In defense of CPAs

The problem with Dale Lieske's argument, quite frankly, is that he doesn't know what he's talking about.

For starters, his own logic is confusing. He concedes that a recent letter to the editor made plenty of valid points against the FairTax, but then devotes the next two to three paragraphs to some hypothetical scenario fo CPAs rising in revolt against the elimination of the income tax. If Lieske concedes the points are valid, then who cares about the motives? Because if he did care about their motives, then their points wouldn't be valid.

Regardless, speaking as someone who is the son of a CPA and the husband of the CPA, as well as someone who has - typically by force - run in circles of CPAs, if you think that accountants would lobby against the FairTax to protect their livelihoods, you have no idea what a CPA does.

Yes, CPAs devote large portions of their time to dealing with income taxes and estate taxes and the like, but they also do a good bit else ranging from financial planning to retirement strategies to bookkeeping and payroll. In fact, as I can attest from what I've witnessed over the past 20-plus years of my life, tax consulting and preparation chews up one chunk of the year, but it's by no means the only thing they do.

Plus, if the nation moves to a system where revenue is derived from sales taxes ... then CPAs will find a way to make money off that because people will want to find ways to identify exemptions, deductions, etc. In fact, accounting firms dedicated to sales tax management already exist, and the practice would merely expand.

And ... Lieske should ask The Wife if she'd mind seeing 'tax season' vanish into thin air. I feel pretty confident that she'd say the 70-plus hour work weeks that occupy two to three months of her life get to be pretty old after a while.

Perhaps the one-trick pony shops like Jackson Hewitt would be concerned about this, by multi-faceted accounting firms would merely see one service provision removed, only to be replaced by another.