Your local accounting office probably never did anything this elaborate.
BKD CPAs & Advisors, an accounting and advisory firm with offices in 18 states, produced a 30-minute film noir tribute titled “The Missing Deductions,” which features a lot of information about new U.S. federal tax laws in the guise of a private-eye story. It was shot in the Route 66 city of Springfield, Missouri.
Accounting Today had this summary of the film:
The black-and-white short revolves around a private detective named Taxation Simple, a.k.a. Tax, who investigates the case of a missing person, Quincy B. I. Donaldson, a.k.a. QBID (which also happens to be the abbreviation for the qualified business income deduction).
The video features references to several provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. It aims to give business owners, advisors, students, attorneys, CPAs and those in the academic world an entertaining look at some of those provisions, but viewers don’t need a tax background to enjoy the film.
Here’s the film:
The filmmakers deserve accolades for the film noir execution, especially the black-and-white cinematography and retro score.
And the actors are game in trying to convey the jargon-heavy dialogue into something that sounds classically hard-boiled.
“The Missing Deduction” used the century-old Holland Building in downtown Springfield, just off Route 66, and employed a classic car from the Route 66 Car Museum for a scene.
In one of the scenes, you can see the big rooftop sign of the History Museum on the Square in the background.
(Screen-capture image from “The Lost Deduction” video)