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| May 1, 2008 | The
Newspaper of the NYSSCPA |
Vol.
11, No.8 |
Supertaxman: Notes on a Daily News Tax Panel
By Cara Patterson, Public Relations Associate
Whether it’s the autographed cartoons, the pastrami sandwiches or the opportunity to connect with everyday folks, something keeps the NYSSCPA’s veteran participants in the annual Daily News tax panel coming back for more.
The newspaper and the Society have teamed up to answer readers’ tax questions for more than 10 years. The following are highlights from the second day of the panel on Tuesday, March 25.
11 a.m. The tax panel gets off to a busy start with Scott Cheslowitz, Bart Fooden and Mark Stone manning the phones in a conference room on the third floor of the Daily News offices on 33rd Street and 10th Avenue. The Daily News is the sixth most widely circulated newspaper in the nation, according to a 2007 Burrelles Luce media survey.
As one participant pointed out, it’s also the inspiration for the Daily Planet, the fictional newspaper from the Superman movies and comics. About 1,000 readers called looking for tax advice over the course of two days, March 24 and 25.
No sooner do the lines open than the panel receives some strange calls. One contrarian caller asks Stone where in the tax code it states people actually have to pay taxes.
Fooden takes a call from a city firefighter who works two other jobs and wonders if he has to pay taxes on his third job as a wrestling coach since he’s only paid a stipend. (He does.)
“When do you have time to sleep?” Fooden asks him.
But the vast majority of queries come from people whose low incomes exempt them from paying taxes. They haven’t filed in a long time and are only doing so this year to receive the federal economic stimulus rebate. Their questions are basic: “Where do I pick up tax forms?” they ask. Several want reassurance they won’t owe taxes in the future just because they filed this year.
1 p.m. The second shift arrives, and seven CPAs take calls during the busy lunch hour. A Daily News photographer perches on a chair snapping photos.
Martin Dunn, editor-in-chief, comes in to thank the CPAs for providing “a fantastic service to our readers.”
“They absolutely love it,” Dunn tells the CPAs. “Newspapers never take advantage of this most basic way to interact.”
Business editor Scott Wenger offers lunch—sandwiches, salad and rugallah—and thank-you gifts to participants, who choose from Daily News baseball caps and travel alarm clocks. Wenger sits down at a phone and checks voicemail—36 calls have piled up while the lines were busy.
Cheslowitz says participating in the panel offers a change of pace. Most of his clients are high-net-worth, but the tax panel gives him a chance to connect with “the average person.”
“I want to give something back, even though it’s a busy time of year,” says Cheslowitz. “I think I can speak for everybody when I say it’s our pleasure to give it back.”
Reunited
3 p.m. Barry Horowitz walks into the office to participate in his first-ever tax panel and finds Stuart Damens, his former colleague from 30 years ago at Anchin, Block & Anchin. “He was my mentor,” says Horowitz. Both CPAs now work at other firms.
Damens, a veteran volunteer who gives lengthy and detailed responses to callers, appears to relish the panelist experience and displays encyclopedic knowledge of the stimulus rules.
He’s stumped, however, by an annuity question. Between calls he riffles through Eisner’s 2008 U.S. Master Tax Guide and puts his one-time protégé to work doing the same.
“I can’t find it,” says Damens.
Several of the questions panels receive are actually “quite sophisticated,” according to Horowitz and other participants.
4 p.m. Horowitz mentions that among his most prized possessions are drawings he received as a boy by iconic Daily News cartoonist and columnist Bill Gallo. The drawings portray the Mets’ World Series victory in 1969.
Wenger asks Horowitz if he’d like to meet Gallo, who, he says, is “just down the hall.” Later, Gallo stops by to meet the panelists and whips up a caricature of Horowitz in a few minutes flat, autographing it as a memento for Horowitz.
“It was a pleasure meeting him,” said Horowitz. “He’s an icon if you’re familiar with the sports pages.”
4:15 p.m. Damens finds the answer to his annuity question and puts in a return call.
Horowitz gets a call from a woman whose estranged husband won’t hand over the documents she needs to do her taxes. Can she file on her own? (Yes, she can opt for the status “married and filing separately.”) Horowitz advises the woman to get the papers she needs from the relevant agencies if her husband isn’t cooperating.
5 p.m. The business editor returns to clear away the food and help clean up the room. He puts one last call on speakerphone and all three remaining CPAs chime in to answer.
Damens says his reasons for participating are simple.
“I want to help people,” he says. “That’s all I care about.”
Participants answered additional questions from readers that ran in the Daily News through April 15.
Society members Mark Reddy, John Lieberman; Barry Picker, Sheila Brandenberg, Arthur Bloom, Jay Safier, Steven Zelin; Marc Albaum; Patrick R. Colabella, David Sands, Vincent Cervone, Nancy Kelly, Laurence I. Foster, Samuel D. Katz, Vincent Cosenza and Lawrence McDermott also participated in the Daily News’ two-day tax panel.
Cara Patterson, Public Relations Associate, can be reached at cpatterson@nysscpa.org.
