Scene - Blogs - Tis tax season so here are 10 reminders from a local CPA

'Tis tax season -- so here are 10 reminders from a local CPA
Published: 1/26/2012 7:30 AM
Last Modified: 1/25/2012 6:10 PM

If you were to blow this image up (i.e., make it bigger vs. use explosives), you'd see my car farther up the road on this particular tax day. Or maybe a few cars behind flirting with the Chick-fil-A cow.

Sunday, April 15, is Eastern Orthodox Easter. Awesome! (And that's not a sarcastic exclamation point.)

Neither is the one following this statement: April 16 is Emancipation Day -- yay!

That means we have until Tuesday, April 17, to file our personal taxes. Woot! Woot! As I've totally nixed my usual resolution to pay my taxes early, I'm quite excited to have an extra two days to put things off.

Then again, that was all before Sherrie Henry, a local CPA who primarily does income tax work for small businesses and their individual owners, shared her list of 10 things she'd like us taxpayers to know.

1. We are thankful for your business, first and foremost. Without your business, we have no business.

2. You aren't the only one. We appreciate every single client, and generally we have many, many clients. If even five clients call, email or text us just a "simple question" in a given day, it may very likely take at least a total hour of our work day to respond. Please understand why we have to bill you for answering questions.

3. Time is all we've got. We aren't selling a product; we are selling you our time. That time includes the minimum of 120 hours of required Continuing Professional Education (CPE) every three years, and countless additional hours spent reading and researching to keep up with the ever-changing tax regulations. That simple question you just asked and we answered could possibly have only been answered because we spent three hours reading about and researching the income tax regulation that impacted the answer.

4. It costs us a lot to do what we do. Like every other business, the cost of us doing business is extensive. Quality tax software, tax research material, CPE, malpractice insurance, hardware -- you know if you are in business for yourself, it all adds up! The only way we can stay in business is to make certain that what we bill you for our services also helps cover the cost of us being in business.

5. First come, first serve -- not always. Different firms take different approaches as to what order in which they prepare tax returns. Most firms do what we do. We keep track of when you provided your information to us and prepare returns on a first come, first serve basis. But if your information is in a shoebox, or you have provided everything except one W-2, we know we can't complete your return in what should be a normal amount of time for us. You will get bumped by those people who have good, concise, complete information.

6. You don't want your return prepared at the last minute, trust me. If you bring your information to us on April 13, there is another reason besides "unlucky 13" for not wanting us to complete your return by April 15 (or 17, as it happens to be this year). We are tired. We can't think straight anymore. We can't provide the kind of service we want to provide and can provide on June 21 or some other day of the year that isn't at the end of tax season. Ask for an extension instead. It is better for all concerned.

7. Don't jump off the cliff just because your neighbor did. "My neighbor says he writes off the full cost of his vehicle as a business expense" or "My colleague deducts the full cost of his country club membership as a business expense." OK, really, if we tell you that is not a legitimate deduction, it isn't just because we want to pump a little more money into the government. Numerous income tax return preparers don't follow the law, either because they don't spend the time and money for 120 hours of CPE as required for CPAs or they are preparers who aren't following the regulations.

8. We don't make the rules. We really don't like telling you that you owe $5,464 with the filing of your income tax return. Trust me.

9. Pay up. We did the work, provided the product, and just because you owe $5,464 (or any other amount, or you're even getting a refund), that doesn't mean we can wait 30 days to get paid for our services. You don't ask the grocery store to wait. We are a business, too. If you have signed an engagement letter that specifies you will pay upon presentation of your income tax returns, then that is what you have agreed to do. It doesn't matter that we have done business with you for 15 years and know you are good for it. We still have bills to pay, as well. (See No. 3.)

10. We really aren't nerds.

Peace, love and orthodox taxes ... XOXO

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Living Wright

While other kids were watching "The Smurfs," Scene Writer Jason Ashley Wright was tuned in to "Style with Elsa Klensch." By fourth grade, he knew he wanted to write, and spent almost three years publishing a weekly teen-oriented magazine, Teen-Zine -- circulation: 2. After earning a degree in journalism from the University of Southern Mississippi, he became the medical reporter and teen board coordinator for the Hattiesburg (Miss.) American, a Gannett newspaper. Eight months later, with visions of Elsa dancing in his head, he applied for the fashion writer position at the Tulsa World, where he began working on Aug. 3, 1998. He is now a general assignment reporter for Scene.

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