Billable hours: Ernst & Young, one of the “big four” national accounting firms, has been hired to assist the Louisiana Department of Revenue as it prepares the administration’s tax reform package. The firm will be paid on an hourly basis, ranging from $231 to $595 per hour, depending on the level of consultant who is working on a service at a given time. The firm will have no input on policy questions, says department spokesman Doug Baker, but will provide independent verification of the numbers being used as the reform package is developed.
The big payback: Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland today became the third major bank to be caught up in a global probe of interest rate manipulation, but what makes the $610 million fine against the lender so remarkable is how it will be paid: by the bankers themselves. Because RBS is 80% owned by the British government, which bailed it out during the 2008 financial crisis, the bank plans to cut 2012 bonuses and claw back previous payouts from staffers implicated in the fraud, along with their managers and some other employees. To take money from the corporation would, in effect, amount to making British citizens pay for the bank’s role in the scandal. The full story is here.
