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IRS Misses Paperless Goal as PCAOB Gets New Chair and 50,000 Federal Jobs Face Cuts

IRS Misses Paperless Goal as PCAOB Gets New Chair and 50,000 Federal Jobs Face Cuts

just added the borders

February 11, 2026

I share the 4-5 most important accounting that actually matter. I scroll so you don’t have to.

So grab your coffee, take a quick break, and lets catch up.

In this issue:

The IRS missed its paperless goal and paper returns cost 43x more
The PCAOB gets a Big 4 chair and a budget haircut
A $77M accounting error just wiped 24% off Hub Group's stock

- Ledger Lowdown Team

WTF of the Day🤯

The IRS Still Runs on Paper. And It’s Bleeding Money.

The IRS said it wanted “paperless processing.” Reality? It scanned 517,000 paper returns last season. That’s 5 percent of what it planned.

Here’s the insanity. Paper-filed individual returns cost 43 times more to process than e-file. Just 6 percent of returns were paper. They drove 72 percent of processing costs. The IRS is literally lighting money on fire because people mail in forms.

They proved scanning works. Then contracts got delayed. Funding got cut from $80B to $37.6B. They tried building it in-house. Stopped. Launched a “Zero Paper Initiative.” That’s now behind too.

Push every client to e-file. No exceptions unless legally required. If you run a firm, track your paper percentage and crush it. The IRS is under pressure to digitize by 2030. When they get serious, paper filers will feel it first.

What’s poppin in accounting🍿

The PCAOB Just Got a Big 4 Makeover

New chair is Jim Logothetis. Forty years at EY. Retired partner. Audit committee guy. Now he’s running the regulator that inspects audit firms. Two new board members came with him. One from the Trump admin. One from Treasury. This was not random.

The SEC also cut the PCAOB’s budget. Slashed the chair’s pay by 52 percent. Cut board salaries by 42 percent. Trimmed the accounting support fee by 18 percent. When you cut budget and bring in a Big 4 lifer, you’re signaling a tone shift.

Weekly Trend Chart 📊

50,000 Federal Jobs Just Got Easier to Cut

Trump’s team created a new category for senior career officials whose jobs involve “policy determining, making, or advocating.” That means high level staff who shape rules, draft guidance, advise leadership, or push agency priorities. If you’re slotted into this group, you lose traditional civil service protections. No long appeal process. You can be removed more like a political appointee.

Up to 50,000 roles could fall into it.

This makes it easier to swap out the people who actually shape agency policy. Faster turnover. Faster rule changes. If your business depends on federal guidance, audits, grants, or contracts, expect priorities to move quicker than you’re used to.

Meme of the Day😂

😂 that damn auto correct