Great story from Winchester

So on Wednesday I decided to head to Winchester to get some tax advice from an accountant recommended on a facebook post to my friend Amy F's page. It's a 1-hour drive from my house, and in the "toxic" minivan, quite a long stretch. So I go over there expecting to pay $60 for the consultation (as I had asked when I spoke to her on the phone).

I get there a few minutes late (I was frantically printing out at the time 80 pages of IRS forms before - I only printed out 20 and luckily that was enough) She works out of her home, so I knock on the door, go in, and immediately notice "The Smell". This is, of course, the smell of a house of someone who smokes incessantly. I think it rather funny (if it wasn't for the health damage) that I'm driving in a car spewing exhaust through the vents and then going into a smoke-filled house (so much that I had to replace clothes when I arrived back at home). Well anyway, I won't dwell on this because this is a great story as I said in the title.

So the accountant (Pat) is helping me look over my forms and making sure I'm doing everything right with all of my forms - and I'm asking her questions and everything. So a little into it, when we're talking about expenses related to rental property, she says "Now here you would put tax accountant fees, so for example $25, but you wont need any here since I'm not going to charge you". Now I heard that and thought "Well, that just means I'm not getting charged the full tax accountant fees since she's not doing my taxes". Didn't think anything of it for a while.

So the only thing Pat didn't know was how to deal with my ISO's wrt AMT (but being a tax accountant in Winchester, how many times do you have to deal with ISO's). So she said she'll look at that Saturday and get back to me.

I got some good advice and now have almost finished adjusting my taxes. I feel much better now. Anyways after the hour or so session, I ask "So how much do I owe you?", seeing as she hasn't mentioned anything about it. She says "Nothing" ?! And then says "Look at this stack here", as she's pointing to a stack of account sheets and books, "I spend most my days doing bookkeeping for companies, which is boring to me. This was a break for me - I really enjoy looking at taxes!". As I was walking out, I felt like maybe I should drop a 20 somewhere, but I thought maybe we'll just send her a gift card or something.

So what could have been just a normal going-to-the-tax-lady experience became an anything-but-normal experience. Small-town America gave me a surprise, and hopefully I can spread the word of this nice tax lady (check out www.patsfasttax.com) and the business she runs out of her home. Definitely worth the drive!