The IRS and Big Data Gone Bad

Bookkeeping data is notoriously unreliable. So why is the IRS relying on it?

The Ten-Minute Bookkeeping Test (PDF)
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The 10-Minute Bookkeeping Test

By Frank Stitely
SK CPAs

“Please give me a copy of your 1099-MISC forms.”

The IRS agent was a 25-year-old woman, with only a couple of years of experience dealing with my client.

My client was the “How-dare-you-question-me?-I’m-a-taxpayin’,-God fearin’-American” type of client – one of those guys  who think the Marlboro Man is a wimp.

But he had a tax problem. He was being audited and he had thrown out all of his paper records when he moved his office.

Missing 1099-MISC

He didn’t have copies of his 1099-MISC forms.  So he had his bookkeeper reprint them from QuickBooks.  I gave them to the IRS agent.

“Mr. Stitely, these 1099 forms don’t match what we have in our records.” READ MORE →

CPAs Salute the People Who Shaped Their Lives

Today’s best career advice: join the survey; get the answers.

by Rick Telberg

At 20 years old, the world was a blank canvas with vast opportunities for Sal Inserra. He thought he knew exactly what he wanted in life.

“Until,” he once told me, “I was set straight.”

Like many CPAs, Sal owes much of his career and success to a few key mentors who guided him early on.

Today — as the kids head back to school and college, and as the rest of us wind up our summers and look ahead to the fall — it may be a good time to salute the mentors who help steward a great profession to the next generation. READ MORE →