A CPA is supposed to protect the general public from fraud. But, does that actually happen?

At nearly sixty I had no idea what a CPA actually did. I learned basic bookkeeping in 1963 and used those skills, off and on, for many years in a number of different jobs. But a CPA? To me that was just a glorified bookkeeper. I only know two CPAs personally and they are both crooked as heck. They seem to use their title as a way to charge higher fees to act above the law.

About the first I can only write in generalities. He regularly hid receipts in his own business so they wouldn’t have to be reported as income and he paid people in cash so he didn’t have to pay employment taxes. I have vague recollections of other practices that might be considered illegal or, at least, unprofessional and unethical.

In preparation for discussing the second CPA, let me give you some background information. In 1999 I was really in need of work and started with this small mortgage brokerage primarily as their telephone and computer technician. The boss found out that I knew something about bookkeeping and turned over to me the QuickBooks file and I found myself the bookkeeper for the company.

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As just a worker bee in a small company I never begrudged my boss the fact that he was living very well and I was just barely squeaking by.

He owned a horse. All the stabling fees were paid by the corporation as rent and all the veterinary bills were paid by the corporation as medical expenses. The trainer was paid by the corporation and charged off as consulting fees or automobile expenses.

He also owned a boat. The slip fees were charged off as rent and all the maintenance was covered under automobile expenses.

Neither the horse nor the boat was corporate property so these expenses could not be considered business expenses. To the best of my knowledge he never had a party on the boat to which he invited clients and he never allowed clients to ride his horse. Thus it would seem the total amounts paid were income for him and unreported to the IRS. This is only conjecture on my part.

His monthly car payments and maintenance expenses were paid by the corporation. The monthly insurance payments were also paid by the corporation and charged off as automobile expenses. None of his cars were ever brought in as corporate assets so these payments all represented unreported income for him.