Independence Day, 2025

One path to success is to be the world's best in a sought-after skill. Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams says that the vast majority of us who aren't so gifted should work on our talent stack,[bold added]

developing a variety of skills which combine to make someone a sought-after commodity.

Adams describes his own talent stack in the following terms: “I am a famous syndicated cartoonist who doesn’t have much artistic talent, and I’ve never taken a college-level writing class. But few people are good at both drawing and writing. When you add in my ordinary business skills, my strong work ethic, my risk tolerance, and my reasonably good sense of humor, I’m fairly unique."

Your humble blogger is an adequate accountant--but far from the best--and I have reasonably competent communication skills leavened by a sense of humor.

On this Independence Day let all our talent stacks be good enough to provide a decent standard of living for ourselves and our families.

Fear-mongering by DOGE Opponents

When I was a junior auditor in the mid-1970's, I had access to thousands of client employees' personnel and payroll records. The payroll system generated major expenses, and line-by-line examination of gross pay, benefits, tax withholdings, and other deductions (e.g.,union dues, court-ordered child support) was required to prepare the financial statements.

Accounting departments for the most part were cooperative, but if we did encounter difficulties, we kicked the request to the CFO and CEO. For us to do our job efficiently we had to have complete access to personnel records, including the W-4 withholding form that disclosed the employee Social Security number.

Management is ultimately responsible for the financial statements, and independent CPA's opine as to their integrity. Every year thousands of auditors--not only from CPA firms but also from government agencies like the FDIC and state insurance regulators--descend upon businesses and inspect millions of employee records. Although there are thousands of potential leakers, I don't recall any politicians who have expressed concern about privacy issues in our system of financial reporting.

I mention all of the above in order to express my puzzlement at the criticism directed at President Trump's examination of the financial records of the Executive Branch, of which he is the "CEO." Is he not Constitutionally responsible for its operations? And doesn't he have the authority to hire whomever he wants (subject to them being qualified and passing a security check) to do the work? A non-disclosure agreement or similar document should allay privacy concerns.

As a 23-year-old I was a pretty good auditor, but my skills were not in the same league as the young men who are working 24/7 for the Department of Government Efficiency. They have been tasked with analyzing where trillions of dollars go every year:

Gavin Kliger, left, and Ethan Shaotran, right (Merc photo)

Six men aged 19 to 24 — most with strong Bay Area connections — have been identified as associates of the controversial, Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, aka DOGE, that has gained unprecedented access to several federal agencies, including the Department of the Treasury...

A Harvard University bio of [Ethan] Shaotran lists two papers he wrote — one on pursuit of human-surpassing AI, another on improvement of self-driving vehicles — and a 111-page book published on Amazon about using AI for stock predictions. The bio identified him as the founder of Energize.AI, a “scheduling assistant for professionals,” and said he has filed patents related to AI computer vision, and logistical systems. Affiliations with the Harvard Mountaineering Club and work as a scuba dive master in Hawaii are also cited in the bio.

Another of the young DOGE crew was reported to be Gavin Kliger, whose LinkedIn profile touts a position as a full-time “special advisor to the director” in the Office of Personnel Management. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 2020 from UC Berkeley in electrical engineering and computer science, the school said. Kliger worked at Twitter for less than a year in 2019 during college, according to the profile. Between graduating from UC Berkeley and this January, Kliger worked in software engineering for San Francisco tech company Databricks, according to his profile.

A former Eagle Scout with a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, Kliger enjoyed playing piano and clarinet, along with online speed chess, the profile said.

A Vox reporter on Monday posted on X a screenshot of an email, purportedly informing USAID workers that the agency’s Washington, D.C., headquarters were closed, and indicating replies should go to a USAID email address that appeared to belong to Kliger.

The second UC Berkeley student is Akash Bobba, who pursued a triple major in electrical engineering, computer science and business administration from 2021 until this January, but has not graduated, according to the school. According to Wired, Bobba interned at Menlo Park social-media giant Meta, and at Palantir, a Denver intelligence and military software company co-founded in Palo Alto by Thiel, an influential conservative Silicon Valley billionaire closely tied to Musk.

Also connected to Thiel is Luke Farritor, said by Wired to have a working email address in the federal General Services Administration, and to have interned at SpaceX. Farritor is a Thiel Fellow, receiving a two-year, $100,000 grant awarded to people under 22 “who want to build new things instead of sitting in a classroom,” according to the Thiel Foundation.

