA who was previously with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Louisville. Consider giving to Haiti through this organization (click here).