Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 16, 1994                   TAG: 9404180139
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EVEN NOW, THERE'S NO REST FOR WEARY TAX ACCOUNTANTS

And, rather than taking vacations after their busiest time of year, some said they will spend coming days catching up on postponed work.

An exception was Kenneth Prickitt, president of the Roanoke chapter of the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants, who said Friday he was headed for the beach and golf course.

Prickitt, who is with the firm of Young and Prickitt, spent Friday preparing requests for filing extensions for his procrastinating clients who had brought him information at the last minute. "Anything since last Friday is the last minute," he said.

He also was waiting for some clients to pick up returns that were ready for mailing.

James B. Taney of Anderson & Reed, who finished preparing his last return Wednesday, reran another return Thursday and spent Friday preparing extension forms for people who hadn't shown up on time. "Today's sort of a wind-down," he said.

He said he also was in the office in case clients had questions about forms he had completed. Some people wait until the final day to review them, he said.

Next week, Taney will get busy on audits for business clients who wait until after April 15 for their work to be done. He said he may get some time off in May.

"We're not quite finished," said Terrance Clem of Miller, Morgan & Co. He was working on tax returns for clients who had come in at the last minute, but he still had work to do on some complicated returns.

When he's finished, Clem plans to spend the weekend mowing his grass. The lawn had to wait while he was tied up on taxes.

Reid Ammen of Budd, Ammen & Co., "worked pretty hard all morning," primarily on tax extensions. The office staff had lunch together, then returned to the tax-extension project.

Still, they quit work at something approaching a normal hour Friday. "We are going to spend the evening with our own families for a change," Ammen said.

"The last day is so anti-climactic for us," said Harry Schwarz of Schwarz & Co. "We've done everything we could possibly do."

Schwarz said he will be back in the office next week because "there's a lot of work we held off on" - items such as audits, valuations and other types of tax returns.

Then, said Schwarz, a lot of people decided this season to engage in some tax planning before another filing year rolls around.