What consequences does globalization present to accountants in public practice?
Accounting has been and will continue to be an indispensable profession, historically dealing with lagging financial indicators. While recording and reporting financial history will continue to be a necessity, it will increasingly be a digitized function outsourced overseas. To quote Thomas Friedman from his best-selling book, The World is Flat: In 2003, some 25,000 U.S. tax returns were done in India. In 2004, the number was 100,000. In 2005, it is expected to be 400,000. In a decade, you will assume that your accountant has outsourced the basic preparation of your tax return if not more.
