Dancing for Taxes

[airplanedoc]

So I had to take my mom cellphone shopping (I was the translator). She asked me to meet her at the store, so as I am pulling up I see a guy dressed as a statue of liberty dancing around one the corner with a sign for a tax preperation place. She was not there yet so I waited in the car and watched this show for about 5 min, all the while thinking:

1. Why on earth would I take my taxes to a place that has a guy on the corner dressed as a statue of liberty dancing.
2. Do I really want to support this kind of behavior.
3. Is this some guy the just found, or a tax prepared with nothing to do at the moment? back to item #1
4. That job does not pay near enough (It was about 20F outside at 3 pm when I went in, at 6pm he was still there)
5. Where do you find a person to do that?

While buying the phone, the store manager and the salesperson working with us, made a couple of joking comments to each other about workload. I chimed in to the conversation with hey you could be dancing on the corner in a statue of liberty outfit. And every employee in the place busted out laughing. None of them could figure out whay anyone would go there to get taxes done either, but all agreed that the place did provide good doughnuts, since they apparently brought a couple of boxes down to be neighborly.

 

[mmack66]

Times are tough. They are all over the place around here.

 

[stobes21]

Last spring there was a story in the local paper about a guy who had been laid off from a nice white collar job who took a job doing that to help pay some bills.

I'd be willing to bet that most of those places pay their "dancers" cash that ironically enough never gets reported to the IRS.

I suspect a lot of those sketchy fly-by-night preparation services are going to disappear as the government finally starts regulating them.

 

[mmack66]

Liberty Tax Service is far from "sketchy" or "fly-by-night".

 

[stobes21]

Liberty Tax Service is far from "sketchy" or "fly-by-night".

I wasn't referring to any particular service, but more generally to some in the industry that spring up around this time and are gone by may. There is a Liberty office about a half mile from my home that has been there for a number of years. So it certainly isn't fly-by-night. I have never gone in so I don't have any opinion as to the quality of their services.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Yeah, that started showing up in my area maybe two or three years ago.

Minimum wage to stand there spinning a sign, wearing a stupid costume, etc. I guess it's how they get around the ban on animated billboards.

 

[cim_can]

Many of these tax preparation places are glorified rip-offs and are as predatory as check cashing places. They front poor people the tax rebate based on their tax return and charge unreal interest rates.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Speaking about preying on the poor:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-co.../prescott-financial-sells-gold--women---sheep

 

[airplanedoc]

Many of these tax preparation places are glorified rip-offs and are as predatory as check cashing places. They front poor people the tax rebate based on their tax return and charge unreal interest rates.

Exactly, I had to swing by again this afternoon to clarify something on the phone, so I parked by said tax place and walked past to get to the phone store. Title loans, payday loans, and liberty tax service all behind one store front. Walk in the door, turn left get your taxes done, turn right get your payday/title/tax return loan . Different guy dancing today he was much better.

 

[mmack66]

Many of these tax preparation places are glorified rip-offs and are as predatory as check cashing places. They front poor people the tax rebate based on their tax return and charge unreal interest rates.

+1. That H&R Block is crazy.

 

[psychlopath]

I'd noticed these dancing guys when I moved to TX. I never saw them in CA. Maybe there's some kooky law against it. I dunno.

Either way, they are a huge irritant.

I have seen these guys in the Statue of Liberty, gorilla suits, huge sandwich boards and twirling giant red arrows. Most of the time I see them advertising car sales. But for the first 4 months of the year, it's typically Liberty.

As a side note...I tried to have taxes done through them one year. And...well...they were a huge no-go. I prefer H&R block.

 

[TorzJohnson]

I think seeing a guy dancing around dressed as the Statue of Liberty (who is female btw) would be quite surreal.

It reminds me of the time I got stuck at a parking lot exit waiting for a high school pep rally parade to pass by. As I sat there, a flat-bed truck went slowly by with the respective team mascots boxing each other. I said to myself "I'm stuck here waiting for a tiger and the devil to finish boxing."

 

[52tele]

Yup we've had them for years now. I just saw this little girl on the corner dancing and its 30 degrees out and snowing. I would never use a place that paid these kids to do that kind of work; its very tacky and really annoying IMO.

 

[SliceOfLife]

I think seeing a guy dancing around dressed as the Statue of Liberty (who is female btw) would be quite surreal.

It reminds me of the time I got stuck at a parking lot exit waiting for a high school pep rally parade to pass by. As I sat there, a flat-bed truck went slowly by with the respective team mascots boxing each other. I said to myself "I'm stuck here waiting for a tiger and the devil to finish boxing."

That's why I don't concealed carry. It would seem perfectly reasonable at that point to fire a couple warning shots to get traffic moving again.

 

[Zenas]

Seen that. I do my own taxes but even if I didn't I wouldn't take them there because some guy dances on the corner.

Here locally, there was a kid who did something similar, except he was dressed in a gorilla suit with doing it for Little Ceasar's pizza. Only when he danced, he rocked out. He had an iPod in the suit with him and he rocked like he was channeling Angus Young and Lemmy. He because somewhat of a local fixture for a time. People would honk at him on the corner and "throw the horns" to him, i.e. hold up the horns sign on their hand. He eventually garnered a Facebook group full of college kids. Titled something along the lines of "I threw the horns to the kid rocking out at the corner of Park and Mendenhall".

Don't know what's happened to him of late though. Hopefully got a better job or went to college.