Yesterday I went out to a client to help out the bookkeeper (I'll call her Kathy) who had fallen a little behind in her work. Kathy had started in the third quarter of the year. I had gone out to help her this summer when she was first hired and she gave me the impression that she knew what she was doing at that time. I shan't say more about that. The previous bookkeeper (I'll call her Judy) had worked the first two quarters of the year and had done excellent work. On this visit I found that Kathy had not filed payroll reports for the third or fourth quarters of 2010. I brought the work back with me to the office.
Today I called Kathy to ask for Judy's address so I could prepare the W-2s. Kathy relayed the address to me. "Judy's address is blah blah blah, blah NY" she said. About an hour later Kathy called back to tell me that Judy's brother had called and wanted Judy's W-2 mailed directly to him. "Her brother called?" I repeated. "Does he prepare her tax return?" I asked. "I'd really rather hear this directly from Judy" I said.
"Well, Judy's dead" Kathy told me.
