Althouse: Mom & Pop Accounting.

April 13, 2025

Mom & Pop Accounting.

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A post shared by Roz Chast (@rozchast)

19 comments:

wild chicken said...: We can only hope Mom and Pop tell them these things! Unfortunately it's the Indy tax shops that pull the most fraud.; 4/13/25, 8:20 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: This is funny; 4/13/25, 8:48 AM
TreeJoe said...: Finishing my taxes right now using TurboTax.

I sold real estate (rental property) in a different state than my home state. Simple transaction I thought.

Hollllyyyyy shit is it confusing. I’ve been doing my taxes myself for 20 years albeit this is a novel situation. I genuinely can’t tell if im overpaying or underpaying or even paying each state the correct amount.

And I’m using tax software AND reviewing the forms AND consulting each states department of revenue websites.

Insanity.; 4/13/25, 9:00 AM
Wince said...: Are those opposing signs supposed to reveal a family brawl between the Mom and Pop accountants about whether to deduct coffee expenses?; 4/13/25, 9:05 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: A long time ago there was a comic in National Lampoon called something like "Hymie Weinstein, Jewish Accountant" where he cooked up a tax fraud for the benefit of a client and set up a totally innocent Black guy to take the fall and when the client objected the punch line was "Yeah, well fuck him."; 4/13/25, 9:21 AM
Kakistocracy said...: OT -- The numbers of very good CPAs and Auditors with years of experience that are retiring has been increasing and the number of new ones with less experience to take their place is decreasing.

Even when income or incentives are increased, most younger people do not want to do accounting work. Another key reason is the best students choose other more lucrative and interesting careers vs accounting. Finance, top tier MBA programs, IT, etc all endup more attractive than the low pay, extreme hours and tedious work required at accounting firms. On top of that, the 5 year requirement to become a CPA has been a major mistake. Another reason young people avoid the profession.; 4/13/25, 9:31 AM
DINKY DAU 45 said...: Takes a generation to grow a forest and just an hour to burn it down! Welcome to the stable genius regime. On the Lord's day we must remember ,God has always had a sense of humor, but as God's mysteries continue to be abound, this don't seem that funny! Oh well Lord It is just YOU our family will follow ,all the rest is sinking sand.; 4/13/25, 10:18 AM
Rocco said...: TreeJoe said...
“Finishing my taxes.. I sold real estate (rental property) in a different state than my home state. Simple transaction I thought. Hollllyyyyy shit is it confusing.”

They say the two happiest days in a landlord’s life are the day he buys his first rental property and the day he sells his last rental property.; 4/13/25, 11:20 AM
Jay Vogt said...: You can think what you'd like about Jimmy Carter (RIP), however he did see and acknowledge the the US tax code "is a disgrace to the human race". You've got to give him credit for that. Now, Reagan did clean it up about as much as he could. But of course it's drifted back downhill again,

I know there's lot's in Europe to be suspicious about, however I'm a pretty big fan of their tilt towards the VAT. Wish we'd do that here . . . . .never happen.; 4/13/25, 11:50 AM
JAORE said...: A few years ago our middle son went to a tax consultant recommended by a co-worker. Our son's taxes should have been easily covered in Turbo Tax His situation was simple and straight forward, but the co-worker was enthusiastic.
Wisely our son kept the amount he gave Uncle Sugar close to what he would owe.
Yet the "expert" came up with several thousands for a refund. The explanation involved multiple special factors of questionable validity.
Like me, our son never wants on the suspect list of the IRS, Turbo Tax it was and his refund was a couple hundred bucks.

But, like described above, TT was a confusing mess this year on a couple of required inputs... But I sorted them out. thank goodness I'll be getting that $34 Federal refund soon.; 4/13/25, 11:59 AM
Political Junkie said...: Rocco - Had a friend who was in rental real estate. He also got into self storage units. He preferred the self storage units because "people bad", and with self storage there was no involvement with people and if they don't pay you put a lock on their unit and then sell the contents if they don't pay.; 4/13/25, 12:04 PM
Political Junkie said...: Kak - You are correct.; 4/13/25, 12:05 PM
mccullough said...: Amusing.; 4/13/25, 12:08 PM
TreeJoe said...: Just finished with TurboTax.

I’m pretty sure I owe more in one state. But I can’t figure out what calculations to do differently
than following the prompts and worksheets exactly as I input. So while I paid significant capital gains tax withholding at settlement DE now owes me back a substantial chunk of it. Ok then.; 4/13/25, 12:40 PM
Lazarus said...: Roz Chast has never gotten over her upbringing and childhood traumas, but she's brought a lot of laughter to the rest of us.; 4/13/25, 2:25 PM
Danno said...: Jay Vogt, they always offer a VAT to replace the income tax but they never repeal the income tax. Europe has both. I don't think you will be more successful than Europe was.; 4/13/25, 3:06 PM
Mason G said...: "Jay Vogt, they always offer a VAT to replace the income tax but they never repeal the income tax."

If they're not proposing an amendment to repeal the current income tax and prohibiting any new ones *before* adding a VAT, they're not serious about repealing anything.; 4/13/25, 5:11 PM
West TX Intermediate Crude said...: I used TurboTax again this year after a 5 year hiatus, required by temporary complications in my tax situation that required a CPA to work out. CPA said all is routine now and I could resume doing my own taxes.
In order to minimize possibility of complications, I paid extra for the TT service of having access to "tax professionals" who would answer questions and review my return prior to submission.
Let's just say that I was not impressed. The first "Tax professional" I spoke with had never heard of IRMAA (literally had no idea what I meant when I mentioned it). I educated her a bit- it's a bonus tax that old folks with higher retirement income pay for Medicare.
My second call into TT was due to a bug in their software that double counted one of my 1099 amounts. It took several calls over several days to straighten it out.
Every person spoke with at TT was very nice, eager to help, and of suboptimal ability and knowledge.
Probably too late to help anyone this year, but if you have a choice, TT is all great marketing but not as slick as they say they are.; 4/13/25, 6:11 PM
PM said...: Ms Chast is muy fonny.; 4/14/25, 1:01 PM