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

Number of the Day, Month, and Year

Displaying a hitherto unknown degree of marketing creativity, the CPA education website offers a "twelve"-themed sale just for today. Discounts are offered in multiples of 12% on such page-turners as the "IFRS: What's New This Quarter?" and "Interactive Tax Checklists." Tempting, but I think I'll pass.

I'm husbanding (oops--sorry about the sexist / pro-marriage language) deferring discretionary business expenses till 2013, when it will be important to keep one's adjusted gross income below certain thresholds to minimize both taxes and the reports that one is required file.

Speaking of "12", the predominance of binary and octal systems in the computer age has quieted discussion of duodecimal counting methods, but it's fun to think about "dozenal" mathematics. Many repeating decimals in our base-10 system, such as 1/3 = .3333...., become terminating decimals (1/3 = 4/12 = 0.4) in base-12. If we were to adopt a base 12 system, 10 inches will make a foot, and 30 inches will comprise a yard, perhaps reducing, slightly, the insults Americans have to endure for not switching to metric.

Most importantly, we will weigh much less: 200 pounds in base 10 becomes 148 pounds in base 12 (144+48+8). That's a discount most of us can get behind. © 2012 Stephen Yuen

Late to the Party

I've been helping a friend of mine test an iPad business app. The process is fascinating: app screens are storyboarded like in film production, and each screen has to be tightly defined in order to minimize programming costs and keep to the schedule. My modest role is to test-drive the app and check some of the calculations. Typically, my setup uses two computers (one Mac and one PC) and an iPad.

I have been working in accounting and related areas for over three decades. This is a lot more fun. To be young again....