Richcpaman Posted May 9, 2017 Report Share Posted May 9, 2017 Great blog post I was just referred to: Starting to hate this crap... LOL Rich 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted May 9, 2017 Report Share Posted May 9, 2017 GREAT article. "something that resembles reality" yeah, that's the trick, isn't it? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jklcpa Posted May 9, 2017 Report Share Posted May 9, 2017 It sums up my season perfectly. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gail in Virginia Posted May 9, 2017 Report Share Posted May 9, 2017 Every word that he said is so true! For the past several years, I have seriously wondered about getting into another line of work. I love what I do, some of the time. But the constant change to becoming an auditor for the IRS rather than an advocate for my clients, and the clients who don't understand why I don;'t finish their return the day they drop it off, and then call to check on their return and waste more of my time. Trying to hire people to help, and getting no one who can actually think for themselves, of if they do think for themselves they decide they don't need to do things the way I told them to cause they know a better way. But then along about November, when the classes are going on and I am learning new stuff, and I get to order new office supplies, I start thinking I would not do anything else. (I love office supplies, by the way.) Obviously, I am seasonally bi-polar. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted May 9, 2017 Report Share Posted May 9, 2017 10 minutes ago, Gail in Virginia said: I love office supplies, by the way. You and my younger daughter (age 24). She has a self-imposed restriction of NOT going into an office supply store without direct adult supervision. But, oh, you should see the beautiful filing and work flow systems she devises. *All* my systems for tracking documents and work flow have been refined to amazing precision by Gwen. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richcpaman Posted May 9, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2017 Gail: I like this: Quote Obviously, I am seasonally bi-polar. LOL 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NECPA in NEBRASKA Posted May 9, 2017 Report Share Posted May 9, 2017 This blog summed up my feelings for the last few years. It has ceased to be fun for me, but I'm too old to do anything new and with my husband's and mother's health, I hesitate to work away from home again. I did much better this year about not beating myself up when client's didn't understand why it takes so long to get their returns back. I worked harder and smarter this year, but it was rough, because most of my clients were so late this year. I don't know what the heck was up, but I really thought that I had lost a ton of them and then wanted to scream when they all showed up at once. I do love most of my clients, so I was glad to see them, but what were they doing until the third week of February? I am making my health more important than ever before, so I exercised every day and did not lose as much sleep this tax season. I love my family and want to stay around as long as possible to enjoy them. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLACK BART Posted May 9, 2017 Report Share Posted May 9, 2017 4 hours ago, NECPA in NEBRASKA said: ...It has ceased to be fun for me...I'm too old to do anything new...most of my clients were so late this year...they all showed up at once...glad to see them, but what were they doing until the third week of February?... This kind of mirrors my experience (where was everybody in February?) and outlook. While I still have some fun, it's just not as much. But, as actor E. O'Brien said in Peckinpah's movie "The Wild Bunch": "It's not like the old days, but it'll do." I stopped going to seminars a few years ago (correspondence/online CPE now). At the last one I asked "Where's (old acquaintance) Jack So-and-So?" and somebody said "Oh, I went to his funeral last summer." The audience (dwindling each year) was gray and (mostly) white heads -- makes me wonder who's going to be doing taxes in a few more years. If it's Turbo Tax, the government will likely either go broke from handing out so much improper/fraudulent EIC or make a killing from so many balance due mistakes and erase the national debt. Oh well; chin up I suppose. What else can we do? 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RitaB Posted May 10, 2017 Report Share Posted May 10, 2017 "Because as it now stands, this past tax season fried me good and proper." 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLACK BART Posted May 10, 2017 Report Share Posted May 10, 2017 18 hours ago, Gail in Virginia said: ...(I love office supplies, by the way.)... I think it's an occupational hazard - every accountant I know does. I took my granddaughter to a big Office Max store to get needed things every time she came home on college break. We both liked to browse around for an hour or more (there's so much interesting stuff to look at even if you don't need it). 