Category Archives: Articles

Irreverent, entertaining, incisive articles on a variety of accounting and tax subjects.

Why isn’t the Internal Revenue Code written in English? Have you read IRC Section 45R yet on the health care tax credit?

Why does the Internal Revenue Code read as clear as mud?  It must be deliberate.  I’m not complaining, because it’s good for my business as a Certified Public Accountant.  Let’s face it, if the average person could understand the tax … Continue reading

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Ann “Curvy” Curry should have eaten her wheaties before delivering a commencement address at Wheaton College

Ann “Curvy” Curry may have been “wearing a very fabulous blue and white outfit” underneath her robe, as she mentioned in her commencement address at Wheaton College the other day, but one can only wonder what was underneath her graduation cap. … Continue reading

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Do you remember the accounting days of old?

I started my career in public accounting in the 1970s.  Our profession then was virtually non-electronic.  I can remember paying $300 for my first pocket calculator, which today would sell for $1.   One-write systems were the norm.  QuickBooks had not yet been … Continue reading

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Is the IRS Today’s Mafia? The Confessions of the Barefoot Accountant, a Consigliere to Goombas

Is the IRS Today’s Mafia? The Confessions of the Barefoot Accountant, a Consigliere to Goombas Continue reading

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The Hippie CPA

You may ask yourself—if you have virtually no clients and nothing to do or have just been fired for being a loser at a public accounting firm or have just smoked a joint and experienced a profound metaphysical rush—how a … Continue reading

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Laura Madeira’s book, “QuickBooks 2010 Solutions Guide”, is a must read!

This book—QuickBooks 2010 Solutions Guide—contains a wealth of information for certified public accountants who receive QuickBooks files from their clients.  As CPAs we receive files in various states of condition; however, since we are billing out our time to clients … Continue reading

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The Morning After the Battle of Tenaru

Like John Basilone on the morning of August 21st after the Battle of the Tenaru, surveying the endless corpses strewn across the Guadalcanal battlefield along the perimeter of Henderson airfield, feeling totally enervated and dazed, I open my office door … Continue reading

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How much is 2 plus 2?

In his classic book about the accounting profession, Unaccountable Accounting:  Games Accountants Play, Abraham Briloff recounts a supposedly true story suggesting the primary criterion corporations employed in selecting their public accounting firms.  In the event that you may not have heard this story, I wish to tell it here … Continue reading

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I’m mad. Why aren’t CPAs volunteering to help businesses and individuals here in our economic disaster?

Don’t get me wrong.  I think it’s wonderful that CPAs are volunteering to assist those poor souls in Haiti.  I congratulate and thank them.  And I am not equating our country’s situation to that in Haiti, where hundreds of thousands of … Continue reading

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Is it time to give your CPA the boot?

It’s that time of year again to assemble all of your financial information and bring it to your Certified Public Accountant. However, some of you may be dissatisfied with your current Certified Public Accountant and are contemplating a change.   In … Continue reading

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