Sean C. Morgan
After nearly 40 years in business as an accountant on Main Street, Steve Hanscam has put away his calculator and paperwork and retired.
He officially retired Aug. 31 at age 64 after finishing up the last of the jobs at his accounting business.
He spent most of his years with an upstairs view in the 1300 block of Main Street above the old Mollie’s Bakery. His father, Mervin Hanscam, opened the business in 1952 with Ed Casto, who soon bought a practice in Lakeview.
“I was certified in 1984,” Hanscam said. “I started in January 1980, doing 1979 tax returns. I actually bought Dad out in 1989, I believe.”
That was when Merv Hanscam retired and phased out his involvement in the business, although he helped for a while during tax season.
The accounting business focused on taxes, financial statements, bookkeeping and payroll – mostly corporate partnership tax returns, Hanscam said. He used to conduct audits for several years, including those for the City of Sweet Home, the Sweet Home Fire District and the Brownsville Fire District; but he got out of that business as it became more highly regulated.
The new regulations required ongoing education and oversight, which was harder for sole practitioners to handle with their other work.
Typically, the first half of the year is busy with taxes, Hanscam said, with work weeks reaching 80 hours.
But almost every month has some kind of deadline on the 15th, noted his wife Danielle Hanscam, who has helped out at the office during tax season in recent years.
May 15, for example, is the deadline for nonprofit organizations to file with the IRS. Continuing education requirements must be complete by July 15. Aug. 15 is the deadline for partnership extensions.
Business slows down in November and December, although December is the time to start planning for the next year, Hanscam said.
“I just kind of fell into it with Dad,” said Hanscam, a 1973 graduate of Sweet Home High School.
He earned a business degree in accounting from the University of Oregon in 1978.
After school, he hadn’t landed a job before he was hit and seriously injured by a car while riding a bicycle in Bend.
He returned to Sweet Home while he recovered, and he and his father talked about him going to work at the business.
“It worked out well,” Hanscam said. “I had dad and Lloyd Sheldon teaching me. As you grow into it, you start taking your own clients. You just develop relationships with people. That was the enjoyable part.”
The clients share their stories, he said. In fact, that’s a key part of the job when someone is getting a divorce or planning an estate.
In addition to his day job, Hanscam spent 17 years as a volunteer firefighter.
“I was kind of picked,” he said.
“Back then, they needed guys who could leave during the day and were close (to the Fire Hall). That was really a rewarding thing. You’re upstairs, thinking you’ve got real problems, then you go on a car wreck, and you think that stuff upstairs doesn’t matter much.”
He finished his career as a firefighter in the late 1990s.
Hanscam married Danielle Hanscam in 2009. The two had previously dated and been engaged between 1980 and 1982.
They have four children between them, including the late Casey Hanscam, Kyle Hanscam, K.C. Shockey and Spencer Shockey.
Danielle Hanscam spent 30 years teaching elementary PE, living and working in Indio, Calif.
Right now, Hanscam said, he’s enjoying not going to work every day and an end to 4½ months of 80-hour weeks.
“It’s just more time to do the things we like to do,” he said
The Hanscams are taking care of some projects around home right now, and then they’ll start traveling some. They’ll spend time with their children, and they’re planning a trip to Hawaii – during tax season.
They bought a teardrop camp trailer, Danielle Hanscam said, and Steve Hanscam will have more time to spend working on his car collection.
They’ve sold the downtown property in the 1300 blocks of Main and Long, much of which is rented to other businesses and includes the Mollie’s parking lot, and they’re busy moving out 70 years of accumulated “stuff.”
Erika Baham and Becky Partridge, who worked in Hanscam’s office, have taken over the payroll and bookkeeping clients. They are continuing to use the same phone number Merv Hanscam had originally – 367-2157.