THE FOLLOWING IS UPDATED AND PUBLISHED EVERY APRIL 15

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An accountant recalls (non) Kodak moments from another tax season

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As another tax season came to a close, some memories:

• “Why must I give you the same forms that I gave you last year? Can’t you just use those?”
• (the wife on March 20) “I booked our vacation for April 1-7; we got a great rate!”
• (a client on March 25) “I want to thank you for the great job on my taxes. How about dinner the first week of April?”
• “Why must I pay? I don’t like what the government does with my money!”

Recounting another tax season

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• Some clients you must gently warn of the potential downsides to aggressive tax positions; others you must read the federal sentencing guidelines to.
• To the client who generously gave $20,000 of non-cash donations in the form of various household items: “Your New Jersey return shows a refund, would you like to donate to any of the charitable causes listed on it?” The answer is predictable.
• (the client from March 25 above) “I haven’t heard from you. May I presume Friday night, April 1?”
• “Is there a box I may check on the return that switches me from Liberal to Conservative so I may pay less? Those wild-eyed Conservatives are starting to look more reasonable.”
• (client) “My taxes this year should be easy as there’s not much to report: most of my income was paid in cash.”
• (client) “It’s so stressful trying to get my papers to you. How do you do it?”
• (the wife) “I don’t care what time of the year it is! The fertilizer must be laid down no later than April 14!”
• Client: “Did you e-file my returns yet?” IMW: “No, did you send back authorization to do so?” Client: “No, but why didn’t you e-file my returns yet?”
• “Thanks for doing our taxes again this year. When you get a chance, could you look into why you sent us a bill last year?”
• “No, I paid the balance from last year, but did not pay any of the “estimated” tax vouchers. Is that an issue?  I figured that was only a suggestion.”
• A tax manager should remember that there’s a reviewer checklist to be strictly followed and adhered to when reviewing a staff-prepared return and that such list should be discarded when reviewing a return prepared by a partner. How could a partner be wrong?
• (client) “I got the tax returns you prepared for me but the return I drafted on TurboTax not only produced a lower tax but no tax at all…”
• “I know I owed money from last year that you said would be offset against this year’s refund but I don’t understand why they took my refund this year? Would you explain it to me for the 17th time?”
• “Hi Mr. Windee. I received my w-2s today. I have no idea what the next step is with them. Could you let me know what I do?”
• [an accounting firm partner]: “What happened with the Widget Corporation return??!!?? It was a 20-hour job that I priced at 10 hours and budgeted to do in 5 yet you put 7 hours in on it!!!! Where’s the 2 hours over budget gonna come from??!!?? Your paycheck??!!??”
• “Wow! The way you just explained my return to me makes it sound so simple! I’m good at math. Maybe I should try doing my returns myself.”
• (the client from March 25 above) “I figured it out; you’re on a diet and don’t want to eat out. How about a Yankees game on April 13? It’s against the Orioles, a great rivalry!”
• “Why do I have to make a payment when my neighbor doesn’t?”
• (the wife on April 12) “I don’t care about your silly client meeting at 6 pm. You tell your client that every Friday night is pizza night with the family and you must be home early. Besides, your top client will understand, trust me.”
• “If I only supported the Iraq war but not Afghanistan, may I get a reduction on my taxes?”
• “WHAT DO YOU MEAN I OWE??!!?? I THOUGHT YOU WERE A GOOD ACCOUNTANT!!”
• Starting in late March, my firm has a shoot-to-wound policy: any tax professional who strays too far from the building receives a leg shot that allows them to keep functioning in front of a keyboard……..at least until April 15.
• (the client from March 25 above) “I’m disappointed having not heard from you and it’s mid-April. I’ll give you one last chance: how about snowboarding the first week of July?”

-I.M. Windee

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Will President Obama emulate President George H. W. Bush at this historic opportunity?

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Events in Ukraine were moving fast but as of Saturday night, Ukraine’s parliament voted to remove President Viktor Yanukovych who had abused his democratically acquired powers. It set new presidential elections for May 25. The action came hours after he left the capital and protesters took control of the city center.