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLACK BART Posted May 10, 2017 Report Share Posted May 10, 2017 7 hours ago, RitaB said: "Because as it now stands, this past tax season fried me good and proper." Were you fried rare, medium, or well-done? 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RitaB Posted May 10, 2017 Report Share Posted May 10, 2017 47 minutes ago, BLACK BART said: Were you fried rare, medium, or well-done? Yes. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Possi Posted May 10, 2017 Report Share Posted May 10, 2017 That blog really is spot on. The simple ones have gone away and left us with problem children. And the threat of IRS fining us just kills all of us. Add to that, things like your credit card company (iTransact) has been slamming added fees since November (and WHO CHECKS this before April 20?), our own accounting, and if you have even one person helping you, even a family member, you must be cheerleader and encourager, team leader and teacher, mentor and counselor... all done with grace. I do love this gig, and I love all my clients... who show up before March 15th. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Possi Posted May 10, 2017 Report Share Posted May 10, 2017 13 hours ago, BLACK BART said: I stopped going to seminars a few years ago (correspondence/online CPE now). At the last one I asked "Where's (old acquaintance) Jack So-and-So?" and somebody said "Oh, I went to his funeral last summer." The audience (dwindling each year) was gray and (mostly) white heads -- makes me wonder who's going to be doing taxes in a few more years. If it's Turbo Tax, the government will likely either go broke from handing out so much improper/fraudulent EIC or make a killing from so many balance due mistakes and erase the national debt. I still try to go to a live seminar, and you are right. I wonder what will happen when we are all retired and the next batter is up. There won't be anyone. The government is holding us up as auditors, and while we have moved into this position (not willingly) who in their right mind would choose to step into this minefield? 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted May 10, 2017 Report Share Posted May 10, 2017 2 hours ago, Possi said: I wonder what will happen when we are all retired and the next batter is up. I wonder, too. All the live classes I go to I look around, hoping to see people under 50. Darned few; *darned* few. I hope that the younger ones are either taking online classes (heck, they do everything else online) or perhaps are going to other groups' offerings. I did go to an NATP conference a couple of years ago, and saw a number of younger people there. Not EA (NAEA, state, or regional) sponsored events, though. Guess EA is for old fogies, or something. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILLMAS Posted May 10, 2017 Report Share Posted May 10, 2017 All the young whipper snappers are becoming real estate agents and make more then u$ without the stress 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLACK BART Posted May 10, 2017 Report Share Posted May 10, 2017 On 5/9/2017 at 9:33 AM, Richcpaman said: Great blog post I was just referred to: Starting to hate this crap...LOL Rich While I suspect most of us are meticulous, I feel sorry for the perfectionist who wakes up at 1-3 A.M. every night worrying about returns. While I'm not quite there (yet).....ten years ago I had a client who'd show up at the last minute with a large boxful of checks, bills, receipts, deposit slips,100s of wadded-up tickets (gas, cafés, Wal-Mart), and occasionally a dried-up sandwich. The other night I dreamt he left his stuff and for some reason (probably money) I had to get it done over the weekend but couldn't find his box. An assistant brought several large sandwiches to tide us over: a whole raw salmon sliced in half with eyes intact (I attribute it to a recent sushi restaurant visit-granddaughter loves it/I despise it - just give me a steak and potato); it took me all next morning to stop tasting raw fish). Anyway I was going nuts wondering how am I possibly going to get all this stuff done by Monday without his (usually) incomplete/incorrect/unavailable/non-existent information. Then; if it's possible to come awake in the middle of a dream, I did. Suddenly I realized that Sam **** died years ago -- I didn't have to do the job after all. It sounds stupid I know, but it was a great relief. At the nightly rate blogger Dineson's worrying he should see a shrink before he joins Sam (probably me too, but I don't have the time - I'm too busy dreaming). 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Medlin Software, Dennis Posted May 10, 2017 Report Share Posted May 10, 2017 I believe the issue applies to all who employ themselves. it takes a different kind to employ themselves, and that "kind" is the type who cannot usually start and stop along with business hours. I did not need my umpire gigs to make a living, and accepted while I loved the gig, it was a headache, and gave it up. (Sometimes a literal headache, and I have had more than what I feel is an acceptable amount of concussions in my life, which I could no longer ignore or convince myself was not a further risk.) I have to make a living, so I have to accept the consequences of employing myself (or being my own boss). Sometimes, but not often, that means worrying or late nights, but the balance is it means I can sometimes be free during the day as well. Any customer who causes a headache is probably not a good match, and I am honest with them that it is not a good match. