Holy F, tax day

[Flip]

In addition to my job at AOL working in the federal tax department, i run a little "Michael T. Lewis, CPA" practice in the evenings and on weekends. Three years ago it was very small with just friends and family as clients, but this year, thanks to multiple friends-of-a-friend references over the years, I was busy as heck and i think i am officially done! It is fun for me to do (when im not scrambling at the end like this season) and the supplemental income isnt anything to sneeze at.

Hope you all filed your taxes on time and received big refunds! If not, call me next year and i'll see what i can do for you.


(maybe now i can post a little more often)

[Kupek]

Hey, nice work having your own business going. How many did you do this year?

[Shrinweck]

I got a $16 refund. Yep.

[Tessian]

I got a $16 refund. Yep.

As a college student who works part time you're pretty lucky to not owe money. I got quite a nice refund myself... still sucks when you remember that it's really been your money all along. Oh and it pays to have a CPA in the family lol

[Mental]

Calculate your estimated tax burden and/or number of exemptions right, put the extra money in an interest-bearing account, and don't overpay. Problem solved.

I never minded overpaying to any great extent when I was younger, because I couldn't save for shit and it was nice to get some of it back even if I had to loan it to the government interest-free to do it. Now, I'm doing the starving indie game designer thing and don't make enough for it to be a real worry. But if it's something that bothers you, there's no reason to overpay beforehand when you really have the option not to assuming you fill out a small amount of paperwork. Put the extra money in an interest-bearing account or investment that can make you more money, but that's still liquid enough that you have the funds if Uncle Sam decides you fucked up and it's another few grand or he's going to repossess your asshole as the property of the U.S. gov't.

[Shrinweck]

Yeah, well. I didn't notice my boss almost never takes any money for federal withdrawals. So $16 was hilarious.

(edited for spelling... I should really not post drunk)

[Zeus]

Flip, I'm in the same boat. I started doing close family and friends as a favour since I was getting my tax program anyways and this year, it's grown to the point where I think I musta done 25 or so returns total (if you count a couple as 2 which I do since it's double the work). I've been working a lot of nights and many weekends over the last month to get them done (my return was done nearly a month ago :-). It's amazing how many it's grown to already.

With my wife off of work now staying home with the twins, I'm actually going to start my own side business in the summer and essentially teach her to be the bookkeeper. That way we can have an income stream to make up for the lost income with her staying at home with the kids (I don't like babysitters raising my children if I can help it). Gonna try to take on more than just tax returns, though. I have lots of family members with convenience store (such an Arab stereotype :-) so I may try to get into monthly stuff and even payroll. A great side-effect of having this home business with my wife as the secretary/bookkeeper is that it's actually a good thing to bang your secretary LMAO

[Mental]

So I take it that if I start agitating for tax reform and a tax code average Americans can understand, I'm going to get some nasty replies from you and Flip, then, and possibly end up in a lake somewhere.

[Flip]

Hey, nice work having your own business going. How many did you do this year?

Flip, I'm in the same boat. I started doing close family and friends as a favour since I was getting my tax program anyways and this year, it's grown to the point where I think I musta done 25 or so returns total (if you count a couple as 2 which I do since it's double the work). I've been working a lot of nights and many weekends over the last month to get them done (my return was done nearly a month ago :-). It's amazing how many it's grown to already.

With my wife off of work now staying home with the twins, I'm actually going to start my own side business in the summer and essentially teach her to be the bookkeeper. That way we can have an income stream to make up for the lost income with her staying at home with the kids (I don't like babysitters raising my children if I can help it). Gonna try to take on more than just tax returns, though. I have lots of family members with convenience store (such an Arab stereotype :-) so I may try to get into monthly stuff and even payroll. A great side-effect of having this home business with my wife as the secretary/bookkeeper is that it's actually a good thing to bang your secretary LMAO

About the same a Zeus, i think i did 22i. Which is up from 12 last year and up from 6 the year before when i started to do it on the side. Which really leaves a lot of room for more clients... the only reason why i was sweating it to the deadline this year was due to lazy clients and me not hassling them enough.

I only have a few non tax season clients (financial statement prep and reviwe), but i would be willing to take on some bookkeeping, too, if it came around. Maybe ill start to advertise.

I seem to take more of an interest in the returns since it mine and my ass on the line. Some days at AOL i couldnt give two shits about my work. Its nice to really care.

My argument as to why a flat tax or simplified system is stupid is because i feel the tax code is complicated to be more fair. There is no reason why a single mom, busting ass, making 20k a year should pay as much as a lazy 20something kid working part time making 20k a year... Granted, there are some things that do need to be changed.

[Mental]

I'm not in favor of a flat tax, and I agree with what you said, but I do think it would be nice if the average American could understand the tax forms and (detrimental as it may be to your business, I know) if going to an accountant didn't represent a significant advantage in terms of getting a huge refund. I'm not sure our tax system is really all that screwed up, it's just WAY too complex and full of weird loopholes, and not the sane kind you're mentioning about dependents.

That being said, the system is what it is, so I should think you two will do well.

[Imakeholesinu]

Missouri is thinking of abolishing it's income tax here and going to a purely sales tax model like other states have. I, for one, am all for this as it taxes only what you consume. If you don't consume, you don't tax. Now that may have other effects on the economy but it will keep people from doing things like buying shit they don't need.

[Kupek]

Missouri is thinking of abolishing it's income tax here and going to a purely sales tax model like other states have. I, for one, am all for this as it taxes only what you consume.

It's also a regressive tax, because those with less money pay proportionately more in taxes.

[Zeus]

Yeah, income tax is far superior to a purely consumption tax model, IMO. If you're better off you should be contributing more. We're a society and are supposed to be supporting each other after all. Otherwise we're just moving closer and closer to the hunter-gatherer society we started with

[Mental]

Yup, a pure sales tax model shafts the poor something fierce.

