Yesterday, Marketwatch reported that KPMG has been cheating way more than understood. Moreover, they have been doing so in terms of, among other things, the training their employees need to complete to be considered competent dispensing 1099 related compliance and filing guidance to their clients.

Here's the sordid details (as reported by Marketwatch):

The SEC revealed Monday a much larger scandal than was previously known: KPMG auditors, including some senior partners in charge of public company audits, cheated on internal tests related to mandatory ethics, integrity and compliance training, sharing answers with other partners and staff to help them also attain passing scores. In addition, for a period of time up to November 2015, some audit professionals, including one partner, manipulated the system for their exams to lower the scores required to pass.

Twenty-eight of these auditors did so on four or more occasions. Certain audit professionals lowered the required score to the point of passing exams while answering less than 25% of the questions correctly, the SEC says.

“The new test-cheating scandal suddenly seems more alarming than the ongoing PCAOB ‘steal the exam’ scandal because the unethical behavior went on longer and is potentially more widespread,” Matt Kelly, editor of the Radical Compliance newsletter and a longtime observer of corporate governance and compliance issues, told MarketWatch.

“There’s plenty of evidence of chronic, widespread and intentional illegal behavior by senior partners including some leading public company audits for the firm,” Kelly said. ”And yet, prosecutors can’t really impose criminal charges against the firm.”

Five former KPMG officials — including its former national managing partner for audit quality and professional practice — and one former PCAOB official were charged last year in a case that alleged they schemed to interfere with the PCAOB’s ability to detect audit deficiencies at KPMG. The SEC said the senior KPMG partners sought and obtained confidential PCAOB lists of inspection targets and then led a program to review and revise certain audit work papers after the audit reports had been issued in order to reduce the likelihood of deficiencies being found during inspections.

Three have pleaded guilty, two were found guilty and one is still pending trial.

Needless to say this kind of behavior calls into question all sorts of things - not least of which is the advice you might be getting if you decide to work with KPMG. In contrast, not only would our tax attorneys never cheat - we would never need to.

We have decades of experience as corporate tax attorneys. This includes working as in-house counsel and professional speakers at the first consulting company set up specifically to educate Accounts Payable and Tax professionals in 1099 guidance. It also includes work overseas at the foremost international law firm in the world. Finally, it includes over a decade providing our TIR Answer Center clients with the accurate and timely answers they need to do their job.

You can trust our guidance.