The fifth young worker identified as working for DOGE is Edward Coristine, who according to Wired “appears to have recently graduated from high school and to have been enrolled at Northeastern University.” The magazine said a copy of his resume shows he spent three months at Neuralink, a Musk-founded company developing brain-computer interface to treat paralysis.

It doesn't trouble me that these brilliant whiz-kids are doing the leg work for Elon Musk, who in turn reports to Donald Trump. These young men will make $millions in tech, if that's what they choose to do with their lives. The danger of any of them selling Social Security numbers, IMHO, is nil, and trumpeting that issue is an obvious attempt to kill or delay their work. Onward, guys, and thank you for your service.

U.S. Master Tax Guide

I have ordered a copy of the U.S. Master Tax Guide nearly every year. It's a handy one-volume guide to tax law; on the back cover publisher Wolters Kluwer calls the 944-page tome "the tax professional's quick reference."

Real tax professionals disdain the MTG. Their libraries contain the Internal Revenue Code, the Regulations, revenue rulings, revenue procedures, and court cases. Combined with a research service or two, a full set of publications would cover an entire wall. All the information is available through online subscriptions, so an extra wall is no longer required.

As for me, I like riffling through pages to look up stuff, so I will continue to get a hard copy of the U.S. Master Tax Guide. It reminds me of how it used to be in the old days, and yes, I am no longer a "real" tax professional.

Accountants Go Where It's Greener

(Rasmussen image)

Last year the WSJ noted that accountants were finally getting their due: [bold added]

A deepening shortage of accountants is driving a growing number of companies to raise salaries or seek temporary help to strengthen their finance teams amid a slowing economy

But companies aren't moving fast enough to reverse the exodus.

More than 300,000 U.S. accountants and auditors have left their jobs in the past two years, a 17% decline, and the dwindling number of college students coming into the field can’t fill the gap...

The huge gap between companies that need accountants and trained professionals has led to salary bumps and more temporary workers joining the sector. Still, neither development will fix the fundamental talent pipeline problem: Many college students don’t want to work in accounting. Even those who majored in it.

Accountancy requires hard work, long hours, attention to detail, and skill with numbers. People who have the ability and motivation to succeed in the field can earn more in other professions while working normal hours. (Son, let me tell you about the New Year's Eve I had to take inventory in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere...)

Conditions have improved since I was a junior auditor back in the 1970's, but apparently not that much.

They Want More Than You Can Give

(NYT image)

Slightly unexpected, but this finding comports with my own experience: [bold added]

A large number of employees leave soon after their first promotion, according to new data from payroll-services provider ADP. Analyzing the job histories of more than 1.2 million U.S. workers between 2019 and 2022, the ADP Research Institute found that 29% of people quit their jobs within a month after their first promotion. It estimates that the departure rate for similar workers who weren’t promoted was 18%.

People quit their jobs for a host of reasons--whether they're successful at their current employer or not--but it may seem puzzling that the recently elevated have higher turnover than other employees.

In my case I knew after a year that working as an auditor for an accounting firm was not for me, so I finished the two years necessary to fulfill the CPA licensing requirement, spent another year in Taxes, then departed for a bump in pay. Shortly thereafter, I began managing people. Doing that in real life was far more complicated than what was taught in a business course.

One of the reasons for leaving after a promotion is that the new job often includes supervision of others. Without training, new managers often flounder. In addition supervision has only gotten more complicated in the COVID era.

Managing teams has gotten tougher with hybrid and remote work, and many new managers are caught in the middle, balancing bosses’ desire for buzzing offices with employees’ desire for greater autonomy.

“They’re sort of left on their own to adopt a whole new style of management that for many of them is very foreign,” says Heather Barrett, a director at Gallup, who co-wrote the research report.

Maybe the real story isn't lack of training but how no one, not the supervisors or the supervised, has people skills any more. Combined with high expectations and lack of patience, discontent is high.

In the age of virtual communication working conditions have never been more accommodating, but unhappiness has never been higher.

Accountants Get Their Due

(Rasmussen image)

Accountants are in demand:

A deepening shortage of accountants is driving a growing number of companies to raise salaries or seek temporary help to strengthen their finance teams amid a slowing economy...

But, the problem for companies isn’t just the tight labor market. The profession is also attracting fewer job entrants, with the number of U.S. students who completed accounting degrees falling by 2.8% for bachelor’s and 8.4% for master’s in the 2019 to 2020 academic year compared with the prior year.