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDNY Posted May 10, 2017 Report Share Posted May 10, 2017 What a great thread and original blog. It's wonderful knowing the feelings we have are universal among us. Realizing it's not like the old days, being meticulous, seasonally bi-polar, being gently threatened by the IRS, waking up in the middle of the night from a tax dream, being fried and cried, collapsing on a couch, and paying attention to our health and loving our family and friends....it's good to know we're in good company and not alone in our thoughts and trials and tribulations. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLACK BART Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 On 5/9/2017 at 9:55 PM, RitaB said: "Because as it now stands, this past tax season fried me good and proper." 16 hours ago, BLACK BART said: Were you fried rare, medium, or well-done? 15 hours ago, RitaB said: Yes. You're a card and a wit, Rita. That answer reminds me of a Chinese café operator who once called me about payroll. The interview ended when I said they'd owe a lot - he kept saying "no tax-no tax" over and over. Wife said he spoke "a little English" but I'm not so sure. She had two tax deposit coupon books we used at the time - one for Wang's (something like that) Inc. and one for Wang Partners. Apparently they filed for two different EINs on their own (no other accountants were involved). Anyway I asked... BB: Did you file any incorporation papers with the state or IRS? He: No. BB: Do you have any partners? He: No. BB: Are you saying you're a corporation or are you saying you're a partnership? He: Yes. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richcpaman Posted May 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 What I found unusual, is that he put it on his public webpage, where his clients could read it. Its one thing to sit around here on our barstools and grouse about things, but quite another to put it on your public wall. Clients always ask me about tax season. I simply tell them that it is the BEST time of the year for me. I was in bed on Sunday, April 16th, at 4:13 AM. Back in the office Monday, three hours later. Its what we do. Its what *I* do. Until I decide to make the changes that will NOT require me to do so. (Where is Ron Fassett... he went home on the 13th...) Rich 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RitaB Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 1 hour ago, Richcpaman said: What I found unusual, is that he put it on his public webpage, where his clients could read it. Its one thing to sit around here on our barstools and grouse about things, but quite another to put it on your public wall. Clients always ask me about tax season. I simply tell them that it is the BEST time of the year for me. I was struck by that one, too. I know I whine to you all, but I try to keep my complaints amongst us veterans in the trenches. Clients and friends really cannot relate to us at all anyway. I decided this poor guy really is fried good and proper and needs some of his clients to know. Not me, I'm just over here "let me plaster this smile on my face while I plow through this one more time with you..." 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Medlin Software, Dennis Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 This forum is completely and easily accessible to the public... I have mentioned this before. There is one forum here which is not, but it is rarely used. Google your user name followed by a space, followed by ATX. If you use any text which uses your real name or business name, of it one of your messages has commonly searched for text, it will be easily found. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gail in Virginia Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 Wow! I used DuckDuckGo and you are right - one of my comments on this board was on the first page of results. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Medlin Software, Dennis Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 No expert on forum software since it has been years since I managed one, but you can try changing your visible ID to something a bit less obvious, but so the members will still know, say something like GA_VA and see if it alters the old posts. If so, it will take days, if ever, for the search engines to update their cached pages. I can find posts I made, in the early 90's (different forum). Thankfully nothing I am worried about anyone seeing... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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