As with many other industries, the cannabis sector has been disrupted significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies in the cannabis space must sharpen their knowledge of M&A deals, tax events, recapitalizations, and other financial transactions that might be on the table a result of the crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic is drastically affecting today’s global economy. Because of temporary closures and disrupted supply chains and sales, businesses today are confronted with profound income losses. This fallout has prompted an upsurge in business interruption insurance claims. Whether standard commercial policies provide coverage for virus-related income loss is hotly contested, however. Likelihood of recovery on such claims will depend on the terms and conditions of individual policies, as well as ongoing developments in litigation and legislation.
Significant advancements continue to reshape anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) efforts in 2020. In January, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released its National Strategy for Combatting Terrorist and Other Illicit Financing which details the key priorities in Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) enforcement. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) also issued an updated BSA/AML Examination Manual, while the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) discussed the Travel Rule for digital assets.
New lease accounting rules are coming soon for all government entities. After a COVID-19 one-year delay, Statement No. 87 of the Government Accounting Standards Board, Leases (“GASB 87”) is now required for fiscal years beginning after June 15, 2021 and is applicable to both government entity lessees and government entity lessors.
With today’s heavily challenging economic situation, businesses of all sizes have started venturing into different cost reduction initiatives in order to optimize profitability while ensuring market competitiveness. These cost reduction programs include reducing costs of services and other supplies.
The implementation of anti-corruption programs has become more proactive over the past years. Multinational corporations have continued to prioritize investments with strong anti-corruption initiatives. Additionally, jurisdictions have taken significant measures to improve their legislative framework against bribery by requiring businesses to follow internal policies and regulations.
In April 2019, the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) released its second set of new regulations on the Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ) program. The additional guidelines aim to give light on the initial regulations released last 2018. However, several open questions still remain, that investors and related practitioners must be continuously proactive in monitoring the latest regulatory trends and development. Understanding the latest updates and how these might affect their businesses also will help them maximize opportunities while mitigating potential risks and pitfalls.
In recent years, state and local governments have become more proactive in pursuing additional revenue through stricter application of their tax laws. Additionally, revenue authorities have also significantly widened their search for new revenues. These have made taxpayers grapple with problems and lawsuits at the audit and novel roles.
Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations have evidently evolved with the onset of the pandemic. With several authorities reconsidering their existing laws in response to the increasing criminal activities and emerging risks, the AML/KYC regulatory landscape and its already intricate compliance environment have become more active and complex than ever.
In recent years, the private fund industry has experienced massive growth which has significantly outnumbered public equities. More notably, private equity funds continue to foster and diversify into credit, leasing, real estate, and infrastructure investments among others making private equity firms enter the year with expectations of increased transaction volumes. However, as the industry maintains its upward trend, several complexities begin to emerge such as increased litigation risks and regulatory scrutiny.
The securities law landscape continues to evolve as new regulatory developments emerge. Recently, under the direction of its new Chair, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) has been messaging the priorities of its enforcement program, including renewed focus across the agency related to climate change disclosures, cybersecurity, and financial innovation.
With the notable tax reforms that took place during the past years, the Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit has been an effective and efficient partner for businesses to cut income tax liabilities.
Manual processing of accounts payable (APs) is typically filled with time-consuming and tedious tasks, not to mention the risks of errors that can significantly impact production time, cost, and flow. To address these and other challenges within the AP workflow, companies have started to adopt automation technologies in recent years. With AP automation, organizations could optimize their AP performance through increased on-time payment rates, reduced cost-per-invoice, and early payment discounts.
Public accountants are expected to uphold their professional skills, honesty, and integrity at all times. They must adhere to the fundamental ethical principles set forth by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Code of Professional Conduct. However, a myriad of factors such as their nature of work may sometimes put them ethically at risk and become vulnerable to sanctions. Keeping themselves free from conflicts and ensuring transparent business relationships can also be challenging.
Emerging trends and developments have brought sweeping changes to the sales and use tax landscape. In recent years, economic nexus legislations, following the South Dakota vs. Wayfair decision, have continuously affected corporations from various states. Adding to the challenges are the impacts brought by COVID-19, which include cash flow and state obligation issues. In response, new rules for deferral reliefs on sales and use tax filing and payment have now been laid down.