As it was 45 years ago when your humble blogger was a new CPA, accounting still is seen--rightly, IMHO--as an unglamourous profession. Many accountants labor in the back room, re-checking reams of data and summarizing them in bite-size chunks so that executives can understand them.

What accountants do is unnoticed when things are running smoothly. but like when something goes wrong with the out-of-sight electrical or plumbing systems, the problem often must be fixed immediately. (When payroll or cash collections or vendor payments stop, it soon becomes a crisis.)

In an age of self-aggrandizement, it isn't surprising that diligent detail work in the backroom doesn't appeal to young people. Fortunately, we live in a market economy where prices (wages) rise so that supply meets demand.

It's nice to see accountants get their due.

The Other Dismal Science

(Image from the balance)

I never gave a thought to actuarial science until I went to business school. One of the smartest guys in the class had been an actuary, which I came to understand was too tough a career choice if I had to be as smart as he was and pass difficult, technical exams. (BTW, he's now CFO of a well-known company.)

Digression: so I became a CPA, which meant sitting for two days of exams and working for two years in the audit department of a CPA firm. The latter path was easier, and besides, I've never had to pay anybody to do my taxes.

Apparently, becoming an actuary is even tougher these days: [bold added]

Among people taking at least one exam from the Society of Actuaries—the field’s biggest U.S. credentialing body—15% eventually pass the multiple tests required to become an Associate, one of two designations allowing them to practice. Just 10% pass those and additional tests to become a Fellow, the group’s higher designation, which affords bigger responsibilities and salaries.

It’s such an arduous process that the number of test-takers has been declining in recent years, and the society is making changes to keep candidates from dropping out of the gantlet. It is also adding new “predictive analytics” tests to adjust to the massive amounts of data insurers now have...

There is no limit to how many times a candidate can take the tests. It took one man 50 years to become a Fellow, says Stuart Klugman, an official at the society. The society says a candidate typically takes seven to 10 years to become a Fellow. They must pass 10 exams plus other coursework and requirements.

Every profession is being inundated with oceans of data, and being familiar with data science has become essential to being an actuary. Knowing how to filter, analyze, and model the data is crucial to success. (We noted the importance of predictive analytics three years ago.)

If one is not thorough, knowledgeable about statistics, and honest, one can easily promulgate misinformation by biasing the data sets, selecting or not selecting variables to be analyzed, finding causation in correlation, and not "showing the work" so that results can be replicated.

Why must an actuary be honest? Because as the analyses become more complex, and as the demand for risk assessment (not only for insurance purposes) explodes, there are fewer people who are available to check the work; actuaries must be trusted not to force through results that please the powers that be.

I was glad that I didn't try to become an actuary.

Just for fun: the article presents a sample question involving rudimentary statistics and algebra. Without using a calculator, I could still solve it. (My high school self could have figured it out much more speedily but would also have snickered throughout at the phrase "blue balls.")

“An urn contains 10 balls: 4 red and 6 blue. A second urn contains 16 red balls and an unknown number of blue balls. A single ball is drawn from each urn. The probability that both balls are the same color is 0.44. Calculate the number of blue balls in the second urn.”

Death Makes Life Complicated

(From USA Today)

In almost every year for the past ten years, there has been a death of a relative or a friend or a friend's close relative, and I've helped sort out the finances. It's not easy, even for those who have some accounting, financial, and/or tax training like myself.

For the spouse of the deceased, the tax decisions can be complicated and must be made at the worst possible time. The broad checklist of issues is:

Filing an estate-tax return [to claim the $11.7 million exemption]
Tax-bracket shifts [from joint status to single or head of household]
The step-up [of tax basis in inherited assets]
The home-sellers’ exemption [drops from $500K to $250K two years after spouse's death]
Retirement accounts [change beneficiaries, accelerate or defer withdrawals because of tax-bracket shifts]
Withholding and estimated taxes [may need to be increased by survivor, if deceased paid most of them]

The obvious recommendation is to get professional help, which is preferably lined up long before death. But there's still the problem of finding people who are both knowledgable and honest.

In Hawaii we have a big ohana, which includes a lawyer, CPA, and others who are familiar with elder-care issues. When my father passed away, all of us looked after Mom's best interest though even in our case there were some disagreements.

In the absence of having family who can help, there are other groups, such as churches, Kiwanis, Elks, Freemasons, alumni organizations, etc. where one might find trustworthy advisers.

