A lifelong friend is a rare thing indeed. I have only a few and Peter Reilly is one of them. Peter and I met when we attended Xavier High School in New York City. We were introduced by another friend, Michael Oleske, because the three of us were devotees of Jean Shepherd’s weeknight radio program on WOR. Shep had a way of the promoting the exculsivity of his listeners which we were only to happy to embrace–the iconic phrase, “Flick Lives!” began appearing on blackboards throughout the school. When asked what it meant, the required reply was “You wouldn’t understand.”.
After high school, the three of us went our separate ways. I became a scientist, Mike became a lawyer and Peter became an accountant.
Now Peter has written a book based on his columns on taxes for Forbes, entitled “Reilly’s Laws of Tax Planning and Life” and has asked me to review it. Since he has graciously reviewed all of my Natalie McMasters Mysteries, how could I say no?
A CPA with forty-plus years experience, Peter has developed these laws based on his work with his clients and his incisive analyses of cases that have gone to the tax court over the years. As I am not an accountant, I am ill-prepared to speak to the accuracy of these conclusions, but I can speak to writing itself. Peter has developed a writing style reminiscent of Jean Shepherd’s snarky commentary which serves to make a subject that is very dry for most of us fun to read if not interesting, at least in some cases. As the book’s title suggests, some of these laws are more widely applicable than just to taxes.
My favorite is the first law – It is What it is – Deal with it. Ever since encountering it, that phrase pops into my head whenever I must do battle with the many idiotic, illogical and downright unjust situations that life continually presents us with. My initial tendency when such situations occur is to bitch about the great injustice of it all, which of course does absolutely nothing to resolve the situation. As painful as it may be, the solution is to take concrete, well-reasoned steps to mitigate the mess, and to know that I did my best if fallout still remains.
Other laws, like Don’t do the Math in Your Head (the 6th Law), Read the Instructions (the 7th Law) and Both Before and After Thinking Outside the Box, Look Inside the Box (the 8th Law) address the all-to-human tendency to take the easy way out, which leads to disaster more often than not. I was humbled and honored to see that I actually made it into the book, in the company of the august crime fiction author Karin Slaughter, in the exposition of the 8th Law.
My view of taxes is that Taxation is Theft. If you disagree, just note that we had plenty of roads in the U.S.A. prior to 1919 and that they worked pretty well. Regardless, I found Peter’s book entertaining and informative even though as a non-accountant, I was unable to appreciate the subtleties Read it with an open mind, even skipping past the parts that are too deep for you, and I’m sure you’ll find something useful–maybe even profound.