Accountancy Slice
Become more informed in minutes....
Accountancy Slice
USA
18th September 2026
Together with

Finquery Brand Logo

THE HOT STORY

IRS makes progress on electronic payments but faces access and implementation barriers

The IRS is making progress toward moving federal tax payments and refunds to electronic transactions, but a TIGTA report identified several remaining obstacles. In 2024 and 2025, 88% of 743m tax transactions were electronic, including 81% of individual payments, 85% of individual refunds, and 97% of business payments, although just 0.7% of business refunds were electronic. The IRS has redesigned several business tax forms, updated notices and online services, and taken other steps to support the transition, which is intended to improve efficiency, reduce fraud risk, and accelerate refunds. However, challenges remain for unbanked taxpayers, people with limited technology access, and some religious communities, while the IRS also needs to increase public awareness, modify additional forms, and improve business tax account features. The changes have already contributed to significant refund delays for taxpayers without bank accounts, prompting the IRS to send more than 1m notices.

ACCOUNTING & COMPLIANCE

Protect Your Capital Structure with Active Debt Oversight

Managing complex debt obligations in Excel consumes up to 60% of specialized accounting bandwidth while introducing material risks—from manual calculation errors to unmonitored covenant thresholds. FinQuery Debt Management replaces static spreadsheets with continuous 24/7 covenant testing, automated GAAP calculations, and complete source-to-close auditability. Download our guide to identify and mitigate the 4 Key Debt Risks across your capital stack.

Get the Guide

 

TAX

IRS delays annual tax gap estimate amid workforce and budget cuts

The IRS has delayed publication of its annual estimate of the “tax gap,” the amount of taxes owed under existing law but not collected, as the agency reviews its methodology and considers focusing on an “addressable tax gap.” The most recent estimate, published in October 2024, put the 2022 tax gap at roughly $700bn, with about $90bn expected to be collected eventually, while the planned estimate for 2023 has yet to be released. The delay comes after the Trump administration reduced the IRS workforce by roughly a quarter and cut its budget, while an inspector general report found that revenue collected from audits fell by more than a third last fiscal year. IRS leader Frank Bisignano said enforcement revenue is increasing this year through improved data, analytics, and artificial intelligence. Former officials and researchers have raised concerns that changing or discontinuing the existing measure could make it harder to track long-term trends in tax compliance.

New York City delays vote on $92.2m Hudson Yards tax break

New York City’s Industrial Development Agency has postponed a vote on $92.2m in tax benefits for Tishman Speyer’s planned 99 Hudson Boulevard skyscraper, with the project potentially returning at a future meeting. The $2.7bn, 48-story development is scheduled to begin construction in January and would use a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes arrangement instead of standard real estate taxes. An IDA analysis estimates the project would generate almost $860m in direct and indirect tax revenue, while Tishman says it would create about 2,385 full-time construction jobs and more than 1,780 office and building service jobs. The proposed subsidy has also prompted calls for greater transparency over whether payments from the development could help finance infrastructure for the second phase of Hudson Yards.

INDUSTRY

PCAOB appoints EY and Deloitte veterans as Audit Practitioner Fellows

The PCAOB has appointed Addison Scott and Zian Xi as Audit Practitioner Fellows under its newly introduced fellowship program, with both beginning two-year terms in the Office of the Chief Auditor. Mr. Scott joins after more than 11 years at EY, including experience in audit methodology and professional standards, while Ms. Xi previously served as a senior manager in Deloitte’s national office, specializing in audit transformation, data, technology, and AI. The fellows will support the PCAOB’s research and standard-setting priorities, providing practical industry insights intended to help improve audit quality and develop scalable, effective standards.

FIRMS

Accounting industry veteran launches The Brainstorm Group

Randy Crabtree, a prominent CPA and advocate for people-first leadership, has launched The Brainstorm Group, a consulting and advisory practice focused on helping accounting firms and related organizations strengthen workplace culture, develop leaders, retain talent, and navigate technological change. The firm will provide leadership retreats, small-group training, strategic advisory services, research, and professional collaboration, with an emphasis on connecting employee well-being and career satisfaction to retention, productivity, and long-term growth. A central part of the business will be The Brain Trust, an invitation-only community primarily comprising fintech, staffing, growth financing, and professional services organizations seeking to promote collaboration across the accounting profession.

ECONOMY

U.S. jobless claims fall sharply as labor market remains resilient

New jobless claims fell sharply last week, providing further evidence of a resilient labor market as the Federal Reserve continues its efforts to curb inflation. Initial claims for unemployment benefits dropped by 10,000 to 196,000 in the seven days to September 12th, according to the Labor Department, below the 207,000 claims economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal had expected. The four-week moving average fell 2,750 to 203,250, while continuing claims, reported with a one-week lag, fell by 39,000 to 1.73m. "The exceptionally depressed number last week might reflect seasonal adjustment issues related to Labor Day, but the underlying picture remains encouraging," said Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. "For now, then, the Fed will remain laser-focused on inflation."

Housing starts fall 2.6% in August as construction activity weakens

U.S. housing starts fell 2.6% in August to an annualized rate of 1.275m, below economists’ expectations of 1.3m and a projected 4.9% monthly increase, according to the Commerce Department. Starts were also down 1.2% from August 2025, while residential permits declined 2.7% to 1.394m, slightly below expectations of 1.4m. The weakness comes as homebuilder sentiment has fallen to its lowest level in a year, while Capital Economics said elevated and rising borrowing costs are continuing to constrain developers and could contribute to further declines in housing starts. Separately, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said that August's pending home sales increased 0.3%, taking the group's index to 71.2, compared with economists’ expectations for a 0.6% decline. Contracts increased in the South and West, but fell in the Northeast and Midwest, while pending sales were down 4.7% year-over-year. “Nationally, contract signings today are running roughly 30% below where they were in the years leading up to the pandemic," commented NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. “Transaction activity peaked in 2021 when mortgage rates fell to near 3%, a historic low, and has not approached that level since.”