Still there are no absolute guarantees, even with families, so it's best to be kind to everyone throughout your life so that some of the thoughtful and honest ones will help you and your spouse after one of you is gone.

STEM + A

(Graphic from poetsandquants)

Your humble blogger has always been in awe of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professions. The feeling started in college; the classmates who majored in these courses were very smart and, frankly, worked harder than I did. They didn't necessarily become scientists or engineers; many became doctors, which requires lots of STEM.

Sufficient aptitude in math and statistics enabled me to enter the fields of accounting and business finance and, as they say, put food on the table. But I never thought that accountancy was as technically demanding as engineering, biochemistry, or computer programming.

However, some politicians do. The House of Representatives bill HR 3855 proposes [bold added]

To amend the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant program to promote career awareness in accounting as part of a well-rounded STEM educational experience.117th Congress (2021-2022)

(Image from Mindy Barker Assoc.)

Ever since STEM was identified as a national priority in the early 2000's, STEM education funding has steadily increased regardless of which party controls the White House or Congress.

It's great that accounting has been accorded some respect and that accounting education may soon be eligible for Federal support. There is an acute shortage of accountants relative to open positions.

Respect the green eyeshade!

Philosophical Underpinnings

(Examiner image)

Out of curiosity more than necessity your humble retired accountant has been sampling online Continuing Professional Education courses that CPA's take to maintain their active status.

It's a hard slog, with tax modules grinding through Internal Revenue Code sections and accounting training covering the recently recompiled accounting bible, the Accounting Standards Codification. Right, I could barely keep my eyes open writing the previous sentence.

If you can handle the tedium, you can find nuggets of substance, such as:

An entity should aggregate or disaggregate disclosures so that useful information is not obscured by either the inclusion of a large amount of insignificant detail or the aggregation of items that have substantially different characteristics.

Don't overwhelm the reader with "insignificant detail", yet don't combine dissimilar information if it will mask meaning. Holding to these principles requires deep understanding of the material by the writer and an ethical obligation both to present and not to omit significant information.

Long ago I seriously considered a career in journalism, and I thought its aspiration to report the truth without fear or favor was similar to accountancy.

Both professions fall short of that ideal, of course, but IMHO most journalists no longer view truth as their ideal anyway; rather, they seek to weave a narrative to influence readers toward a particular point of view.

Accountancy harks back to an Enlightenment perspective: present all information that will be important to rational, intelligent readers of financial statements (e.g., lenders, investors, employees, customers, etc.) in making their decisions. Despite the mockery they must endure, accountants can take pride in the philosophical underpinnings of their profession.

Now, back to the dusty ledgers and green eyeshades....

Tax Day, 2019: One's Own Experience

H&R Block:  overall tax liability is down 24.9%.
Just goes to show that one shouldn't generalize
from one's own experience.

After three consecutive years of simplifying our financial life--and being able to file our tax returns by April 15th--we had to go on extension last year because we received a late Form K-1 from a pass-through entity. This year we received the K-1 in March and didn't have an excuse for tardiness.

However, the changes from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act affected us more than we originally estimated; the State and Local Tax limitation (SALT) hurt, while the Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction helped. What also "hurt" was a large capital gain from a long-time mutual fund investment; sure it's nice that the gain was there in the first place, but the funds have always been reinvested automatically and the increased basis will benefit us only when the fund is sold. Thus occurred one of the banes of the tax world: a transaction that produces taxable income but not the cash to pay the taxes.

Deciding to take a couple of extra months to pore over the records, we completed the extension forms (Federal 4868 and California 3519), wrote two checks that left a mark, and dropped the envelopes in the mail. We'll mail the final returns in June.

I would fire my accountant, but when I gaze in the mirror he looks so pitiful that I can't bring myself to do it.

Hie Thee to a CPA

As we noted in February re the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA)

One of the most beneficial--and complex--provisions is the deduction for pass-through income, which applies to small-business owners like your humble blogger, but only if business affairs (these days the adjective is necessary 😀) are structured properly.

We had hoped that clarity would have obtained by now, especially for small landlords whom we know. The answer to the following question indicates little progress has been made.

(Image from Green Bush Financial)

I hope to get the new 20% deduction for “pass-through” businesses that report profits on individuals’ tax returns. Does my income from rental real estate qualify?

We just don’t know. In general, owners of businesses organized as proprietorships, S-corporations, and partnerships now get a deduction of 20% of the business’s income—if the owner’s taxable income is $315,000 or less for married couples ($157,500 or less for singles). Above that level, there are complex rules as to who gets a break.

