My first encounter with income taxes came in February of 1972, when I was in mysecond semester as a freshman at local Jesuit institution St Peter’s College (Iam not Catholic – it had a good rep for business). I had taken the first halfof Accounting 101, but had not taken any tax classes.
My uncle’s tax professional, James P Gill, would hire students from St Peter’sCollege during the tax season as apprentice tax preparers. During his annualvisit, always on Lincoln’s Birthday (then an actual legal federal holiday), myuncle happened to mention to Jim that I had taken my first accounting courseand that I was helping him with the books for the non-profit organization forwhich he worked. Jim told my uncle to send me in to see him – and the rest ishistory!
On my first visit to Jim’s office he took me to a desk in the outer office. Hegave me a copy of a client’s previous year’s tax return and a briefcase full ofpapers that constituted the current year’s tax “stuff” and told me to “jump inand swim”.
I still remember my first 1040 – it was for one of the “outside salesmen”insurance agents who shared an office around the corner from Jim (Jim did allthe agents in the office). While I no longer prepare that person’s returns, Istill – 42 tax seasons later - do one of the agents from that office, whorecently retired. And I also still do the bartender who had worked at the pubnext to our office.
Prior to meeting Jim Gill I had no experience with or education in any aspectof income taxes. I had never even done my own simple returns – they had beenprepared by my father’s tax pro (not Jim, but a colleague from his NYC office).As I mentioned I had not taken the tax course at St Peter’s College yet. Whichwas good – Jim preferred to get student apprentices before they had taken anytax courses. He wanted us to learn the practical reality of tax preparation –not the sanitary classroom version.
If I had a question about a tax return I would ask Jim, who would either takethe time to explain the answer or tell me where to find the answer in the CCHtax library. So I was self-taught via on-the-job training. I learned how toprepare income tax returns in the very best way possible – by preparing incometax returns. And I learned at a “storefront” office located at a busytransportation hub of a large metropolitan city, at a firm with a clientele oftaxpayers in all walks of life and all levels of income and education.
I never did graduate from St Peter’s College. One reason, I believe, is that mymajor was Business Administration and not Accounting. I found that I got a muchbetter education at 59 Sip Avenue (the address of Jim’s office) then at SPC. Iactually also felt that I had received a much better education at an “innercity” high school than I did at a Jesuit college. I eventually receivedunder-graduate and graduate degrees from a non-traditional institution based onlife and work experience – solely for the purpose of pleasing my family.
I did enroll in and pass a correspondence 1040 preparation course from theNational Tax Training School back in the mid-70s so I would actually have apiece of paper to “document” my education and ability as a tax preparer. For methis was basically a “refresher” course.
As a result of being self-taught via on-the-job training I am not an “educationsnob”. I respect the man, or woman, and not the office, or the degree(s), orthe credential(s). To earn my respect you must show me that you are accomplishedin something other than the ability to pass tests.
This is not to say that I do not acknowledge the value and benefits ofpost-secondary education – just that there are alternative methods of receivingan education that are at least just as valid as traditional classroom learning.
I have also been accused of being “cynical”, especially when it comes topolitics. I believe this comes from a long history of dealing with the “greatunwashed masses” (which I no longer do, thank the Lord) and the fact that Igrew up in Hudson County – the “poster child” for political corruption in whathas become probably the most politically corrupt state in the union.
The political machine of Hudson County Democratic party boss Frank Haguerivaled the days of Tammany Hall. Hague was replaced by “reform” candidate JohnV Kenny, who perfected the corrupt machine to equal if not exceed that ofChicago’s Mayor Daley. My family was among the few real Republican residents inthe Democratic-dominated County.
I was born and raised and lived most of my life in Jersey City, county seat ofHudson. But I recently moved to the peace and quiet of rural NortheastPennsylvania - to the area I had been visiting for just about every summer for close to 50 years.
As I have boasted often in the past – in 42 tax seasons I have never prepared a1040, or any other tax return, using tax preparation software. And I have nointention of starting now. I see absolutely no cost effective benefit to me forusing flawed tax preparation software.
The closest I came to using software was during my brief tenure as a“para-professional” for the then big-eight CPA firm of Deloitte Haskins + Sellsback in the late 1970s. I remember filling in an “input sheet” for a Form 1040for calculation via Computax. As I recall, my reaction back then was that bythe time I finished filling in the input sheet I could have actually manuallyprepared the return.
And while I do, when appropriate, submit NJ-1040s for full-year residentsonline via the NJ Division of Taxation NJWebFile system, as I am required to doby state law, I have never filed a federal income tax return electronically. Iam not against electronically filing returns, and, as I have said time andagain, I will gladly do so when the IRS allows me to so do free of charge ontheir website, via a program similar to NJWebFile, and without having toprovide my fingerprints.
Over the years I have had as many as 4 cats at a time (and when living “in sin”we also had a dog, rabbit, gerbils and newts), who I think of as my children. I have always felt that having cats was muchmore better than having children.
I currently live, and work out of, a “home office” in my condo in Wayne County,PA. I gave up my storefront office,previously that of my mentor Jim Gill, years ago when I realized that I waspaying rent for the place year round but really only using it for 3 months –and the fact that I did not want or need any more “walk-in” clients. I had myfill of the “great unwashed masses”.
Although I had started my own tax and accounting practice after leavingDelloite, Haskins + Sells I continued to work with Jim Gill on week-ends andthe last two weeks of each tax season up until he handed the practice to me in1999.
I had been receiving calls from Jim’s clients at my own office, then in anoffice building in Union NJ, saying that Jim’s office was still locked and thathe was not answering his phone. I myself had not been able to access his officeat the beginning of February as the lock had been changed.
I went to Jim’s house in Hoboken and found him lounging around the living roomin his pjs. “I am 75 years old – I don’t want to do this anymore,” he said.“You can have the practice.” Just about all of his clients, whom I had knownand done over the past 26 years, remained with me, as many do still today.
Jim did return to help me out during the last weeks of the 1999 and 2000seasons, and went to his final audit in August of 2001. Had he lived a bitlonger we would have celebrated 30 years of working together.
Jim had the radio going constantly in the office, initially playing NYC stationWRFM which played “American Popular Standards”. As a result I find that Icannot work in silence; I, too, must have the radio on (I actually listen toout of state and web-based radio stations online) or a CD (usually an originalBroadway cast recording) playing while I am working away on my 1040s, or whileI am blogging.
I have often been asked why I have not followed in Jim’s footsteps and taken onapprentice tax preparers, which would allow me to accept new clients and avoidunnecessary GDEs. I was actually approached via email by an accounting studentwho had discovered me online and wanted to become a tax season “apprentice”.
To be perfectly honest I am not blessed with the patience that Jim Gill had,and don’t think I would make as good a teacher or “mentor”. And, as I work outof my small condo, there is really no room for anyone else to work.
So, enough about me already. Any questions.
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