Our Paperwork Nightmare

The most daunting task for business leaders is the yoke of compliance our Federal Government has laid upon us: Our Federal Tax preparation, submission and payment process. Our company staff and partnering CPA firm involve weeks and often months building a document mountain to satisfy reporting, payment and archive for potential review and audit.  

The process begins at the behest of our CPA firm partner with a 40+ page checklist for documentation assembly and numbers gathering. There is also a required 12+ page engagement letter to be signed in advance assuring hold harmless for the CPA firm so we will not sue them. It is my belief that authentic client and supplier engagements have little need for this protective wall!

I am embarrassed to admit (as an accountant myself) that once the return documents are prepared, ready for review, I get lost after the initial 3-4 pages.

Once validated, the returns are filed and paperwork prepared to the next year’s tax deposits. Our invoice for last year’s preparation service (personal and business) was $12,000. The firm performed professionally, accurately and used great knowledge of the requirements. The fee was well earned. The thought, however, of the amount of paper generated to accomplish this appears to be a waste. Aren’t there other professional services they can use their knowledge to provide helping business growth rather than generating all these compliance documents?

I get it! This is how tax firms earn a large percentage of their fees. There is a large market for this service. Just look at the number of people willing to dress in ‘Statue of Liberty’ costumes seeking customers. I am reminded of a fellow hotel executive committee member, after the Marketing Director introduced the idea of a clownish activity promoting some of the hotel services. His comment was, “If we have to make an a** of ourselves to promote our offerings, we are in the wrong business”.

Now is the time for action against this burden. Let’s move our time, effort, energy, skills and resources building sales, job creating and positive economic impacting instead of producing useless compliance paper.

My goal is to simplify the tax reporting process. To start, let’s reduce my 60-page personal return down to 10 pages or less. We need a professional team to sort this out and WE THE PEOPLE tell our government authorities how this should be done for the benefit of all. Let’s make it happen! Call me if you want to join in this endeavor.