Better Hurry Up and Play This Pokémon Tax Game Before Nintendo’s Lawyers Find Out About It

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez
Pikachu with a 1040 tax form

Do you love tax? Do you also love collecting pocket monsters? Accounting startup Open Ledger has the game for you: PokéTax. You can tell it’s about tax because they slapped a tie on Pikachu.

They had to get permission from Nintendo for this, right? Right??

The interactive “game” promises to help players “learn tax filing through interactive battles!” After entering some basic information about how you make your income and how many dependents you have, among a few other questions, you meet Professor Larry, CPA (who looks suspiciously like Professor Oak but with a suit and briefcase).

From there, you pick your starter. Your options are: TaxSaur, the Deduction type Pokémon; Auditmander, the Audit type Pokémon; or Creditle, the Refund type Pokémon.

Then you meet Giovanni, CPA who works out of an open office similar to yours and immediately threatens you before he starts talking mad shit about TurboTax and QuickBooks.

From there you fight your first Pokémon. Although running is an option, choosing it isn’t recommended by the software. You get threatened with garnishment and tax fraud if you try.

Check it out if you want. And as the game warns on the front page, consult a tax professional for actual tax filing.

Related:

The Accountant Shortage is So Bad Anime Waifu Girlfriends Are Taking Up Tax Prep Now

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And you thought the IRS was a bunch of cold SOBs.

To be fair, the Aussies are pretty bent out of shape over the long-running dispute over taxes owed on Mick’s $37+ million in earnings. Hogan has responded to all the Australian Taxation Office’s requests with a consistent “blow me” which probably hasn’t gone over to well Down Under.

Actor Paul Hogan, best known for playing an outback hunter in the “Crocodile Dundee” movies, has been stopped from leaving Australia until he pays a multi-million dollar tax bill, according to his lawyer.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) served U.S.-based Hogan with a departure prohibition order when he returned to Sydney last Friday for the funeral of his 101-year-old mother Florence, his lawyer Andrew Robinson said in a statement.

This prevents the 70-year-old actor from leaving Australia until any alleged tax debts are paid or arrangements made for the tax liability to be discharged.

Taxman bars Crocodile Dundee from leaving Australia [Reuters]

SHOCKER: Volunteer Tax Preparers Have High Error Rates

Forty-one percent per a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report. Luckily, the TIGTA has suggestions:

TIGTA recommended that the IRS analyze the accuracy of returns prepared at individual volunteer sites to identify patterns and concerns on which to focus education, training and accountability. The report also suggested that the IRS improve the intake sheet that is used at the start of the tax prep process to include questions based on new tax laws and filing status, and improve the reviews of intake sheets and returns completed at volunteer sites.

The TIGTA anonymously sent auditors to volunteer testing sites which seems pretty unfair. If those sneaky bastards had reviewed the tax returns instead of Monday morning quarterbacking the volunteers maybe there would’ve been less mistakes. Just a thought.

Volunteer Tax Preparers Have High Error Rates [Web CPA]

After Today’s Job Report, Eric Cantor Can’t Imagine Why Anyone Would Think Raising Taxes Is Good Idea

” ‘Disappointing’ is an understatement,” Cantor said on the floor in a colloquy with House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). Cantor was citing the jobs report for June that said only 18,000 private-sector jobs were created in that month, and that the unemployment rate increased to 9.2 percent.

“Just look at the jobs report today,” Cantor added. “I cannot fathom how anybody, how anyone thinks right now is a good time to raise taxes. Who thinks that raising taxes on individuals and small businesses can help create jobs?” [The Hill]