‘We’re here to help. You’re pleased when you can help save taxes, do a good job . . .’

With 41 days left, accountants and tax attorneys are busy working to meet Uncle Sam’s big deadline. James West, a certified public accountant and president of West Johnston Turnquist & Schmitt Accountancy Corp., is no stranger to April15. West, 61, has been in the business since 1952, and while he oversees the operations of his 54-member accounting firm, he also sees clients and keeps abreast of the new tax laws. In past tax seasons, West has weathered many governmental changes in the rules and regulations. He says he’s not intimidated by the new tax law that has many people shaking their heads. Times staff writer Caroline Lemke interviewed him in his San Diego office and Vince Compagnone photographed him.

I don’t think tax season will ever get any easier the way the government changes the rules. They’ve been changing the law every year in the last few years, and we used to count on that change every several years. But now they’re changing it every year, and it’s making it very difficult for the professional people as well as the clients to understand what needs to be done.

Over the years you really develop a relationship where you show people how to do their taxes, but there always are some people who are confounded with all of the paper work, and they bring it in in a big envelope or a shoe box or something. But generally speaking, you can get people to organize their data into a form. We use a little booklet we call an organizer. It helps people know what things are needed and how to put them into some order for us. So that’s a little bit of training we give to them.

I’m sure there are capable people around who could read all of this, but it’s not something that you pick up the book in the bookstore, read it and sit down and do your tax return.

I’ve been a CPA since 1952. In college I was in a pre-law program and one of the required courses was in accounting, and the accounting professor indicated that I should really pursue this as a career. I look back on it and remember it as a turning point that he saw some potential that I hadn’t realized at that point.

We wonder why we do this some times. I’m joking. People who do this kind of work must do it because they love it or they wouldn’t do it. I think that accountants are in a service-type profession. We’re here to serve people. You’re pleased when you can help somebody save taxes, do a good job, answer questions about how they might improve their financial holdings in some way, do a better job for their retirement, things of that nature.

People have a great deal of concern right now. They read things in the newspaper . . . we send material to our clients on changes on the law, but I notice a great deal of uncertainty in talking to individuals about how to handle certain things. They’ve been misled or they misunderstand some of the things they’ve heard or read so we try to overcome that.

I think we’re probably like Pavlov’s dog. They ring the bell and we’re ready to go. But the planning for tax season is really twofold. One, that the government usually in the past few years has been passing a new law toward the end of the year every year, so we have a new training opportunity at that point.

But even if they didn’t, we’d be having a series of training sessions for all of our staff to be prepared. We get organized, we contact the clients. There’s a definite “get ready” situation.

I’m sure that everybody is a little different after April 15. I guess we all feel a little different after April 15. I guess we all have a little bit of a letdown. It peaks actually between March 15 and April 15.

That’s the time when over 50% of the work is done, so when you immediately cut that off at the end of April 15, there’s a real letdown. But there’s usually so much other work that you’ve had to set aside that you don’t look out the window and wonder what you’re going to do next.