[SineSwiper]

Sales tax is a sham, anyway. It's a tax that the COMPANIES should be paying, but aren't.

[Zeus]

Sales tax is a sham, anyway. It's a tax that the COMPANIES should be paying, but aren't.

Why should they be paying it?

[Imakeholesinu]

Yup, a pure sales tax model shafts the poor something fierce.

How so? The poor do not spend a shit ton of money on things they don't need. (Oh wait yes they do because of predatory lenders and credit cards, but that is their own damn fault). The rich spend on whatever they want whenever they want (hence why they have the money). Tax revenue then would be primarily generated by those who buy the most (the rich). The poor would pay tax based on what they purchase the same way but in turn since they wouldn't have state withholdings any longer some could actually make out better if they shopped at discount stores (and stopped buying crack and booze with their kids social security checks). This system would 1) re-establish and define monetary classes amongst the public in the state 2) make the rich finally start paying for their end on the state level so their fucking accountants can't weasel them out of paying state taxes 3) add just the slightest bit of tax revenue to the state so they can waste it on ear-marks later on.

How is this bad though? 1) Everyone gets taxed out the ass on whatever they purchase. 2) You would still have to pay taxes on cars that you already paid for in full no matter what because the government sees every citizen as a ripe waiting corn hole just waiting to get fucked. 3) Those taxes may seriously take a chunk out of the lower middle class and turn them to poor in a matter of months.

Now, I'm sure you will all agree that the rich have the money to make sure they don't pay all of their taxes. This system ensures they do, but on the other end it makes it also impossible for the poor to buy anything extra other than the necessities (food, shelter, water). Unfortunately in a Capital/socialistic society (which, yes, is what we are in since we bail out multi-billion dollar banks with tax payer money because the lobbiest's give a damn good blow job) this is what will happen. We cannot have our cake and eat it too when it comes to tax reform because tax reform is so diluted and complicated NO ONE UNDERSTANDS MUCH LESS IS ABLE TO FILE A LEGAL RETURN AND GET THE CORRECT AMOUNT BACK OR PAY THE CORRECT AMOUNT OWED because of all of the stupid tax codes that were added in the last 25-30 years.

Hence why people are all fed up and throwing tea parties to voice their displeasure (non-partisan mind you, liberals are also fed up with this shit).

The only way to fix it (and I'm probably going to make it on the DoHS list with this comment is) to run all the fuckers in power out either by democratic due process or by violent coups.

Add term limits to ALL offices of the government Local, State, and Federal. Abolish or impose strict lobbying regulations. Watch the cockroaches flee from the underneath the fridge.

This government needs a breath of fresh air. The house is full of stagnate officals holding on to their special pensions. The senate is run by a whack job (Pelosi) who would rather consult gypsy's than read a report on the facts of life.

Citizens need to realize big government and big corporations turn a blind eye to the individual. Band together for the greater good. For great justice!!!!

[Zeus]

Barrett, if someone who makes $30k a year and someone who makes $120k a year like to eat the same foods, have an equivalent car, and have generally the same spending habits, how is a tax on stuff you buy fair to them (let's assume the $120k guy is like me and very cheap)? The $30k a year guy is paying a far larger percentage of his/her income to taxes than the $120k guy. That's a bit backwards IMO. In a society where we all contribute, shouldn't the person who's more well off contribute more?

[Kupek]

Zeus got it. Sales tax is the same percentage of purchase for everyone, but all people need to make a baseline of purchases (food, clothing) to live. That tax is a larger percentage of a poor person's total income than a rich person's.

My state, Virginia, already has a car tax. It hasn't solved all our problems. Property is already taxed.

I actually agree with Flip, too: the tax code is complicated probably because it needs to be complicated to be fair. I imagine it's similar to a program. Simple, elegant code is nice, but sometimes you just need a lot of corner cases to make sure you handle everything. I don't see the complicated tax code as a problem because you can always use computer applications that are aware of all of the various corner cases so that you don't have to be. The online federal version of TurboTax is free if you make under a certain amount ($45k, I think), and I know that at least VA and NY have free, online tax applications.

[SineSwiper]

Not speaking as a tax adviser but as a tax payer, tax code is less complicated than you realize. Decades and decades of myth and propaganda has promoted this idea that taxes are absolutely unrealistic for any one person to comprehend.

Taxes are still complicated, mind you, but not as complicated as you think. Everything is put in place for a reason, and for about 90% of the people out there, it's simply a matter of filling in some information from your W-2, and a few deductions.

[Mental]

Sine, what are you trying to tell me, that my taxes are actually less complicated than I know them to be from actually doing them? My family has a trust going, from which I've been occasionally known to receive as much as five or even TWENTY dollars in earned interest income in a given year. For this august privilege, I am required to bypass the 1040-EZ and fill out a full 1040 as well as two other forms, if I remember right, REGARDLESS of what other forms I had to fill out as well. I had to do this even when I was fourteen and making roughly ten grand a year or so from an after-school job.

Who is the "you" in your "you realize"? I have done my own taxes for years before I finally started going to an accountant (and getting a better refund in the process), and I'm talking from personal experience, not some vague idea that the tax code must be complicated because I've heard other people say so.

[Zeus]

Taxes are not as complicated as people make them out to be. In fact, since everyone is responsible to understand it, it's actually a lot simpler than you'd expect. The complication comes in the more obscure stuff that doesn't affect 85%+ of the population like estate planning, rollovers, etc. The problem is there's a bit of a barrier to understanding how it's all set up and in trying to read the legalize used to write the code. But the net result is actually quite simple and straightforward for the vast majority of the code.