The problem for millions of landlords of all sizes is determining whether their rental income is from a business or an investment. If it’s investment income, then it doesn’t qualify for the 20% break, even if the landlord’s income is below the $315,000/$157,500 threshold.

Anthony Nitti, a tax specialist with Withum, says, “A century of case law hasn’t clearly defined when a rental rises to the level of a trade or business. Now, landlords across the country will somehow have to make that determination.”

As is typical of new tax laws, the complex questions have not been answered by the IRS--and may not be by April 15, 2019. If real estate comprises more than a few thousand dollars of your income, dear reader, get some professional advice.

Sound the Alarm

I'm surprised that this headline hasn't gotten more coverage. Have the police, fire, and other emergency services been alerted?

Thousands of accountants and finance executives are gathering in New York this week for the inaugural launch of the new Accounting & Finance Show....(CPA Trendlines)

I'd Rather Sleep Well

Barron's says that too many wealthy individuals rely on their CPA for investment advice that the CPA is unqualified to give: [bold added]

Many high-net-worth individuals pick financial advisors that don’t have the expertise to back up their portfolio calls, claims AIG’s director of customer insights, Julio Franco.

Point taken. Your humble observer is a CPA who is not a Certified Financial Planner. I would never dream of picking stocks or recommending an asset allocation for a client (if the client insisted on a recommendation, I may suggest a large index fund).

But clients are not as stupid as Barron's makes them out to be. Trust and integrity are rare commodities. Clients, especially those who have been burned by slick financial salesmen, often value integrity more than a few extra basis points.

The article again quotes from Julio Franco:

The biggest culprit responsible for bad advice to affluent folks, according to Franco, are trusted CPAs who give the illusion they know more than they do. “We see a lot of [investment] advice coming from CPAs, when it’s not their strong suit,” he says. Clients often “have a guy,” who gives advice on everything including investment strategies, estate planning, wealth transfers, and college and retirement savings—when these accountants in fact lack the knowledge-base to provide the best input.

Mr. Franco is from AIG, yes that AIG, which nearly caused the collapse of the world's financial system through widespread sales of credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations.

So if you're a high net-worth individual, who would you trust, your CPA of 20 years or the fast-talking kid from AIG armed with computer printouts that prove judicious use of derivatives could make you 8% with no risk? In finance the choice is often between sleeping well and eating well. If you're of a certain age, you may place a higher value on a good night's sleep.

Cloud of Confusion

(Image from CPA Practice Advisor)

Staff at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, along with the accountancy boards of Colorado and Washington, have published an issues brief for CPA's who are thinking about taking on clients in the marijuana industry.

The issues are many, but they boil down to two: whether to service a business that is "state-legal/federally-illegal" and whether such clients violate the "good moral character" requirement for being a CPA.

The recreational use of marijuana is legal in certain states, but a CPA cannot knowingly provide services to organizations that are violating Federal law.

Furthermore, he or she can forget about trying to get a reciprocal license in a jurisdiction where marijuana use is illegal. Having such a client would be prima facie evidence of poor moral character.

Despite such obstacles it's very clear that this highly scrutinized, regulated and growing industry is in great need of the accounting, tax, IT, and other financial services that CPA's can provide. However, having a client in the marijuana industry risks losing one's license and worse, one's reputation for probity.

I know what you're thinking, dear reader, concern about "good moral character" and "probity"---how quaint!

Not the Final Straw, But Close

Obamacare Form 8962: big step backwards from the
goal of tax simplification for middle-income taxpayers

Normally unflappable CPA's are particularly "vexed" this year by the complexity of new tax rules, particularly the requirements of the Affordable Care Act and the repair regulations (over 200 pages) that govern whether business equipment should be capitalized or expensed. [Update-4/7/15: see overview of tangible property regs here] Per Cecilia Kuhn, CPA, from Alexandria:

The tangible property regs is a prime example, but there are numerous others. We failed to push back on the complexity of these regulations. There should be a very simplified version for small businesses and rental properties....

We also need to get our clients to make sure they include all of their tax documents before it comes to us. It’s obvious that the system is starting to break down. Older clients are overwhelmed by all the paperwork; younger clients don’t do paperwork; yet tax filing requirements continue to become ever more complicated.

