On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 8:19 AM Dániel Fancsali <[email protected]> wrote: > > Well, to be fair, I am lookint at it through the eyes of a private > individual, and the discussion is purely from the "how to best model and > track your personal/family finances". In case I'd wanted to start a property > business, I probably would spend some money on an accountant... >
TL;DR I stopped using an accountant when I found that accountants really weren't considered, by the tax authorities anyway, to be responsible for anything filed - - - they don't talk to your accountant - - - they talk to you (if this happens you do have legal recourse re: the accountant - - - - - - if you can afford it!). I also found that they more liked their fees than in actually knowing how to do things. Remembering Enron I even argued with a bank when they forced me to use an accountant for that year. There were more errors that year than any before or since. As the government seems quite insistent on shovelling mountains of information at one I just take advantage of that and do my own reading. I have twice had questions that I could not get answers on even from senior partners at major international accounting firms. Doesn't mean that I'd never use one - - - - just think their usefulness is more than somewhat overrated and with their cost - - - I prefer to keep those $$$ in my pocket. What most call accounting is far more accurately 'record keeping'. Accounting is what one does with that collated information. Few do much except for business plans and then that isn't really what accounting is about. IMO accounting is a skill whereby one can look at past behavior of a business and extrapolate and/or develop future plans/directions that have a high degree of accuracy. (Business plans are tools to show lenders how safe your plans are.) Just looking into the past is very easy and very safe (that's where most accountants work) but its in knowing what to do and/or not to do starting from today moving forward where this skill is so very valuable. (AIUI today this is commonly called financial engineering - - I think - - - - :-( !) If you decide to start a business by definition it is a small business (if not then this whole conversation would have been a waste of your time) and if you hire all the advisors you are presently suggested to do I would posit that your likelihood of survival is diminished to where that possibility is unlikely. The survival of the businesses of those advisors will, on the other hand, have had a major improvement due to your generosity. Yes big business working very much in the fashion that I'm suggesting that you not do - - - but then - - - how often have you seen big business be innovative or interesting - - - - - they buy those kind of businesses and most often kill or at best stifle whatever those small businesses had when they were bought. Regards -- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ledger" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ledger-cli/CAPpdf5-pUvQyzdP-t5ujzusvVms%2Bvsh0tDBTr-c07jAkyWx2bg%40mail.gmail.com.
