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We'll obviously need one (where today this accountant meets all our needs, and has been a family friend for decades), but a small business accountant that can d

We'll obviously need one (where today this accountant meets all our needs, and has been a family friend for decades), but a small business accountant that can do what's going to be required doesn't exist yet. Only national chains have had to worry about such things.

tptacek 14y ago
Again, and respectfully, I don't think handling sales tax filings for a small business is a huge hurdle compared to some of the craziness that even small business accountants are routinely called on to do. Your point upthread was "no small business person can handle filings to 50 states". I'll stipulate that! My response is just, people with real businesses usually don't (and shouldn't) DIY their taxes anyways.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- uit 14y ago
  They dont? And shouldnt? Why not? The point someone here is trying to make is that what was once simple is potentially going to become inordinately difficult. Not impossible but very difficult. And by who's determination is my business "not real" if I do my own taxes??? At least I do my taxes more accurately than Geithner does or did AND HE got to sign our dollar bills! Was his business "not real"? Once again, thanks to GovCo, life is getting worse, harder not easier, asinine not smart. There is absolutely NO THOUGHT WHATSOEVER put into anything coming from DC lately. None.
  - rayiner 14y ago
    What exactly is your complaint here? Are you opposed to sales taxes on principle? If not, what's your complaint? Properly accounting for sales and business taxes, as well as following other laws, in a jurisdiction in which you do business is a basic cost of doing business. The U.S. just happens to be a country of 50 sovereign jurisdictions, each with autonomy in how they structure their sales and business taxes. Does this make accounting for taxes complicated? Sure. It makes lots of things complicated. But we did it on purpose. Why should Congress insulate you from that reality? The internet certainly makes it easier to say take orders from people in many different jurisdictions at once, but why should you get to avoid the other business realities of operating in multiple jurisdictions just because you're an internet business? You might see everyone as just an IP address, but in the real world, groups of those IP addresses are parts of sovereign entities called state and national governments, and each of those groups are governed by different laws. Just being an internet business shouldn't insulate you from the reality that exists once you break through the IP address abstraction.
  - danielweber 14y ago
    They dont? And shouldnt? Why not? I've seen small business try to do taxes and accounting themselves. Even if the people were, literally, math geniuses, they couldn't do it right. A small business should have someone come in one a month or once a quarter to go over your books and do your tax payments. It's yet another example of "if you think a professional is expensive, wait until you hire an amateur."

tptacek 14y ago

Again, and respectfully, I don't think handling sales tax filings for a small business is a huge hurdle compared to some of the craziness that even small business accountants are routinely called on to do. Your point upthread was "no small business person can handle filings to 50 states". I'll stipulate that! My response is just, people with real businesses usually don't (and shouldn't) DIY their taxes anyways.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
uit 14y ago
They dont? And shouldnt? Why not? The point someone here is trying to make is that what was once simple is potentially going to become inordinately difficult. Not impossible but very difficult. And by who's determination is my business "not real" if I do my own taxes??? At least I do my taxes more accurately than Geithner does or did AND HE got to sign our dollar bills! Was his business "not real"? Once again, thanks to GovCo, life is getting worse, harder not easier, asinine not smart. There is absolutely NO THOUGHT WHATSOEVER put into anything coming from DC lately. None.
- rayiner 14y ago
  What exactly is your complaint here? Are you opposed to sales taxes on principle? If not, what's your complaint? Properly accounting for sales and business taxes, as well as following other laws, in a jurisdiction in which you do business is a basic cost of doing business. The U.S. just happens to be a country of 50 sovereign jurisdictions, each with autonomy in how they structure their sales and business taxes. Does this make accounting for taxes complicated? Sure. It makes lots of things complicated. But we did it on purpose. Why should Congress insulate you from that reality? The internet certainly makes it easier to say take orders from people in many different jurisdictions at once, but why should you get to avoid the other business realities of operating in multiple jurisdictions just because you're an internet business? You might see everyone as just an IP address, but in the real world, groups of those IP addresses are parts of sovereign entities called state and national governments, and each of those groups are governed by different laws. Just being an internet business shouldn't insulate you from the reality that exists once you break through the IP address abstraction.
- danielweber 14y ago
  They dont? And shouldnt? Why not? I've seen small business try to do taxes and accounting themselves. Even if the people were, literally, math geniuses, they couldn't do it right. A small business should have someone come in one a month or once a quarter to go over your books and do your tax payments. It's yet another example of "if you think a professional is expensive, wait until you hire an amateur."