Spidell's Tax Season Tribune

Can you define chutzpah?

By Sandy Weiner, J.D.

California Editor

As a child, I remember numerous times my parents and grandparents telling me that I had “chutzpah” when I would listen in on adult conversations and, with the wisdom of a 4- or 5-year-old, loudly and vociferously put in my two cents about topics I knew nothing about, such as the Vietnam war, tackling poverty, or who made the best Manhattans.

But an article I read today clearly jumped to the top of the hill in terms of what epitomizes chutzpah.¹

Ryan Lizza, a self-described veteran journalist and editor of Telos News, was preparing his tax return using Turbo Tax and was getting increasingly frustrated with its clunkiness, expense, and constant interruptions with “scammy upsell offers.” So, what does someone who has no tax knowledge, let alone any coding knowledge, do in such a situation?

Build their own tax preparation software using AI Claude Code, of course!

That’s exactly what Ryan did. As he stated, “…in just a few weeks, I created what appears to be a full-featured financial app called ‘Telos Tax’ that prepares complicated federal and state tax returns for free. It’s Turbo Tax on Steroids.”

In a few weeks he directed Claude Code to design an app using 234,000 lines of code that can be used by individuals or tax professionals alike to prepare tax returns. According to Ryan, Telos Tax can handle returns for “the simplest W-2 employee taking the standard deduction to a complex filer with, say, farm income, rental properties, asset depreciation schedules, AMT adjustments, crypto sales, a Roth conversion, net operating loss carryforward, and every imaginable combination of deductions and credits.” It even “gives you a FICO-like score to assess your likelihood of being audited.”

The only problem is that Ryan has no idea if it actually does any of this correctly. As he said, “maybe Claude, in its effort to please, created a Potemkin app that simply fooled me into thinking it was in the same league as a product designed by hundreds of engineers at a Fortune 500 company.”

So, he’s making the app public as a free open-source project so tax pros and actual human coders can vet it.

Now that, my dear readers, is the ultimate definition of chutzpah!

Taking a swing at a world record

By Austin Lewis

Managing Editor

We shared some tax industry world records with Tribune readers last month, and while work-related feats are impressive, at the end of the day they’re still work. Now that April 15 is only a couple of weeks away, we are looking ahead to a world record attempt you can take part in before your vacation plans are in full swing.

On April 19, Visit Newport Beach and the Atomic Ballroom will attempt to host the world’s largest swing dance lesson.¹ Attendees can learn the Balboa Swing, a dance created in Newport Beach during the Big Band era.

The world record attempt is technically part of Newport Beach’s 120 Years of Welcome,² but if you’re actually there to celebrate the end of another successful tax season, who’s to judge? Certainly not us, and we promise not to tell the Guiness World Records officials who will be on site to certify the record attempt.

Tax-related triumphs

Last month we also asked Tribune readers to share any career experiences that are worthy of the record books.

We received a response from a CPA who plans to retire next year, after working 50 years in the industry. He started his career just two years after Spidell was founded in 1975.

In the words of Michael S. from Sunnyvale, California:

“I started my career with the IRS, in August 1977, as an office auditor under the old work-study program. I left the IRS in August 1980 and entered the world of public accounting. I have never looked back.

In all of that time, I have taught in the undergraduate accounting program at CSU Los Angeles, been a guest lecturer at what was then Hayward State (now CSU East Bay), earned my Master of Science in Taxation from Golden Gate University, and managed and moderated programs for CalCPA. Not to mention raising two great kids ... not an accountant between them!

It's been a great ride!”

Now you can smell like a marshmallow

By Kathryn Zdan, EA

Editorial Director

What started out as a yellow chick made from sugar and air is now a worldwide phenomenon found on drinkware, jewelry,¹ sneakers, and Bath & Body Works² shelves. But it’s more than just a marshmallow, it’s also a lesson in how to grow a business. A master class taught by Professor Peeps.

Lesson 1: Be Authentically You

Nobody asked for a chili lime mango marshmallow chick.³ (Now that I’ve eaten one, I can see why; if anyone else wants to try one, I have nine left.) Peeps has never tried to be sophisticated. It’s a yellow blob with eyes made out of… whatever that stuff is that apparently isn’t chocolate. Then came pink Peeps. Then rabbit-shaped ones. Flash forward to 2026, and we have chili lime mango Peeps.

The business lesson: Know what makes you you, and commit to it fully rather than sanding off your edges to appeal to everyone.

Lesson 2: Borrow Someone Else’s Audience

Pop-Tarts already had fans, Peeps just introduced themselves. The brand collaboration strategy is a masterclass in audience expansion. Every Peeps collab — SunnyD, Pop-Tarts, Bath & Body Works (smell like a Peep!) — brings an entirely new customer base into contact with Peeps.

The business lesson: Find the audience you want and ask what you could offer them in a partnership. Find your Pop-Tarts.

Lesson 3: Protect the Yellow Chick

No matter how wild the collabs get, the original is always still on the shelf. Through all the brand extensions and flavor experiments, Peeps has never abandoned its core product. The classic yellow chick is always there.

The business lesson: Growth and experimentation should fund and protect your core offering, not cannibalize it. Know your “yellow chick,” the thing people come to you for first. Never let it get lost in the noise.

The Final Peep

Peeps are still just sugar and air. But the brand has taken the simple and spun it into something larger – a memory, a season, an icon. That’s a lesson worth more than its weight in… whatever that stuff is that apparently isn’t chocolate.

A few fun facts about this week’s writers:

Sandy Weiner, J.D., as California editor, loves all things California. Whether it's hiking at Big Sur or playing at the beach in San Diego where she lives, Sandy takes full advantage of all that California has to offer as a way to clear her head after trying to comprehend and explain California's Revenue & Taxation Code.

Austin Lewis loves music and the outdoors, and if he’s not going to a concert you can probably find him on a hike somewhere. A few years ago he traveled to Peru, where he spent seven days on the Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu.

Kathryn Zdan, EA, spends her non-Spidell hours on photography and watching horror films (and then sleeping with the light on). She also enjoys hiking, biking, and watching foreign films.

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