Tuesday, July 10, 2007

IT'S TOO DARN HOT!

I hate this weather! I sweat porcinely just going three blocks to the bank! I am literally drained of any motivation to finish the GD extensions.

One of the problems is that I need to get shorn. I am too hirsute for the season. And it is that time of the year again – I visit Rocco’s Barbershop in Summit every 6 months, whether I need to or not. One of the comments overheard in the ladies jake (not by me) at my 30th high school reunion a while ago concerned the thinning hair of the male alumni. While everything else is on a downward spiral, at least I have maintained a healthy head of hair in my “old age”.

At dinner the other night with an artist friend and client, with whom I worked during my years as the accountant for the NJ Center for Visual Arts (originally the Summit Art Center, and now called the
Visual Arts Center of New Jersey), she said that she finds herself for some reason doing anything she can to avoid working in her studio, although once in the studio she does get work done. It appears to be the same with me and the GD extensions. It is certainly not logical or explainable – especially since I do not get paid if I do not prepare returns. It just is.

I guess it is partially because my working schedule is different from most other accountants and tax practitioners. It has been well over 20 years since I did nine-to-five. And I no longer have an outside office to maintain. I guess after 2½ months of continuous 12+ hour days of nothing but 1040s I am tired of looking at them. Plus the heat certainly doesn’t help.

And I suppose it also has to do with the example set my by “mentor” Jim Gill. He disappeared from about April 18th until about February 1st. Even though he rented an office on a year-round basis, it was not open after the end of the tax filing season. When the season was over it was over! However a few people, myself included, knew what bar to find him at during the year on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. For my first probably 20 years in the business, like I only filed a Form 6251 (Alternative Minimum Tax) 1 or 2 times, I probably only filed 1 or 2 GD extensions.

As I have said before, the thing to do is do whatever is necessary to make sure the GD extensions are kept at a minimum, even if it means “thinning the heard” or setting a cut-off date during the season after which I will simply not accept any 1040 work – perhaps if you don’t get all your stuff to me by March 31st I will not prepare your return period.

TTFN

No comments: