“John Stossel is an idiot,” says CPA on Tax Day blog comment.
John Stossel Takes Out His Tax Day Frustrations On His Accountant, Bob:
Tax Day is looming over America, and John Stossel celebrates by dedicating a major part of his weekly O’Reilly Factor appearance to railing against “Bob,” his accountant. Stossel owes Bob several thousand dollars for filling out his tax forms… In the pantheon of great Stossel moments on Fox News, this one ranks somewhere between the Glenn Beck green phone/scooter interview and the time he literally wore a ball and chain to his interview with Bill O’Reilly. During half of this interview, Stossel actually plays the straight man to O’Reilly’s radical libertarian who opposes enforcing speed limits.
Says Darren Wendroff, CPA at Mediaite:
John Stossel is an idiot… Using Stossel’s logic, why should we pay doctors to solve complicated health issues? Why didn’t God make our bodies easy enough to figure out for ourselves? Or for that matter, why do we pay mechanics to fix our complicated cars? Or contractors to build our complicated houses? Life is complicated, and when you live in a huge country like the United States, one does have to comply with some things that are difficult to support the greater infrastructure. I’m personally sick and tired of these arguments always attacking everything. I’m a veteran and a former Peace Corps volunteer, and now I own an accounting firm with my brother. We employ intelligent, hardworking people who have to put up with idiot articles like this attacking our profession, and that attack a good way life in a good country. I’m honestly not proud of the direction this country and the media are heading.
6 Responses to “Fox News’ John Stossel blames the tax accountants?!”
Dr Khan
@Darren
I dont think Stossel was trying to attack the CPA profession per se.. He was attacking the Government bureaucrats and the politicians for creating such a complicated tax code that it needs a professional to decipher it .. What he is essentially suggesting is a simplified tax code..
Stephen Taylor
If we didn’t screw up Enron, World.com, etc. we would have a right to complain. Why weren’t we screaming derivatives were a fraud? Why did AIG and GM get to where they were without auditors issuing qualified opinions. Too many CPA’s got greedy and went for the fast buck at great cost to all of us. It was our profession’s responsibility to monitor them and we failed. People respected and trusted us, we disappointed them. It will take many years of diligent work to overcome the damage.
Sue Zisko
When I started consulting to the profession on marketing in 1985, the AICPA was just beginning a positive image-building campaign in the media; in those days CPAs were perceived as wearing green eye-shades and counting beans…the next image the public saw was the lonely, inebriated Norm on Cheers…ignorance of the CPAs’ expertise is nothing new! However, I’d venture to say that, based on experiences with our firm’s clientele, most savvy businesspeople do appreciate and value the contribution of their CPA.
Kathleen
1) Complaints about complying with high and ever-diversifying taxes have been recorded since 2,000 B.C. Does the same complaint from Messrs. Reilly and Stossel in 2010 actually count as news?
Tax code has been complicated for a long time; however, it sounds like Mr. Stossel’s affairs have gotten complicated relatively recently, as U.S. tax code history goes. What is new to him isn’t necessarily news.
2) The complications and rate hikes that have proliferated since the income tax started in 1913 come from fiscal policy makers, not accountants.
3) Simplifying the tax code enough that the average taxpayer can calculate his taxes easily is a political decision. Keeping tax rates within reason is also a political decision. If this is what these guys are trying to say, I can only agree.
4) Plenty of folks would be ecstatic to have his problem. Get some perspective, Mr. Stossel!
5) If Mr. Stossel wants to prepare his own taxes, he is free do to so. Lots of people do. In fact, I challenge Mr. Stossel to prepare his own taxes next year. Mr. Stossel may come to better appreciate Bob’s expertise, given that the laws are as complicated as they are.
Rick Telberg
Darren…
I know a lot of people who share your feelings.
— rick
Darren Wendroff
Wow, if I would have realized my comment was going to be posted on Trendlines, I would have written a more coherent, less hastily written argument.
It is extremely upsetting to me as a professional in the CPA industry to see stories like this attacking our profession. There are excellent CPA’s out there helping clients grow their businesses and helping individuals plan their taxes to owe less at the end of the year. Yes the tax code is extremely complicated, but we live in a complicated country, and I think the tax code has to be complicated to provide incentives properly and fairly.
Turbo Tax and a developing culture that everything should be free, whether it be downloading pirated music or free antivirus software, hurts CPAs, who are extremely intelligent and professional people but who have to end up being the punching bag for what I feel is an immature outlook on society.
Personally, I feel CPA’s and the AICPA itself should make a strategic and concerted effort to reeducate the community, both businesses and professionals.
At our firm, we do monthly webinars and newsletters and try to talk with our clients throughout the year, but I feel that it’s a Sisyphean task to reach the business and individual community as a whole, and it would be nice to get some support from the industry.
This trend of CPA firms getting attacked from all fronts is not sustainable, and it’s not good for individuals, businesses or CPAs (it is good for Turbo Tax I imagine). Every time someone attacks the CPA Industry like this – whether it be one person or some irresponsible, idiot “journalist” idiot hoping to validate complainers on a national TV – it chips away at the industry and individual CPAs passion for the profession. And I think that’s wrong. Extremely wrong.