Welcome to AbqCPA!

June 1, 2011

To Our Clients and Friends:

It is hard to believe that almost two months will have past since the April 18th tax filing deadline and that second quarter estimated taxes are coming due on June 15, 2011.

Some of you may have seen a diagram that we had in our lobby during the final weeks leading up to the filing deadline. That drawing portrayed "The Perfect Tax Preparer's Storm." Indeed this storm included a mixture of the following:

• Last minute congressional legislation impacting tax laws;
• IRS delays in developing mandated electronic filing systems;
• Tax software vendors rushing to update their programs;
• Limited staff resources;
• New paperless software systems for us to learn;
• Amended 1099s;
• Late K-1's

I am happy to say that all of us were able to weather this storm, but all of these forces combine to create what I and others believe is a very complicated and costly national tax compliance environment. On April 18, the Wall Street Journal published the enclosed opinion article, which I believe describes the significant cost to our society in the dealing with today's tax code. While the tax compliance industry does keep us busy, we can think of many other tasks that we could be doing to improve society.

I hope that this stimulates some thoughts. Fred Winter, Rhonda Chase, CPA, and I would welcome your thoughts on this topic.

Best regards,

Julia Chong, CPA