The first day of classes for the fall semester. A heavy load of business oriented classes, mostly as a requirement for my minor. The most daunting is Taxation, an upper level accounting course. The professor is a seasoned veteran of the public accounting wars who returned to the (relative) safety of academe to earn her PhD. in Accounting. Tax, she proudly proclaims, is her baby. To set the tone, she provides in the syllabus her most favorite quote:

People think taxation is a terribly mundane subject. But what makes it fascinating is that taxation, in reality, is life. If you know the position a person takes on taxes, you can tell their whole other philosophy. The tax code, once you get to know it, embodies all of the essence of life: greed, politics, power, goodness, charity. Everything is in there. That is why it is so hard to get a simplified tax code. Life just isn’t simple. – Sheldon Cohen, former IRS Commissioner

I open the book and see 29 chapters, 13 appendices, tables on inside front and back covers, a glossary that’s about 15 pages, all written in a font that requires my most powerful reading glasses.

She also points out that accountants learn, on the one hand, to maximize wealth in order to impress bankers, while simultaneously minimizing income to deter the IRS…

This ought to be good.

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