> Even “Bookkeeping for Dummies” makes my head spin. Surely this stuff can’t be that difficult?
Is this an artifact of accounting itself? Or of the country in which you live?
In my country, accounting is… well still not easy but at least I would say it is accessible to most.
Meanwhile my impression of the US tax system for example (not my country!), is that it is a very complicated system with grave consequences for making any sort of mistake. All thanks to the efforts of US companies hiring lobbyists to work against general public interest.
I find pure accounting confusing in its principles, regardless of country and details. The doubling of transactions and balances, and the non intuitive signs, mess me up every time. This article goes some small way for me to not be completely angry every time I try to learn accounting (next step:French language :).
> grave consequences for making any sort of mistake
Not really. The grave consequences tend to be doled out to people who're obviously trying to cheat the system. For most people, it's just "you owe X. Please pay X."
If you take a long time to pay X then there might be penalties added.
I remember that years after my wife shut down a business, we got a very nasty letter from the IRS about all the things they could do: sue, garnish wages, confiscating the house, jail terms, etc. But it all boiled down to "you owe $75 from 3 years ago. Pay it ASAP."
One interesting thing my "tax guy" pointed out is that the IRS is pretty lenient on businesses in their first year because they expect you to make a lot of mistakes in accounting or filing taxes.
Is this an artifact of accounting itself? Or of the country in which you live?
In my country, accounting is… well still not easy but at least I would say it is accessible to most.
Meanwhile my impression of the US tax system for example (not my country!), is that it is a very complicated system with grave consequences for making any sort of mistake. All thanks to the efforts of US companies hiring lobbyists to work against general public interest.