While Mr. Yanukovych vowed to remain in power, his political allies abandoned him in droves and it is doubtful he will last as even a titular head, and perhaps may leave the country in the near future. Ukraine opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was released from prison and made her way to Independence Square in Kiev where she addressed a large nighttime crowd. Speaking from a wheelchair after suffering back problems during her 2½ years in prison, Ms. Tymoshenko called for bringing Mr. Yanukovych to the square to face the people.

Her anger is understandable but one of the most critical times of forming a democratic republic is right when the revolutionaries have won; ask the French.

Will President Obama take the same flaccid approach to the Ukraine crisis that President Geirge H. W. Bush took to the fall of the Soviet Union?

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Incendiary language can only bring on incendiary actions. The Ukranians should follow the rule of civilized nations and not resort to the thuggish rule of Mr. Yanukovych.

Still, this is no time to go weak at the knees and perhaps more than any other time since President Obama has been in office, his leadership is needed.

Which makes the White House’s reaction to these events all the more depressing.

Today, the White House issued a cautiously worded statement. “We have consistently advocated a de-escalation of violence, constitutional change, a coalition government and early elections, and today’s developments could move us closer to that goal,” it said. The statement also said the U.S. “will work with our allies, with Russia and with appropriate European and international organizations to support a strong, prosperous, unified, and democratic Ukraine. Going forward, the Ukrainian people should know that the United States deeply values our long-standing ties with Ukraine and will support them as they pursue a path of democracy and economic development.”

That makes for good diplomatic-speak and certainly avoids an uncomfortable atmosphere in the U.N. dining facility when the Russian and American counter-parts are in each other’s vicinity, but it doesn’t address the fact that a belligerent Russia is trying to strong-arm Ukraine for its own objectives and has no qualms, as witnessed in recent days, to see the shedding of Ukranian blood. A sign that the U.S is not fully committed to the Ukraine’s replacement of Mr. Yanukovych with a democratic candidate and system would only give Russia the green light to meddle in Ukraine’s affairs and support another pro-Russian anti-democrat.

Recalled is the early 1990s when President George H.W. Bush was excessively cautious upon the fall of the Berlin Wall. So much so that Democrats, who criticized Ronald Reagan and his policies that helped bring the Soviet Union down, were able to outflank Bush and push for more rigorous support of anti-communist forces in East Europe and Russia. It has been argued in many quarters that Mr. Bush’s flaccid support of the democratic movement in Russia in the early 1990s led to the relatively weak government of Boris Yeltsin that yielded to the autocratic Vladimir Putin in charge today.

Mr. Obama has a proclivity to ignore foreign events and it would not be surprising if he took a stance of hoping this Ukraine crisis will also just play itself out without him expending political or other capital which he devotes solely to the socially re-engineering of this country and pummeling Republicans.

But the stakes are too high for a country the size of Ukraine that is both geographically and chronologically placed at a critical point in history. Hopefully Mr. Obama will realize that.

-I.M. Windee

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While there is strife worldwide, President Obama focuses on the ozone layer over the Antarctic

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From the beginning of President Obama’s tenure, he has largely ignored world affairs. Hence, his latest MIA status on the Ukranian crisis, the Middle East, Russian and Chinese civil rights abuses and various other global problems.

The tough truth of the matter is that this President has taken an isolationist position akin to the movement that existed in this county in the 1920s and 1930s. One could almost say that the only land mass outside of this country that Mr. Obama is interested in is the Antarctic where the Global Climate Change alarmists (formerly the Global Warming mob) focus their attention on ozone layers and the bowel movements of penguins allegedly adversely affected by the inconvenient earthly co-tenancy of humans.

Should President Obama be more concerned about the bowel movements of penguins rather than humans killing each other throughout the world?

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This may not be such a bad thing except that history says otherwise.

