Who we are - sharing

[Gretel]

I really like the idea of sharing ourselves, not just our knowledge, so I start a new thread.

I am from Germany, a certified accountant (a little different then the CPA) since 25 years, have one son and live in wonderful Montana now. I immigrated 11 years ago, moved to MT 6 years ago where I bought an existing tax business, very scary. Never thought I can come close to taking EA, but passed the first time about 3 years ago.

Besides accounting I love gardening and I am part of a group of people who are committed to true healing instead of just getting rid of symptoms.

I am thankful, beyond any words, for TTB and this board.

[Koss]

About Me

As the author of the original poll, I can't exactly complain that the question didn't offer an option that adequately describes my professional background.

I am an unenrolled tax professional.

I have been doing this for almost 20 years, and I have served as an instructor for one of the larger, chain-type firms. Ironically, the courses that I taught provided continuing education credit for enrolled agents, because the firm is an approved IRS sponsor. So I have had EAs in my classes.

And that's not all that unusual. Many courses that carry CE for EAs are taught by CPAs or attorneys. But the IRS regulations do not actually require any type of licensure or certification for the instructor.

And that makes sense. I'm certainly not saying that certification is meaningless, or that it should not exist. It serves a purpose, particularly in regulating those who formally represent taxpayers before the IRS. But there are plenty of CPAs and attorneys whose practice has little or nothing to do with federal taxation, and these folks would not be at all qualified to teach CE courses for enrolled agents. When it comes to instruction, I think the requirements need to be flexible. There are certainly folks who teach courses at medical schools who are not physicians. A fellow with a PhD in biochemistry might be eminently qualified to teach certain courses for medical students, even though he holds no license of any type that would ever allow him to treat a patient.

With all that being said...

I plan to take Part I of the EA exam in May--without any type of significant preparation or study. I'll look over the list of topics, and I might read some IRS publications on a few topics that seem alien to me. But I plan to take the test without any formal study, just as a diagnostic tool. I won't be shocked if I can pass Part I and Part III without any real preparation. I also won't be shocked if I fail either one.

Part II, for me, will require extensive preparation, because most of my practice has been concentrated on individual tax returns. My experience with entities is somewhat limited.

[geekgirldany]

About Me

I've been preparing taxes for about 14 years. My first job was as a assistant for a local tax preparer. I later started helping him prepare the taxes. I have a associates degree from a local tech college in accounting. I took off on my own around 2000. Employer was semi retiring and I thought it was time for me to give it a go.

I've done very well. Going from 15 customers the first year to 125 now. I took Parts I & II of the Enrolled Agent exam in 2007. As many of you know from my post I will take Part 3 in June. Becoming an enrolled agent is something I never thought I would do. I am so proud.

Some other things about me not tax related. I am a big collector. I have hundreds of comic books. Collect old and new toys. I am also a big VW fan. I have a new beetle and then a old beetle. Buying that old beetle was a big deal to me as I never though I could afford one so nice. I am also a computer geek and design websites

[jeff501]

Started in 1995 out of my house after corporate downsizing eliminated my job in 1994. Worked in a food warehouse driving a forklift and decided to do something completely different after the place shut down. Went back to school a year before the shut down and finished my Bachelors Degree in 1997. I think I did about 50 returns that first year. Best thing I did was to get an office five years ago, now up to just over 1,000 returns yearly. Have two great people who help out in tax season, they're worth every penny. Got my EA in 2003, that helped a lot but always have to explain what an EA is. Took the CPA exam in 1999, got close but don't have the 150 hour requirement to try it again. The EA is just fine with me. We offer refund loans, etc and do about 125 RALs and 50 ERCs a year. Don't really push them but if we didn't have them would lose the business to the chains. Most people don't care about the cost but only about getting their money quickly.

I'm a big collector too. Collected soft drink memorabilia since 1974, mainly Coca-Cola but pick up anything soft drink related by any company. Bottles, signs, clocks, toys, etc. Also collect Indianapolis 500 items as I grew up barely a mile from the track. The end of tax season always means I can take some time off in May to go to the track and watch the cars run. Nothing like watching the open wheel cars at Indy. Also try to go to 5-6 other IRL races each year. Not a NASCAR fan but go the Brickyard 400 each year, and the track will be hosting the MotoGP in September . The USGP was fun to watch too, but they won't be there in 2008. As everyone can probably tell, I'm a huge race fan.

