Taxes for anybody can be interesting, especially traveling competitors. A man traveling the bull riding circuit not long before it got big "Made" $120,000 one year. Since that gross translated into points he was the world champion. He lost so much money he almost had to go back to working for a living.
In the old days the write offs and such were crazy enough that if you owned the real estate your business was sitting on and watched when you made equipment purchases you could live very well losing money every year. One year my accountant called me. "Buddy, I have just did some rough figures but you are $38,000 in the hole" I told him I wasn't a farmer, cook the books so I make eight or ten thousand anyway! Both returns would have been equally valid, just missed some deductions on the second pass.
Hu