After World War I,  the U.S. decided not to involve itself in further foreign entanglements. This allowed Hitler to rise and Germany to become a belligerent and aggressive world citizen which ultimately had to be addressed at great cost by this country in the 1940s.

It would serve Mr. Obama’s legacy as well as this country if he came to grips with the fact that his job includes foreign affairs and not just major social re-engineering for the U.S. and worrying about climate change that may or may not be under the control of humans.

-I.M. Windee

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An MSNBC demagogue yet again reveals the hypocrisy and vile thinking of the radical Liberal’s mindset

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This page normally doesn’t dignify with acknowledgement the rhetorical bile that the screeching hosts on MSNBC spew out. But on certain occasions, public service demands such.

MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry apologized Tuesday for a controversial segment on her show about Mitt Romney’s adopted grandson, Kieran, who is black.

She came under fire after joking about a photo of the Romney family that showed Romney holding his new grandson. During her show Sunday, Harris-Perry had shown the photo and asked her panel for caption ideas. The roundtable joked about the baby being the only black person in the picture.

Harris-Perry tweeted Tuesday, using the hashtag “#MHPapology”:

“I am sorry. Without reservation or qualification. I apologize to the Romney family. I work by guiding principle that those who offend do not have the right to tell those they hurt that they [are] wrong for hurting. Therefore, while I meant no offense, I want to immediately apologize to the Romney family for hurting them. As black child born into large white Mormon family I feel familiarity w/ Romney family pic & never meant to suggest otherwise. I apologize to all families built on loving transracial adoptions who feel I degraded their lives or choices.”

She also issued an apologia nausea online that day, writing that the intent had been to celebrate the diversity of Romney’s family. “Whatever the intent, the segment proceeded in an unexpected way that was offensive,” she wrote.

Uh huh.

The Liberal mindset only allows certain people to have interracial families or address social problems; Conservatives need not apply

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Ms. Perry is part of a stable of bug-eyed, shrilling Liberals on MSNBC that contribute virtually nothing to the constructive debate over public policy. Their intent, on every show, every day, is to inflict as much damage on those that do not agree with their extreme Liberal agenda (even President Obama has caught flack from this mob).

Yet this crew does perform one invaluable public service: they betray the true mindset of the militant Liberal.

To wit, zealot Liberals are of the belief that no one but they can address social ills or perform righteous acts such as having an interracial family. Hence, someone like newly -minted New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio who has an interracial family is a Liberal darling while Mitt Romney is treated like some robber-baron who drove through the South Bronx in his limo and had his chauffer kidnap a minority child for a prop in his family Christmas photo. Politically, this line has been sold to and bought by, amongst others, black voters who vote en masse for Democrats despite the fact that the party has done much to hurt them (think: siding with teacher’s unions to maintain a failing public schools system in the inner cities).

This latest episode is a sad reminder that Liberals only care about their agenda which focuses with the form of how things are done and little about their policy results.

Voters should keep this in mind as Liberals’ latest major assault on the economy is under the banner of income inequality, which will result in major harm to the people they claim they are trying to help.

-I.M. Windee

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Amid sex and financial scandals resulting in growing doubt from its followers, the church responds by tightening its economic and administrative arms; is a marketing makeover in the offing?

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“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

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The administration cites “unexpected glitches” in the rollout of the Christmas tree

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[The White House] –  Ending a tradition that goes back to 1961, the Obama administration announced today that there will be no official tree for the White House this year. A presidential spokesman explained that there were a series of “challenges” that prevented the tree from going into service.

For starters, unlike custom which had the tree transported by a horse-drawn carriage, this year’s tree was delivered by wheel-barrow. This resulted in a late delivery and damage to the tree.

The White House Christmas Tree or ObamaCare? You make the choice

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The tree that arrived was all of 3 feet tall and, as one observer remarked, a “Charlie Brown tree.” White House operatives said they did not expect more than a few people to experience the tree which was a similar assumption with online ObamaCare enrollment.

When pressed, the Secretary of Interior admitted that the same contractors who handled the ObamaCare website also were in charge of this year’s tree.

