(820)   Tue 15 Jul 97  7:09
By: Caroline Evans
To: Karl Schneider
Re: Disney Boycott
St:
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@EID:0e11 22ef3920
@MSGID: 1:323/120.0 226f667a
@PID: ViaMAIL! v1.30  97-0512
 -=> Quoting Karl Schneider to Steve Quarrella <=-
 KS> Last year some fundys opened up a hamburger joint just up the road.
 KS> Fish, cross on the sign, and "Hamburgers 99 cents".
 KS> One day we stopped in and thought to try one.  We order two hamburgers
 KS> and the guy asks, "what kind"?
 KS> "Uh, the 99 cent kind, I guess", I answered.
 KS> "Oh", he says, "you don't want that, it's a kiddy burger and only
 KS> has one ounce of meat on it.
 KS> They lasted about a month.  I imagine they opened up a used car lot.

  Hi,

  I've been away from this echo for quite a while (couple of years)
  but have lurked some recently and noticed this little thread.

  I'm an Enrolled Agent (sort of a cross between a CPA and an attorney
  and licensed by the IRS to practice nationwide) and its my business
  to help folks with their taxes and tax headaches.

  A couple of years ago a case was referred to me by a fellow-accountant who
  had clients who ran a little "Christian" diner with little fish and other
  "Christian"-themed menus, signs, and such all over the place. It was named
  something like "The Last Supper" though I can't reveal the real name of
  the business because of client confidentiality laws. They were
  in trouble with the tax authorities...  seems they got caught owing huge
  sums on their sales tax returns that they hadn't filed... then when the
  tax folks chased 'em down I got called in to defend them.
  When I got into their books and interviewed them
  about business practices, I couldn't believe just how much slippery
  nonsense had happened with the money and found out that the sales tax
  problems were only the tip of the tax-violation-iceberg ... a Navy
  Chaplain was a silent partner and was my main contact... an educated man
  and military officer who knew full well that there are some fairly
  straightforward and non-controversial tax laws to be obeyed when
  you're in business ("render unto Caeser....").

  The whole affair was confusing and it seemed that they only
  revealed to me what they absolutely had to. Each time I'd get into
  their books and start asking questions they would reluctantly feed me
  a little info at a time, and this under the protection of client
  confidentiality laws that are the same as the attorney/client privilege
  that we are all familiar with. (By the way, I haven't violated this
  confidence because they remain anonymous and unidentifiable in this msg).
  I had to deal with two sets of books (one for them, one for the govt)
  and folks who didn't seem to understand that lying and cheating IS lying
  and cheating even if its the damn govt your cheating.
  They weren't doing this out of some moral conviction... or to protest
  some government policy or other...  they were simply trying to bleed
  the place to fill their own pockets.  I prepared a couple of delinquent
  tax returns, was paid for my work (though they tried to guilt trip me
  into offering gratis work) but then had to leave the case because the
  non-silent partner's presumably-Christian-wife had wiped out the
  bank account and left town. They folded and I've never heard from
  them again. I never was able to figure out who the main book-cooker was
  but I think it was the non-silent, non-chaplain partner who did most
  of it though it didn't seem that the chaplain had made any great efforts
  to straighten him out.

  It seems that folks who billboard their "Christianity" irrationally
  expect some sort of magical protection from reality because of their
  "good intentions". As I recall there is an old saying that "the road to
  hell is paved with good intentions"  This case sure seems to bear that
  out, and they didn't even have to wait to die before the devil
  came to claim them.

  Just so you know... I'm not a Christian and see
  most (if not all) "faith"-based religion as little more than a
  sometimes-benevolent form of mental illness passed on from generation to
  generation through early-childhood conditioning. Arbitrarily believing
  in invisible magic beings and then utterly refusing to allow the
  intrusion of rational thought sure seems like the definition of
  mental illness to me!

  Well... enough for now.....
  Caroline

... Caroline Evans, E.A. * Licensed To Represent Taxpayers Before The IRS
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