Sure, tax preparation software is used nowadays by almost all professional preparers, but the changes are so numerous and complicated that programmers who aren't usually accountants often don't get the software to perform the calculations correctly. To say that accountants can just bill for the additional work is too cavalier. Many feel sympathy for clients and "eat the time". Even if accountants can charge for it, the work is mind-numbing.

Older CPA's if they can afford to are quitting, and the jobs are being assumed by less experienced professionals who often don't even know that there are problems much less how to solve them. The good news is that the IRS staff is so overworked (and inexperienced---IRS staff suffers from the same burnout phenomenon that the private sector does) that the odds of being audited have declined well below 1%.

To Accountants, A Matter of Earnest Importance

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) headlines why Ebola is so alarming:

Ebola diminishes tax collections in Liberia.

No wonder the disease has everyone in an uproar.

Oscar Wilde's famous description of a cynic may well be applied to accountants:

"A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."

Tips for Socially Awkward Accountants

Accountants are known to be socially awkward. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) lists some top tips for socializing at work:

Walk and talk: Take a five-minute break from your desk every 90 minutes, and walk around and say hi to a co-worker.
Prep your intro: Practice a short “elevator speech” about who you are, what you stand for and what your interests are when you know you’re going to meet new co-workers.
Be strategic: Introduce yourself to people you don’t know who interest you or have a job you’d like to know more about.
Connect: Notice what’s on someone’s desk and ask about it as an icebreaker.
Expand: Socialize with everyone on your team so there’s no hint of favoritism.
Keep it classy: Drink in moderation and discuss only neutral topics at work functions.
Unplug: Give LinkedIn a rest periodically and telephone your contacts.
Check in: After you meet someone, follow up within 24 hours with a call, email, or text.

No, the AICPA is being serious, and please, dear reader, refrain from laughing when Joe or Sue from accounting stammers a question about your dog; remember who screens your expense reports. © 2014 Stephen Yuen

New Year's "W"-esolutions

Every year we try and only partially succeed, if not fail. This time we really mean it! (right?)

This 17-year-old didn't need
to lose any weight.

Weight loss: This is the number one New Year's resolution for Americans. I resolve to lose 1½ pounds per month---an 18-pound weight loss should get the doc off my back. Exercise and diet will be the means of achieving this goal.

Wealth: I resolve to pay more attention to investments. Buy-it-and-forget-it is not an option, and neither is too much concentration in one stock or one sector.

Work: This one seems to be related to wealth, but it's really not. Whether doing something for pay or for love, I resolve to accept tasks sparingly and finish the ones that I do undertake.

Wisdom: I resolve to take 80 hours of continuing education and restore my CPA license to active status. Also, I will read at least one non-business book each month. Excluding work and education, I will limit online time to two hours daily.

The above may not seem overly ambitious, dear reader, but rest assured, they are. © 2014 Stephen Yuen

"The Worst Tax Season Ever"

A bounce from the bad feelings: ecstasy when it's over.

It's been said that CPA's like our complicated tax system just fine because the system allows them to bring in more revenue. Why is it, then, that many have left or are leaving the tax preparation business? A sampling of comments from the "worst tax season" ever:

easy or quick returns are being done by the taxpayer online.....complicated returns, while expensive to the client, usually work out to a worse hourly rate for the accountant.

The rules don’t get finalized until late in the year. That causes the information to come out later every year. And the financial institutions are issuing 2 and 3 amended reports after the originals are issued. As recently as 5 years ago, I used to do 2/3 of my returns in February. Now the last 2 years I do 2/3 after March 15.

New Mexico Taxation and Revenue and the Department of Workforce Solutions decided to mandate all businesses e-file unemployment, state workers comp fee and witholding for the period ending 12/31/12. The kicker was, the system had never been tested and still doesn’t work. I am still struggling with filing P/R tax reports and penalties assessed because New Mexico can’t get a system that works. More returns on extension than ever before and no end in sight!

Absolutely the worst – a good deal due to Congress late changes and updates requred by IRS and software vendors. But for me mainly due to major software problems with [.....] unrelated to the late updates.

The regulatory state insists that the governed meet all the deadlines that it imposes though it is late holding up its end of the bargain. It does not allow the governed to deviate from the proliferating rules that it refuses to impose on itself. With experienced tax practitioners departing the business, non-expert taxpayers who need outside help have fewer resources to call on and are more likely to make mistakes or, worse, don't bother to comply at all.

And so it goes in the 21st-century land of the free. © 2013 Stephen Yuen