In a rare press conference, President Obama stated that while he accepts ultimate responsibility for this debacle, Republicans were behind this as they wished to see all of his policies fail, including the White House Christmas tree. MSNBC picked up on this theme and even blamed George W. Bush for the failure of this year’s tree and followed up with a piece on how President Obama is picked on by Conservatives.

Nonetheless, an Obama spokeswoman said that “all obstacles encountered will be easily overcome by next Christmas and the country will get 2  trees in one season, assuming it happens.”

Meanwhile, there is a movement on Capitol Hill to provide a subsidy to everyone who purchased a Christmas tree to make up for no White House Christmas Tree this year. For those who do not observe Christmas, a subsidy will be provided as if they did.

-I.M. Windee

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Things change when the Yuletide season arrives

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I.M. Windees knows it’s Christmas season when:

• The only thing he will listen to on the radio, whether because of Catholic guilt, nostalgia or whatever, are Christmas songs.
• Going to the store requires reconnaissance of which door the charities are rattling their cans and should be avoided.
• There is self-doubt as he’s never experienced a December to Remember by acquiring a Lexus.
• His household spending will compete with that of the federal government’s.
• The only thing he will watch on the computer is Wham’s Last Christmas video.
• Watching clips on tv of Black Friday shoppers doing idiotic things is the highlight of the day, lasting all day.
• There is further self-doubt as he never could polish off a 3rd full plate of food at Christmas dinner like his grandfather could. How could he let his ancestors down?

For advertisers, Christmas seasons means thoughts of….next summer

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• Valentine’s Day cards, candy and flowers are advertised.
• The road is full of cars with “Keep Christ in Christmas” bumper stickers and Christmas wreaths affixed to the front of their hoods many whose drivers will run you off the road and give you the finger in the process.
• As with every other time of the year, educational and religious institutions remind us of how we should be especially grateful and shovel money to them. Shouldn’t a sense of gratitude apply to them?
• Turkey is substituted for pizza as a basic food staple.
• The ability to act happy around unpalatable people is pushed to its limits.
• The ability to show restraint at the dinner table is pushed beyond its limits.

-I.M. Windee

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From major financial institutions to the gridiron, we move towards a risk-free society

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Dynamism in an economy, as well as a society, is spawned by risk-taking. This has been proven time and again from explorers (e.g. Lewis & Clark) to inventors (Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs). With risk comes reward.

And risk-taking is precisely what Liberals and Democrats are moving us feverishly away from.

The Obama administration looks at every proposed corporate merger with jaundiced-eye as an unworthy risk to consumers. It also opposes everything from fracking to the XL Pipeline for fear of a risk that has, to date, been proven negligible at most. The risk of not having healthcare? Ironically, it is now replaced by the risk of trying to run the ObamaCare gauntlet and its risk of losing existing coverage for insurance that does not provide better benefits and often worse, at a higher price (unintended consequences are Liberals’ strong suit). Major auto and financial companies? Too big to fail according to the president and Democrats so the government, using taxpayer money, backstops their lousy business decisions with bailouts.  As to the shrinking workforce that has been occurring since the financial meltdown of 2007, perhaps warranted is a look at all of the government programs that seemingly remove risk from people’s lives but also remove the incentive to be in the workforce as well as the motivation for employers to hire people.

 If Christopher Columbus were as risk-averse as today’s society is becoming, there may not have been a United States of America

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And even the gladiator-like endeavor of the NFL has been immunized from risk with numerous protections of the quarterback as well as an anti-taunting rule that doesn’t offend the opposition and risk fights.

Given the recent anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy, we should take inspiration from his call to duty in his First Inaugural Address: “ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country.”

Such a model may bear risk but when one thinks that Christopher Columbus would never have left the docks of Spain to discover America had he had to deal with the risk-averse regulatory environment of today’s federal government, not to mention the unionized crew that would’ve been forced upon him making it economically prohibitive to make the voyage, we should all pray for a little more risk in our society.

-I.M. Windee