After 42 years in public accounting, I have decided to retire at the end of this year. It has been a long journey and I am quite comfortable with my decision.

When I started in Public Accounting the only password you needed to remember was the alarm code to get into your office or to set if you were the last person to leave. Today all I am required to remember is to click on the icon that says forgot your password and the city where I was born so maybe that part has gotten easier.

Mortgage rates were 11%, Money Market Rates were 14%, Prime Rate was 13%, and inflation was 11%. All of these rates increased in the early 1980’s. Today, mortgage rates are under 3%, money market rates are negligible, Prime rate is 3.25%, and inflation is 2.3%. Also, I had no idea of what Libor was.

In 1979, the top individual tax rate was 70% and the top corporate was 46%. Today, the top individual rate is 37% and the top corporate rate is 21%. Self-employment taxes were capped at earned income of $22,900 and the rate was 12.26%.

In 1979, there were no laptops, my first calculator weighed about 30 pounds. Excel spreadsheets were done by hand. Some tax returns were prepared by hand and some returns were prepared on input sheets that were sent out for processing with about a 4 day turn around. The biggest change I’ve seen is how much we rely on technology to provide services and the use of technology will grow in the future.

I want to thank Mike and Dave for putting up with me for 20 years.

I will miss working with our clients on a day to day basis, but as I get older, I realize there is a lot I still want to accomplish in life.

Take Care

Paul