Sunday News Roundup 24.05.26: KPMG new boss, double tax fiasco, firm dealbook and more Canadian accounting news

Wrapping up the odds and ends from the past week in Canadian accounting news

May 26, 2024 Author: Canadian Accountant

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TORONTO, May 26, 2024 – Hot on the heels of Ernst and Young LLP announcing a new leader, KPMG Canada has announced that Benjie Thomas will be taking over from current CEO and senior partner Elio Luongo, who has led KPMG since 2016. Thomas, who started at KPMG as a student almost 23 years ago, heads up two business lines — advisory services, and private equity and pension funds.

Similarly to EY Canada, which named Alycia Calvert as the first female Big Four leader in Canada, Thomas notes that he is “the child of proud immigrants” in KPMG’s press release. He will be tasked with building upon the firm's surprising success in the Canadian market. Unlike elsewhere around the world, where the firm runs a distant fourth among its Big Four brethren in terms of brand and revenue value, KPMG is the second most lucrative firm in Canada, according to our number crunching in 2023.

Far from being damaged by the Isle of Man fiasco of 2016, which led to coverage on The Fifth Estate and finance committee hearings, KPMG prospered in subsequent years under the stewardship of Luongo. There’s still a lot of ground before any of the Big Four come close to the revenue of Deloitte, the only accounting firm to surpass (easily) three billion dollars in revenue, just in Canada, but KPMG would be building upon a position of strength.

And now, on to the rest of the news from the past week in Canadian accounting.

Globe and Mail dissects Liberal tax change fiascos

On Friday, G&M reporter Erica Alini published a four thousand word dissection of the Liberal government’s recent tax change failures, called Bare trusts and the UHT: How tax rules meant for crooks and global elites ensnared thousands of Canadians. The article explores a unique angle — that the “double tax fiasco” was due to the government trying to address Canada's terrible reputation as a safe haven for international money laundering (“snow washing”).

Unfortunately, as is clear from the many media reports that followed, that “many ordinary Canadians who found themselves ensnared in what experts say was a federal push for financial transparency.” The article includes Allan Lanthier, who has written several articles for Canadian Accountant, as well as a number of tax and legal experts, both at home and abroad. Well worth reading.

Accounting Dealbook: MNP and Melo make moves

A busy spring for MNP

May has been a busy month for MNP LLP. The homegrown national accounting firm announced no less than three acquistions — two in Quebec and one in Prince Edward Island. MNP has been expanding its footprint in la belle province for years, most notably in 2021 when it bought 22 properties from Deloitte Canada.

Earlier this month, MNP scooped up Dallaire & Lapointe Inc., which is based in Rouyn-Noranda, the first for MNP in the Abitibi region of the Quebec. MNP followed this with LD CPA Inc., a large practice with more than 40 professionals, with a substantial number of agricultural clientele in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec.

Finally, just days ago, MNP announced that it will join forces with Bradley Handrahan Chartered Professional Accountants, its first foray into Prince Edward Island. effective July 15, 2024. Bradley Handrahan has offices in Stratford and Tignish and a team of 20 additional professionals. There are still a few days left in May so maybe MNP will surprise us yet again.

Melo to Michigan as Ontario firm expands to USA

There’s nothing “mellow” about expanding into the American market. Yet Melo LLP, which is based in Leamington, Ontario, has acquired Edwards, Ellis & Associates, which has offices in Troy and Ann Arbor, Michigan. Melo looks to be carving out a unique space of geography in Southwestern Ontario down all the way past the border, with offices in small towns such as Strathroy, Forest, and Wyoming.

Awards for accounting academics announced

The Canadian Academic Accounting Association has anounced its award receipients for 2024. Turns out that the work of a couple of the award winners has been published on Canadian Accountant. That would be Erica Pimentel of Queen's University and Emilio Boulianne of Concordia University who, together with Crawford Spence of King's College London, won the Lazaridis Institute Prize for ther work on auditor expansion into the Blockchain field.

Duane Kennedy of the University of Waterloo was recognized for his contribution to the CAAA. Michel Magnan won the Haim Falk Award for Distinguished Contribution to Accounting Thought for his more than 130 academic articles. And several academics shared honours for both accounting education and the best case (“Ted’s Teas”) published during the year in Accounting Perspectives.