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Irrational Numbers

April Fools? Or April ‘Cruel’s?

April 4, 2008

I wrote this “April Fools” letter to my Clients – but I think it went beyond prank and maybe into cruelty: Dear _~client name here~_ I regret to inform you that i have recently received communication from the IRS regarding your personal tax return from 2004. They believe that you have under-reported your capital gains [...]

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Track election coverage

February 5, 2008

Here is Google’s super Tuesday election tracker: (BTW, Apparently, Google is a Democratic leaning business – they chose the Democratic race as the default. You can click on “Republican” in the upper right if you want to track that race.)

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Substitute your own Bureaucracy here

December 31, 2007
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The Story of my life

December 23, 2007

We don’t know which cake store employed this very literal and lazy-minded individual, but they were fired and now work for the IRS. In fact, every time I call the Practitioner Priority Service line, I get this former cake decorator each time!

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Turning your Friends and Neighbors against you!

December 23, 2007

Here is a press release that I just got form the IRS. It reinforces how not taking care of your taxes can really ruin things. Now they are encouraging “informants”. That’s right, they want your friends and neighbors to tell them when you don’t pay your taxes. They offer rewards for this. This is why [...]

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Bean Counters make the world go ’round

December 5, 2007

This is the kind of stuff that gets me. As a Small Business Owner, when I read something like this I think “give me a break….don’t you have anything better to do?” But, as I stop and think about it, I realize that the distinction being examined here is important and potentially expensive. This must [...]

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The “Luke Walton” of Accountants

November 13, 2007

Here is a great article on basketball. Yes, I know this an accounting blog, but this article makes a great point that can be considered to have an analog in the business world: BYU statistics professors Gil Fellingham and Shane Reese and master’s student Garritt Page compared the value of 13 box score statistics from [...]

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Details matter

November 1, 2007

I love this story. This is the kind of stuff that happens daily in Small Business — but the problems of Small Businesses don’t get the publicity that this does. So don’t feel too bad if you published the wrong effective date or forgot to include a specific instruction in your last bulletin to the [...]

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A call for submissions: The Padgett 2008 Wall Calendar

October 29, 2007

Would you like some free publicity? We are calling for photo submissions from each of you to place in our Padgett 2008 calendar. We’d like to emphasize the interpersonal aspect of our businesses. For instance, if you are making a choice between sending us an image of your logo, or a picture of yourself skateboarding [...]

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Am I an Email Snob?

October 16, 2007

The other day, I received an email that said “I am writing this email to tell you that the phone system at -name withheld- has been fixed.”. I know that you were writing it because…well…it’s written. I know that it is an email because…well…it’s an email! An obviously this writer is trying to tell me [...]

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Reminder: Save your money

September 9, 2007

Nothing wrong with a little reminder about Saving Your Money That’s nothing to brag about, of course. Basically, we saved a half-penny for every dollar we took home. We need to save more. But it will be a relief to write about the status of Americans’ finances without having to mention the Great Depression in [...]

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They’re gonna be comming after you….

September 6, 2007

The GAO (General Accounting Office for the US government) has released a report that largely blames sole proprietor underreporting of income for much of the so-called tax gap. (The IRS calls the difference between what the IRS should have collected and what the IRS actually collects.) The 75-page study is entitled “TAX GAP: A Strategy [...]

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A Forensic Accountant

September 4, 2007

The prospect said he needed a forensic accountant. These were his first words to me, “I am looking for a forensic accountant”. Now this is interesting. Most Small Business Owners don’t know the difference between bookkeeping and accounting. It is most unusual to be told by the prospect what kind of accountant they were looking [...]

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Don’t feel so bad

September 4, 2007

Federal Government Owes IRS $45 Million, Report Says 8/31/2007 1:32:54 PM The federal government owes the Internal Revenue Service $45 million in delinquent payroll withholding taxes, according to a report issued today. The report, by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, who independently oversees IRS operations, also found that as of January this year [...]

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File this under the “Taxes are Complicated” department

September 2, 2007

They way things are set up, it appears that Treasury Dept/Congress/IRS/Pretty-Much-The-Whole-Government just wants us to spend all of our time working on filing reports and returns instead of actually running our businesses. IRS Often Wrong in Tax Return Preparation Assistance As if you did not already know this: The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration [...]

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