When most people think about “tax time”, their first thought would be the weeks preceding the April 15th tax filing deadline. This is, of course, the time when most (not all) taxpayers comply with the annual requirement to file tax returns with the federal and state governments. It is also the time in which we…
My grandma recently passed away. As our family stood gathered at her funeral, someone mentioned that she was part of what they viewed as the “greatest generation”; a generation that lived through an incredible amount of change. She was born in 1925, the youngest of 5 kids. Her father died when she was 3 years…
Another tax season is behind us now and the color green has returned to the Chicago area. It is this great transformation of nature that makes so many of us love living in the Midwest. The baseball organization that is headquartered at Wrigley Field has also gone through a transformation; one that would have seemed…
I am one of the lucky ones who can walk to work. I see some amazing and interesting things on the way. Some get me irritated. For example, one of the most irritating is when someone flies an American flag and allows the wind to wrap it around its pole. In my opinion, an American…
On May 26, 2015, the IRS admitted that the information of more than 100,000 taxpayers was compromised by hackers using their ‘Get Transcript’ application. In 2016, the IRS revised that number up to 700,000 taxpayers. Data breaches of JP Morgan Chase, eBay, Home Depot, and Target have made headlines over the past few years. Millions…
It seems that anything preceded by the word “flat” is not a good thing: flat tire, flat line, flat beer, or flat tax. Many people think my aversion to a flat tax is based solely on the fact that the implementation of a flat tax system would significantly impact my role as a tax preparer, but…
For most of us who work in the public accounting profession, the time from February through April 15th is known as “Tax Season”. Tax Season can be both an exercise in long hours and too much time looking at computer screens. But looked at positively, it is also a time when we are re-united with…
With the highly publicized upcoming Presidential debates, primaries, and caucuses occurring this month as well as the nation celebrating Presidents Day honoring both Presidents Washington and Lincoln, let us reflect on some historic Presidential tax facts. President Lincoln signed into law a measure to help pay for the Civil War. This measure created a Commissioner of…
