Today brought my annual "1040 Day". After years and years of public accounting, I still think one of the most complicated income tax returns I prepared was ours. I have spent the day with forms, statements, lists, etc etc. spread out in neat piles with summary sheets attached. The most tedious part of preparing our taxes is accumulating and assimilating the information.
Today I hit a snag with one of the statements. The same information flowed from a capital transaction summary to a gain/loss statement. The totals should agree-THEY DIDN'T. This was 45 PAGES of entries with MANY MANY entries on each page. I spent the first half of the day tracking down the discrepancy. It was a good feeling when I finally discovered the problem. Then came the real work-explaining it to the agent of record. The "Agent" just happened to also be the taxpayer-if you follow my drift. I got NO sympathy from the "Taxpayer". It seems once he has handled these types of problems at work he does not want to discuss it when he gets home. THAT IS OK-I have already called "The Nice Lady" at his office where I got a very sympathetic ear.
Since the transaction in question actually helps my tax bottom line, you would think I would just take what they say and go. Unfortunately the OCD-CPA in me will not let that happen. It would be sort of like not balancing my check book to the last cent EVERY month. IT'S JUST NOT GONNA HAPPEN!
There are days that I miss my profession. I actually enjoyed preparing income tax returns. It was like putting the pieces of a puzzle together and seeing the finished product when finished. It is just like playing a game! I don't miss it so much that I have any desire to go back and work all of those long hours and prepare several hundred returns. I LOVE RETIREMENT!
6 comments:
Better you than me. I am not convinced that we share the same blood! Love you and your crazy love of numbers. Happy Tax Preparation to you!
i feel so sorry for our cpa!! i am so happy there are others like you that actually want to make it all make sense!! thanks to you and those like you!!
Now you KNOW I did not understand one word of your 2nd paragraph...
Flow of what???? Capitol What???
You balance your checkbook????? I just hope for the best.....I figure the bank will kindly let me know when I run out of money.....Guess it's a good thing my other half is a banker---even if I do frustrate him to no end....but we solved that problem....SEPARATE ACCOUNTS!!!
GOOSIE GIRL
You cone head! I am thankful for CPA's because I just stuff my paperwork in an envelope and let him put the pieces together. Guess we can all use the Turbo Tax excuse now that our head of the Treasury does.
Is your checkbook supposed to balance? #*@%!
I am so glad that their are number people like you. We had our taxes done the other night, Caleb got confused and told my mom that we were going to Texas,if only!
Well, at, least, you, do'nt, obses, over, commas, badly, grammar,spleleng; tipeing,or3.
Didn't you call yourself a "recovering CPA"?
By the way - on the new tax tables, is it only EIT that's affected, or is FICA and Medicare? Email me, please.
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