A stock image of a cat’s trustworthy face is much more effective than one of a human’s.
Trust
Great job, tax accountants. A survey says you’re the most trustworthy people in the whole world when it comes to discussing the tax system:
The survey, by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the International Federation of Accountants, and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, polled more than 7,600 people across G20 countries, which account for two-thirds of the world’s population. The survey found that 67 percent of the respondents said they either distrust or highly distrust politicians about the tax system.
In contrast, the poll respondents were more trusting of accountants. The survey found 57 percent of people in G20 countries trust or highly trust professional accountants when it comes to the tax system, compared to 49 percent who trust tax attorneys, and 35 percent who trust non-governmental organizations.
To be fair, the competition really isn’t that tough. The unpopularity of politicians these days is remarkable, even by ordinary standards. Most people don’t trust attorneys because of jokes they’ve heard or TV shows they’ve watched. And people seem to associate (rightly or wrongly) NGOs with politics, so they get dragged down too.
On the subject of taxes, trust in accountants seems to be the result of a process of elimination. That’s all well and good, but I’d be curious to see if they’d perform as well on the subject of handing out envelopes to award presenters.
Taxbots
I use Slack to talk to various people on a daily basis. It serves its purpose just fine, but apparently I’m really missing out on what people should be using it for:
Now in the Slack App Directory, Taxbot asks a series of questions, then gives you a price quote and assigns the job to a freelance certified public accountant (CPA). Just as Uber and Lyft connect drivers to people who need rides, Taxfyle connects CPAs to businesses who need their taxes done.
It never occurred to me to ring up a Taxbot while I’m hanging out in Slack, mostly because I only need my taxes done once a year. But I suppose in about three weeks or so, it’s conceivable that a few people might be using Slack and remember that they haven’t filed their tax returns yet. In that case, thanks be to Taxbot. .
On the other side of things, it kinda sounds like you could pick up some extra work if your Big 4 life isn’t doing much for you:
“If you’re working for PricewaterhouseCoopers, you can’t make any side cash right because you’re not going to take the time to incorporate [a business] and take the risk taking out a loan. CPAs are really risk averse by nature,” CEO Richard Lavina told VentureBeat in a phone interview. “Here you just pick up jobs you see on your dashboard and work on them.”
So in case you’ve been worried about…slacking…(sorry, that was terrible) in your down time, there you go: Pick up some tax returns.
Brought to you by Accountingfly
Gleim CPA Review shared a post on the changes to the CPA exam’s introductory screens.
Previously, on Going Concern…
I wrote about ignoring the uber-critical voice inside your head. In Open Items, someone asks if they should join a Big 4 firm or stay local.
In other news:
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- Tesco Agrees to Pay $162 Million Fine Over Accounting Scandal
- FASB Proposal Looks to Trim ‘Hedge Accounting’ Requirements
- Elon Musk launches Neuralink, a venture to merge the human brain with AI
- Massive Gold Coin Worth Millions Stolen From German Museum
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