Philly Fed Manufacturing Index cools in September

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index fell to 37.8 in September from 47.4 in August, but exceeded expectations of 30.5, with indicators for general activity, new orders, and shipments remaining elevated. Employment growth moderated, while price pressures strengthened, with prices paid rising to 48.6 from 40.9 and prices received increasing to 31.3 from 17.7. Businesses remained optimistic about growth over the next six months, although the six-month activity index declined to 52.9 from 73.6, and the forward capital expenditure index fell to 37.1 from 48.2. The decline in expectations could be an early indication that elevated energy prices, tighter financial conditions, and Federal Reserve rate increases are beginning to weigh on economic activity.

LEGAL

Government challenges ruling extending COVID-era tax deadlines through 2023

The federal government has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to reverse a ruling that extended certain COVID-era tax deadlines from January 20th 2020, through July 10th 2023, potentially affecting millions of taxpayers and billions of dollars in refund claims. In Kwong, the Court of Federal Claims found that Section 7508A(d) automatically postponed the two-year deadline for filing a refund lawsuit, making Terry Kwong’s February 2023 claims for the 2007, 2010, and 2011 tax years timely. The government argues that the law instead provided a mandatory 60-day postponement ending March 20th 2020, based on the incident date specified in the presidential disaster declaration, rather than FEMA’s longer COVID-19 incident period. It also argues that the lower court’s interpretation conflicts with the structure of the statute and Treasury’s discretionary relief authority, and, alternatively, that any mandatory postponement could not exceed one year.

DOJ would probe AI-related violations, Blanche says

U.S. ⁠Attorney General ⁠Todd Blanche has said the Department of ‌Justice ⁠would ⁠investigate "anybody associated" with artificial intelligence (AI) if they ​violated the law. "As far as ​AI is concerned, there's ⁠a lot ⁠of ⁠criminal laws," Mr. ​Blanche told reporters at the ​White ⁠House. "So if anybody associated with AI ⁠violates criminal law, we'll investigate that." Mr. Blanche ⁠added that he did not believe the role of the DOJ was to regulate AI. In an interview with Bloomberg on the day of the White House briefing, Mr. Blanche said the department will act only if there are clear violations of the law. “I’m not going to do regulation by prosecution and investigate or prosecute AI companies when there’s not a statute that they’re violating,” he said. “If we’re going to charge somebody with violating the laws and take away their liberty and put them in prison, it should be because they violated the law.”

Amway and affiliates to settle claims they deceived recruits

The Federal Trade Commission and Washington ‌State are to be paid $225m by multilevel marketing company Amway and two of its affiliates ​to settle allegations regarding the recruitment of new members with deceptive claims about how much money they could make. Amway and affiliates World Wide Group ​and Leadership Team Development told potential recruits ⁠that they could make $40,000 or more, the agency said. Most of those who joined the two affiliates ​after 2020 spent more money on training and Amway products than they made, according to the FTC. Amway said it fundamentally disagreed with ‌the ⁠agencies’ characterization of its business.

TECHNOLOGY

OpenAI reports new incidents of ‘concerning’ AI behavior

OpenAI has published six reports detailing unexpected or concerning model behavior. The incidents include the models generating instructions to get around restrictions imposed on them, hiding mistakes, and fabricating information. The company has also announced a new system to track, investigate and disclose cases of models misbehaving (misalignment). Under the framework, developers will be able to flag incidents for review, and a new set of rules will decide whether the issue is disclosed publicly. "Because we believe in the value of transparency around misalignment, our new framework favors disclosure even when significance is uncertain," OpenAI said.

INTERNATIONAL

Hong Kong seeks to attract finance and tech firms with new tax breaks

Hong Kong aims to attract more commodity traders by introducing tax incentives, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has announced. The city aims to reduce the profits tax rate for qualifying physical commodity traders from 16.5% to 8.25% by next year. The move is part of a broader strategy to enhance Hong Kong's status as a financial hub. Lee said: "The aim [is] to attract more commodity traders to set up or expand their businesses in Hong Kong." Additionally, the city will consult on further tax concessions for the gold and commodity trading ecosystem.

AND FINALLY...

CPA uses AI agents to propose solution to decades-old math problem

CPA Richie Sater says he has used a system of specialized artificial intelligence (AI) agents to develop a proposed solution to a Soviet-era mathematics problem that had remained unsolved since 1986, despite having no formal background in group theory. His system assigns AI agents different tasks, including searching academic papers, generating examples, challenging findings, checking citations, and producing executable verification code. After mathematicians initially expressed doubts about the work, Sater provided testing files and transcripts that he says allowed them to verify the results and gain confidence in the proposed solution. He argues that the experience demonstrates a broader opportunity for CPAs, whose expertise in evidence, testing, audit trails, and assurance could become increasingly important as AI generates more technical work than human experts can feasibly review.
Industry Slice

Accountancy Slice delivers the latest, most relevant and useful intelligence to accountants, practice owners, auditors, CFOs and accounting influencers, each weekday morning.

Content is selected to an exacting brief from hundreds of influential media sources and summarised by experienced journalists into an easy-to-read digest email. Accountancy Slice enhances the performance and decision-making capabilities of individuals and teams by delivering the relevant news, innovations and knowledge in a cost-effective way.

If you are interested in sponsorship opportunities within Accountancy Slice, please get in touch via email sales team

Follow us on FacebookFollow us on XFollow us on Linkedin

This e-mail has been sent to [[EMAIL_TO]]

Click here to unsubscribe