Working in a corporate tax department is about to get even more complicated, if you can believe it. Some climate related-initiatives in the US and the EU, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the NextGenerationEU fund, create opportunities for companies to win grants and receive tax breaks. Other climate legislation, like the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, levies heavy penalties on companies that fail to comply.

Tax departments play a vital role in helping multinationals juggle both. But, as EY experts pointed out during a recent roundtable discussion, it’s getting hard for them to keep up.

Companies need broader strategies in response to climate initiatives. The broad scope of climate and ESG regulations is forcing companies, especially multinationals operating in multiple jurisdictions, to take a much more holistic approach to strategy, said Katy Frankel, Americas tax leader and partner at EY.

There’s “such a greater global entity-level perspective necessary to comply with climate-related requirements,” she said. It’s “causing multinationals to do a global evaluation of their supply chain, their reporting structures, their operational processes, literally across the board,” Frankel continued, in order to improve their tax treatment while staying in compliance.

For more on how tax influences climate strategy, click here.—CV

Gather ’round, number crunchers. We’ve got a scroll-stopping stat for you: According to IMA’s 2023 Global Salary Survey, CMAs in the US earn 24% more than those without a CMA® (Certified Management Accountant) certification.

That’s right. Snagging this coveted certification will take your career up a notch.

So what exactly is the CMA? It shows employers you’ve stepped up and mastered the 12 most critical practice areas in accounting and finance.

Get started by downloading IMA’s Global Salary Survey to better understand how earning a CMA might impact your career. See all the details on salaries, total compensation, the value of a certification, job satisfaction levels—you name it.

Learn more.

Please fasten your seatbelts and put away all electronic devices. Here comes the soft landing everyone’s predicting, at least according to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) most recent global economic forecast.

The new forecast predicts global growth “will steady at 3.1% this year,” revising the IMF’s October forecast upward by 0.2 percentage points. The IMF expects a growth rate of 3.2% in 2025.

“The global economy begins the final descent toward a soft landing, with inflation declining steadily and growth holding up,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, economic counselor and research director at the IMF, wrote in the forecast. “But the pace of expansion remains slow, and turbulence may lie ahead.”

What’s more, “disinflation could happen faster than anticipated,” Gourinchas wrote. Fiscal tightening may also take a back seat to “increased public spending” during what the IMF called “the biggest global election year in history.” Artificial intelligence technology could prove a boon to productivity, but may pose new challenges for workers.

Click here for more on the IMF’s predictions for global growth.—AZ

When it rains, it pours. And even though UPS packages get delivered in inclement weather, the same can’t be said for the company’s latest earnings report.

The shipping giant’s Q4 2023 earnings were a bad-weather doozy all the way around—from revenue to shipping volume to its workforce.

“2023 was a unique and quite candidly difficult and disappointing year,” UPS CEO Carol Tomé said in an earnings release. “We experienced declines in volume, revenue, and operating profit in all three of our business segments.”

A large driver for the revenue dip was a demand slowdown: The company reported a 7.4% domestic and 8.3% international decline in average daily volume. Weakness in the European market was a heavy drag internationally, according to Tomé, while conflict in the Red Sea region further complicated global shipping.

Continue reading about UPS’s no good, very bad quarter here.—NP

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat: 303 million. That’s how many Tesla shares Elon Musk stands to lose after this week’s ruling in a Delaware court that voided his compensation package with the automaker. A shareholder filed suit claiming that the board that decided Musk’s compensation package was not truly independent. The judge agreed, but Musk and Tesla can appeal the decision. (Business Insider)

Quote: “While we often use this time of year to share or update our financial and operational objectives, now is not the time for that.”—Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun to employees on the company’s decision not to release financial guidance this quarter. Boeing is still reeling from the fallout of a door plug blowing off mid-flight on an Alaska Airlines plane earlier this year. (CNN Business)

Read: What IT professionals are saying needs to be done to deal with flaws and inaccuracies in large language models. (IT Brew)

Boost your numbers: According to IMA’s 2023 Global Salary Survey, CMAs in the US earn 24% more than those without a CMA® (Certified Management Accountant) certification. Hurry and get started.*

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