[LindaK]

About me - LindaK

I have been doing tax returns for individuals - many of them farmers - for 25 years. (Can't believe it's been that long!) I have a BA in accounting but am not a CPA or EA. My clients are lower-middle class and could not afford a CPA's rates for tax return prep. This year I'll prepare 80-100 returns, so it's a small practice that suits me.

My husband is a pastor and when we moved 500 miles away from my client base in 2004, over half decided to stay with me. I go back to the area once or twice during the tax season to meet with some of them, and the rest we do via mail, fax and email.

I haven't figured out what I'll do if non-titled preparers like me are forced out. I hope they would have a test for individual returns only, as I have almost no experience with entity returns.

[cathyan103]

I have been around tax preparation since I was 10-12. My father worked for HR (back when they were respectable), and I was the only one of 6 kids who caught the bug.
I started out on my own 10 years ago, and got my EA in 2004. I have around 100 clients of my own, and after Dad passed away last September, I have taken over his and about 60 of his have stayed with me. When we were cleaning up in his office area, I found disks and paperwork that go back to the first computerized tax forms - including the overlays he and Mom had to use. There are 8" floppy disks, and more. (Is there a Tax Museum I can donate stuff to?)
This board really means a lot to me this year, 'cause he isn't here to bounce ideas off. I don't ask too many questions, because a lot of the questions are the same ones I have, and the answers generally are fantastic!
I'm working on building a bi-weekly and/or monthly accounting clientele now. Slow, but so was building a good preparer reputation.

[Nashville]

H&R Block

My father worked for HR (back when they were respectable) .

Yes, I remember those days. I am one of the most notorious Block-bashers on the board, seeing many times each year how they use their well-advertised posture in the tax business to rip off their customers.

But comparitively speaking, H&R Block has a very noble history. Grew rapidly in the post-war era through franchising and very obliging quality standards for their customers. Helped carry the public through the 1954 tax code changes. Became known for their tax prep schools in the fall and would often hire the cream of the crop in January.

Love them, or bash them -- H&R Block is the epitomy of an American success story.

[geekgirldany]

I found disks and paperwork that go back to the first computerized tax forms - including the overlays he and Mom had to use. There are 8" floppy disks, and more. (Is there a Tax Museum I can donate stuff to?)

I remember the overlays When I first started that is what my employer used. Had to line the X up and then make copies. When I was going through some of my grandparents stuff this summer I found tax forms from the 50s and 60s thought about hanging them up.

[jasdlm]

Overlays? I don't get it.

[BOB W]

Overlays? I don't get it.

Dot matrix printers only printed letters and numbers so a plastic overlay was used to make the tax return look like a tax return. Then it was photo copied and that copy looked like a regular tax return.....poof.........

[gkaiseril]

Clear Slide

An overlay - the form graphic and static text printed on a clear sheet.

The tax program would then print the variable form data on a plain sheet of paper for each page of the return. One would then match the printed sheet from the tax program with the appropriate slide, being careful to accurately align, register, the slide and printed page and then photocopy the slide and printed data to create an image with the form graphic, static text and the variable client data to have a form with data.

Your tax program is doing the same process by matching the approved electronic template of a form with the client data for the specific form and printing the combination.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[Koss]

Overlay

Up until a year or two ago, instructors of tax courses at HRB were still using overhead projectors to display certain tax forms to the class. Some instructors would fill in the form with an erasable marker. But others preferred to use a blank transparency laid on top of the transparency that had the graphics of the tax form...

I think many of HRB's courses have now become computer-based training, i.e., even if the course is led by an instructor in a classroom, the presentation is either on a computer workstation for each student, or it is a Powerpoint job displayed on a large screen for everyone. But some courses may still be using overhead transparencies.

So the same process is still in use, albeit in a different context, some sixty years later.

What do you think you're doing when you use a fill-in PDF form? LOL

[gkaiseril]

What do you think you're doing when you use a fill-in PDF form? LOL

Filling in a layer within the PDF structure, but I can print the entire result or just the form field entries, by my choice.

[WhiteOleander]

HR (back when they were respectable)

There are preparers on this board that work for Block. I am one of them. And I am quite respectable.

I work in an office that has 7 EA's (I am one of them) 2 CPA's and several well seasoned preparers.

I see bad returns come out of every kind of office. Please don't genrealize.

[cathyan103]

White Oleander,
I did not mean offense to anyone. I was reminiscing about days past. HR today is not what Henry and Richard began. Way back when, H & R Block conjured up a different image than it does today. That is not to say that good people don't work there. I know that many excellent caring people work there. Again, no offense intended.