Uno, Due, Tre

The weather was nice so I decided to set up my study plan for the Enrolled Agents exam on my laptop outside on the patio.   I like to think of the EA exam as the IRS punishing me for making "bad" career choices when I got out of college.  Damn me for wanting to make a living and move out of my parents house....

Before I could get properly started I had to make my daily Starbucks run for my green tea fix.  I started to place my order, a venti iced green tea - no sweetener - when the nice people behind the counter informed me that the trenta cups had arrived.  They wanted to know if I wanted to try one.

I'm no Samwise Gamgee of course I want the bigger size!  I waited and dreamed of my massive new tea that would surely last me all through the day.  Turns out 10oz more isn't all that big a jump visually.  I sadly did not get my Prancing Pony moment.

So here I am having a break from setting up my next three weeks worth of study time.  I have to say the waterfall upgrade I made this year in my yard was worth it.  Its a nice bit of white noise that drowns out some of the more urban sounds of my neighborhood.

I've been avoiding this test all summer.  But with fall coming I can't much hide from it.  Its just such a test of minutia meh.  Here's an example of an actual question:

Your client buys a piano in 1988.  Ten years later he has it tuned and finds a bag that contains $100,000 in cash inside the piano.  Is this a taxable event?

I love my clients really.  But if it took them ten years to tune it I'd have some questions about throwing away money on things they don't use.  I mean wouldn't that kind of money effect the sound quality and shouldn't you tune it more often anyway?  And damnit look what you did, you told me about it and now I have to put it on your tax return.

Seriously this is something I need to remember?  I can't just research the problem like other accountants? So off I go to cram tons of mostly useless tax information in my head.  Yay!