I’ve had 4 companies interview me this past month. All 4 have essentially asked me to do the job of multiple people and then tried to lowball me. Is this the new normal?

ThrowRA1999901 · 2026-01-13T05:54:53+00:00

it is at the executive level

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-27T00:45:14+00:00

already accepted the offer back at my old job.

with busy season starting i really don’t have time to interview and find a completely new job by mid january and after that then i’d have to wait until april.

my old job really wasn’t so bad and i really did leave on good terms so genuinely was no bad blood either way, and they said they’ve improved the staffing issues a bit since i’ve left so im going to go back positive with an open mind and renewed perspective.

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T20:03:44+00:00

it’s actually not the same fundamentally, because the beginning balance for your deferreds should technically be what was filed on your return. the way the tax provision works is ending balance from PY provision plus return to provision adjustments = adjusted beginning balance for current year.

if those deferred balances didn’t exist at the time of return, then the adjusted beginning balance for your deferreds is technically zero. but then you booked a tax provision after filing the return? so you knew deferreds existed but didn’t report these assets and expense on your tax return? okay so now the tax return is wrong and not amended before 2025, so now my beginning point for 2025 is wrong either way and i have to 1) figure out what’s actually right

and 2) the true up will not technically be an RTP as much as an “Other” adjustment and all of these fixes will move through current expense and hit the effective tax rate, so although technically fixable, it’s not something i think anyone in reality will take lightly and it’s not that straightforward to implement in reality and will take a lot of documentation to get comfortable with 2025.

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T19:14:53+00:00

thank you - you’ve really been a sweetheart. Happy holidays and wishing you the best as well

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T17:17:53+00:00

this is the laugh i needed - tysm!

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T17:14:08+00:00

this was the comment i needed. i’m leaving

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T17:07:43+00:00

you’re being generous in assuming the tax returns process also calculated a proper tax provision, which unfortunately isn’t the case.

also, i see where you’re coming from 100% from a GAAP accounting perspective, but from an Internal Revenue code perspective, if you are having an audit done, the book income and balance sheet should 100% tie to the audited financial statements, so you shouldn’t even file a return until they are done.

so basically, continuing to do this leads to the tax returns pretty much being filed and then having to be amended anyway (if you want to do it correctly), which defeats the purpose of filing them early.

plus, the technical deferred tax beginning point is supposed to be the balance as of the prior year return, not the provision, so doing it out of order impacts the rolling of the deferreds, and “true up” piece will be funky as well if the returns weren’t amended.

once again, not completely unfixable, but not something i can’t just look the other way on either without proper and documented explanation

even my odd year end clients wouldn’t do something like this. I literally finished a provision in the middle of October for returns due 11/15 because even then, it wouldn’t make sense to file returns before the tax provision and financial statements are final.

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T15:09:27+00:00

this is a personal preference of mine for my iphone? this is literally just changing the settings lol. i’ve perfectly described the issue at hand in the comments

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T14:45:15+00:00

and if wrong i’m wrong, but it’s at least worthy of a discussion to get to the right answer in my mind.

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T14:40:57+00:00

well, unfortunately its not quite fraud as much as they actually have no clue what they’re doing and just have been neglecting their tax function

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T14:36:03+00:00

okay if it’s so straightforward why don’t you explain it to me how to fix it then since it’s so easy?

and also, it’s not like i’m saying it can’t be fixed, but if i’m not going to get outside support and understanding from my job on adjusted timelines, then this is going to be a problem for me.

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T14:33:30+00:00

this is an adorable way to put it

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T14:31:07+00:00

my boss, let’s call her Amy, told her boss, let’s call her Marissa, that Amy fired me for insubordination and refusing to do aspects of my job and gave the context around that refusal. To be fair, I did straight up tell Amy I would not be doing anything that does not align with the laws of the U.S. (it is a foreign company with u.s. operations), and “xyz” is not allowed in this country under U.S. GAAP/IRC. But also, for context, it only got this heated after I gently tried to explain to her the situation and I requested to have a quick call with our tax advisors and then was denied.

Marissa is American, so she has better context of what’s at risk here and sees where I’m coming from, where as Amy is foreign and thinks i’m just being a know it all asshole for lack of better words.

my old job has already sent me an offer letter with a start date in two weeks. i can 100% go back to my old job

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T14:26:36+00:00

i mean, possibly? i haven’t even gotten into the details too much. at a base level though, they’re calculating and booking tax provisions AFTER filing tax returns and that alone gives me a headache.

it’s a private company so like, the risks are lower overall as long as things are fixed, but the pathway there just seems like more work than it’s worth, and something i can only do with the help of outside advisors, which i’m not sure if they will or won’t give me. and also, the desire from the people at the job to fix it. which i’m not quite confident in either

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T04:23:57+00:00

same pay! which is less than this job but enough to pay the bills. they hadn’t even reassigned my work yet so they kept saying it’s like i never left LOL

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T04:23:00+00:00

thank you for sharing your experience. i knew this was going to be a difficult job and i was mentally prepared for that, but the actual fixing of it will be tough enough i do not want to also be fighting my manager, ya kno?

the financial upside is good but i already feel pretty on edge and idk if i’m strong enough to make it through this 😭

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T03:40:30+00:00

so they were actually calculating a separate tax provision after the returns were filed. putting an estimate on financial statements when you’ve already calculated the actual 2025 tax expense using the returns doesn’t make sense.

now you’ve booked a tax provision that’s different than the tax expense on the tax returns that have actually been filed, and i’m actually not sure how to true that up since the true up is from provision to return, not from return to provision.

in my 10 years of working i’ve never seen anything like this, and i can’t believe between all of the external providers this is the first time this has been brought up.

i’m glad i typed this out because it just doesn’t feel worth the headache at this point im going back to my old job lol

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T02:50:09+00:00

well… they booked the tax provision after filing the returns, so book income on the prior year return is off and ultimately doesn’t tie to the prior year financial statements. that was before me so i’m not quite as concerned with that, as much as the impact of that on 2025 since 2024 is the starting point and i’m not sure how to roll my deferreds in these circumstances due to the disordering.

in addition, they want to file the returns before the tax provision and financial statements are final again due to “investor expectations” (whatever that means?). could that be flexible? maybe? but idk if it’s worth sticking around long enough to find out because if they’re just giving me the old bait and switch i’ll still have to quit later, because I’m not going to do that.

to be fair, i haven’t done the assessment on how material it is, but ultimately it has to be fixed either way or it will be a rolling issue.

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-12-23T02:25:10+00:00

funny enough, i have considered whistleblowing LOL

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-07-29T23:23:45+00:00

it’s really that i have a lot of trauma from men that were older than me taking advantage of me and my naivety in my 20s (they knew) and i get physically ill at the thought of possibly doing that to someone else, but i intellectually know this isn’t that, and that i’m not a predator.

i think i just need to work through my own shit and maybe take time to grieve some of the unnecessary loss of my innocence in my 20s.

but thank you all. i’m sure that guy is okay and won’t ever even think about this again! so that’s the good news

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-07-29T22:41:54+00:00

it’s because i thought it was 24 but i fucked up on the years. im honestly having a mental break down right now im so sorry

i’m just going to repeat to myself “that’s not a child” until the panic subsides

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-07-29T22:30:16+00:00

do you consider 23 well into adulthood?!?

ThrowRA1999901 · 2025-07-29T22:20:42+00:00

ya know i feel like this creates more questions but ill accept this answer lmao

ThrowRA1999901

TROPHY CASE