It’s been awhile since I’ve wrote anything on my blog. Last year my wife and I moved to Tennessee in
a not-so-remote part of the country. It
was only a few miles outside the city limits of Oakland but one would think it
was in an isolated part of the Amazon with the cell phone reception we
got. Not only that, no cable or internet
was available either. Apparently the
Verizon dude hasn’t reached that area yet.
A few months later we moved into an apartment in a suburb
right outside of Memphis. We finally
were back in the land of technology. J However, in between that time I found myself
busy with a new career…sort of.
I actually started on the career path for accounting right
out of high school. It was the one thing
I thought I was good at. That was before
Quickbooks and other accounting software became popular. I was doing well in school but didn’t have
the drive to continue. So I ended up
joining the Navy.
Somewhere around 15 years later I decided I would go back to
school with encouragement from my wife. A
lot has changed since then, technology for example. Though accounting is still basically the same
with debits and credits, computers have changed the way information is kept and
used. And though I’m no expert, I think
politics and taxes have changed the landscape as well. Accounting seems to be a slightly different
animal.
I’m not a big fan of college. It has its place and I recognize that. But I don’t think it’s for everyone. I know society wants us to be well rounded
and blah blah blah, but if Environmental Science or Calculus is not going to
help me in my chosen career path then why bother? And I know that I have not used any of that useless
trivia since I was forced to take those courses.
Due to a lack of interest I pursued an associate’s
degree. That I figured was the path of
least resistance. That and I only had
enough stamina to work and attend night classes for four years before I decided
that pursuing a bachelor’s degree would be too much.
From blue collar work in factories I entered the white
collar work of accounting.
Well…actually no. I
ended up working in an office for nearly 4 ½ years entering commissions for
insurance agents. Not exactly the
experience I was looking for but it paid the bills.
When my wife and I moved to Tennessee I thought this would
be my chance to really get into accounting.
It took a couple months but I was eventually hired by an accounting firm
as a bookkeeper. Again, I had no real
experience other than dabbling a little in Quickbooks entering receipts and
payments. Within the first 90 days of
the job I wasn’t receiving any training but was given write ups to do for
clients. Write ups? Ummm, not what I learned in college.
Maybe it was because it was tax season but for some reason no
one was ever available to help me. I was
told I was hired because I had an associate’s degree. I’m not sure, but in other professions it
appears to me that often times the real world doesn’t quite match up to the
education you get in college. Along with
that frustration and some personal issues that I was going through at the time
I thought it was time for me to move on.
I didn’t have a good exit plan so as a result I one day looked up from
my computer and said I quit. I was
actually packing up my things and walking out the door when my employer stopped
me.
Though I liked accounting, I never really had an interest in
taxes. But lo and behold, as I was about
to quit a job, my employer gave me an opportunity to train in tax preparation. He directed me to Eva Rosenberg, aka TaxMama. He
signed me up to take one of her online courses that specifically trains one to
become an Enrolled Agent. Enrolled
Agent? you ask. I know, I had never
heard of this before either. Apparently
the Internal Revenue Service has introduced a position that allows a person to
represent taxpayers before the IRS that is not a CPA or attorney.
So for the past 6 months I have been learning, studying and
taking tests to qualify for this new career.
As of last week I passed Part 3 of the Special Enrollment Exam the IRS
requires and I now qualify for the title Enrolled Agent (EA for short). However, I still must pass a background check
before they’ll issue me an enrollment card, or Treasury card as it’s commonly
referred to.
Before you think that I work for the IRS, I don’t. I represent taxpayers. My goal is to help people the way my employer
does. People get into financial trouble
and often fall behind with their taxes.
That’s where tax resolution comes into play and where people often need
the most help. Hopefully that’s where God
will use me to help others.
All that to say that I have been extremely busy and why I
haven’t been writing on my blog. Even
now I’m not sure how often I’ll have time to write. Though I think I prefer writing about Jesus,
faith and Christianity over anything else, if I want to make a living I need to
do something that will bring in a paycheck.
And I don’t write well enough that anyone will ever pay me for it.
I will say this…even though preparing taxes would not have
been my first choice I believe I have been given a tremendous opportunity. At one point I was going to quit my job but
God gave me favor with my employer. For
reasons I can’t explain, my employer encouraged me and paved the way for this
training. Now I’ve succeeded in passing
all the tests to qualify as an EA. That
too is quite a feat given the complexity of the tax laws and how difficult the
tests were. I am extremely grateful to
God. Not only was I undeserving but I
was also defeated. It really is like God
to take the weak
things of this world to confound the wise.
