The accountant

The accountant is someone I see only once a year. It’s reassuring to see the accountant, because I would otherwise doubt if he actually exists.

In fact I have two accountants. One in Myrtleford handles my company affairs and I have one in Mount Gambier for my personal tax returns.

I shifted my personal business to a local accountant because I wanted to see him, to be sure he was real.

There’s nothing wrong with my Myrtleford accountant; he does a good job as far as I can tell. I’d be able to claim a deduction for his fee if he prepared my personal return, but it’s not the same having a remote relationship.

I guess it’s like other relationships. I don’t know how Delmer copes having his wife and new kids in Canada while he’s in Ohio.

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but I didn’t find that was true with my Victorian accountant.

The guy in Mount Gambier doesn’t look like the accountant pictured above.

I guess you’d say he’s fairly typical of the breed: white, middle aged (older than me) with grey hair. He wears a conservative long-sleeve shirt and a tie.

I wouldn’t like my accountant to wear a Hawaiian shirt or anything outlandish. He should look businesslike and able to stare down an auditor.

It’s strange that I only see him once a year. Mount Gambier isn’t all that big, just 25,000 people. I guess accountants don’t go to the supermarket or the football. In their spare time they probably go train spotting or collecting insects for a university.

Not that my accountant is boring. He has a good grasp of local affairs and seems interested in what’s going on outside his office.

For all I know he might go parachuting on the weekends or scuba diving down one of the nearby sinkholes.

You can’t get to know a person if you only meet them once a year.

I feel I know people like Delmer, Ebony and Sue better than the accountant, even though I’ve never met them.

But it’s better seeing the accountant once a year than never.

You need to see someone to trust them with your money.

I should get a big enough refund this year to pay off one of the credit cards, just before Christmas hits the wallet again.