I just read Peter Pappas' post about a man in Dayton, Ohio opening fire on an H&R Block employee (which he read about on WebCPA). According to Yahoo! maps, the bar where the shooting took place is just over 7 miles from my house. That's a little frightening.
This seems to be a classic example of shooting the messenger (forgive the pun, as I don't know another way to say it!). And as long as the system is out of control, I wager we'll continue to see taxpayers blaming tax professionals. I figure the only way this will slow down is if we get a system in place that is transparent and understandable to taxpayers. We all know it, now we've got to figure out how to make it happen.
A place to start the dialogue is Professor Nellen's 21 Century Taxation blog, which recently celebrated its third anniversary (congrats!). If we can somehow manage to get a lot of us "messengers" in a dialogue and come to some agreement, maybe we could make progress on getting the public and Congress on board with serious reform. Of course, getting a large body of tax professionals to agree on a reform plan is going to take some work. I figure once I get these kids a little older, I'll make that one of my long, long term projects. Someday my kids will thank me for it! Maybe...
In the meantime, I'll be safe from angry Dayton taxpayers when I move to California in a few weeks. Although I'm guessing the taxpayers aren't much happier there.
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Monica-
ReplyDeleteAs always I am one "messenger" who would be happy to participate in a "dialog" on simplifying the mucking fess that is the US Tax Code.
TWTP
I am in California, TP are not happy but still not shooting HR Block employees.
ReplyDeleteI talked about this incident on my blog and got a response from HR Block employee who suggested "HR Block employees are tax experts" and I had argued to the contrary on my post and did defend the tax preparer. I don't know, seems like everyone is angry these days
Hi Monica,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reference to the 21st century taxation page. Let's work on getting a growing dialogue underway. We have lots of tax problems in CA. Good luck on the move. I hope to see you in Northern California (I'm in San Jose).
Annette Nellen
Why would anyone want to leave the Gem City?
ReplyDeleteHey are you still posting?
ReplyDeleteThe short answer is "yes", I'm still posting... I'm in a bit of a creative rut, and am still getting settled in after our move across the country. I hope to get more regular in my posting soon!
ReplyDelete