Atlanta is a vibrant city offering a plethora of festivals and attractions year-round. Luckily, I have the privilege of frequenting many such events where I have the pleasure of meeting some very wonderful people. As is often the case whenever you make someone’s acquaintance, I am invariably asked what I do for a living. Over the years, a fairly common response I have received upon mentioning being a tax professional is that I “must be good with numbers.” While some familiarity with numbers is obviously an important element to being a tax professional, the idea of equating someone good with numbers to a good tax professional is altogether misleading, misinformed and largely without redeeming value.
What many don’t realize is that tax forms are undergirded by laws that often times either inadequately address a given taxpayer’s situation or provide alternatives as to tax return reporting. As such, exercising professional judgment in choosing one reporting method over another can make a huge difference in the client’s overall tax bill. Clearly, a significant portion of tax practice involves interpreting and analyzing the interrelationships among numerous financial and legal factors. This interpretation and analysis requires a sharp logical and philosophical mindset. That said, it has been my first-hand experience that it is good thinkers, not numbers people (or tax attorneys who can regurgitate law), who expertly master tax principles and their effects.
With the benefit of experience, I strongly advise people not to choose tax preparers who primarily market themselves as being good with numbers. Over the years, I have reviewed the work of a lot of certified public accountants (CPA) and lawyers who were self-described number-proficient. While these professionals were certainly sound in their arithmetic capabilities, they often produced suboptimal tax results for their clients because they were bewildered by complicated theoretical concepts and thus unable to see the full tax impact of choosing one position over another.
– Tony Malik