Yesterday I completed the federal and state tax returns for my mother’s estate and for her trust. Considering the pittance that I earn I spend an enormous amount of time keeping records and filling out forms.
Hiring an accountant won’t do anything for me. I’ll still need to do all the record keeping and that’s the bulk of the work. It’s emotional rather than rational but there are times when I feel as though I’m a full time unpaid employee of the governmentl.
Don’t worry, Dave………All you need is:
…..love, to keep you happy, you need love to keep you happy, baby, baby keep me happy………..never got a flash out of cocktails, when I get some flesh off the bone, never got a lift on Lear jets, when I can fly, way back home…..
Sorry, as soon as I tuned into the site and saw the title my brain reflexively went to Keef……
I feel your pain, Dave.
The rate is so much less important to me than the staggering waste of my time and energy.
Just tell me the f*cking number. It’s like torture where they demand an answer but refuse to ask me a question. Please God just tell me what you people want.
I’ve got it relatively easier than Dave since the accountant prepares the partnership return and I just have to hunt for a place where my shares are reported on my individual return. But it gives me a pretty thick return, on which many, many pages have really no substantive content.
“Please God just tell me what you people want.”
C’mon, Reynolds, you know the answer and you advocate it constantly: “more.”
BTW – Dodd has an essay at OTB in which he cites Laffer saying we spend 30 cents for every tax dollar the government collects.
Heh. Now there’s a model of efficiency…….
I”m pretty sure Laffer’s number includes “accounting.” You know, as if taxes are the only reason to keep books.
FWIW: ” … from the National Society of Accountants. According to their biennial survey, the average tax prep fee for an itemized Form 1040 with Schedule A plus a state tax return is $229.”
I don’t mind the more money as much as I mind the more time.
I have the same attitude toward the IRS that I have toward my children’s schools and their incessant events and outings and special projects: just let me write a check. Just please God, let me write a check and go back to work.
“I have the same attitude toward the IRS that I have toward my children’s schools and their incessant events and outings and special projects: just let me write a check. Just please God, let me write a check and go back to work.”
Your intense emotional involvement with your children and their realities is duly noted…….gawd
Says Drew, hands firmly clasped around his ankles,
as his true Galtian overlords exult that Taxes Plunge for Rich and throw him a bone (or maybe just bone him).
I’m actually extraordinarily involved with my children. I work at home after all, and one kid is home-schooled. I just don’t have much respect for such make-work “involvement” as delivering pizza to classes.