©A24

Earlier this year, I wrote for Wealth of Geeks about the things that movies and TV tend to get wrong about taxes, audits, and how the IRS interacts with the public.

I made the drastic mistake of not seeing Everything Everywhere All At Once (EEAO from this point on, for brevity) before I wrote it! Although, some of the main points in that article are still touched upon as you’re about to see.

Variety reported that EEAO had a production budget of $25 million and grossed over $100 million globally, making it A24’s first film to do so. Just two weeks prior to my finally seeing the movie and writing this piece, I delved into the death of mid-budget movies. It certainly looks like A24 will lead the charge in bringing them back, since it’s a year later and people are still talking about EEAO! To say nothing of A24 being unafraid to get weird, which is really what people miss in movies of the 2020s.

So with all that said, this might seem like yet another discourse piece on the still-frenzied discussions about this surrealist comedy horror mash-up about an immigrant laundromat owner having a breakdown over common stresses of midlife while struggling with what’s obviously ADHD.

No, you’re getting a late-diagnosed ADHDer who used to be a tax accountant talking about what EEAO got right and wrong about federal tax audits and enforcement, and how a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it line near the beginning actually ties the themes of audits and ADHD together.

They might seem unrelated at first blush. But you’re going to have to read all the way to end to see where I’m going with this, because us ADHD-afflicted storytellers have an inimitable way of tying together multiple stories so that they all make sense in the end! This isn’t my first rodeo likening complex tax law cases to popular Medium topics.

EEAO is a flagrant allegory for ADHD that explores the onerous shame that comes with executive dysfunction and neurodivergence in general.

©A24 // Definitely a literal depiction of ADHD brain.

There’s so many different interpretations and takeaways that people get from this absurdist fever dream of a movie, and mine is no exception. EEAO didn’t specifically set out to depict or symbolize ADHD, although co-creator Daniel Kwan was diagnosed with it during production. As someone who saw EEAO while approaching middle age and long after I’d become aware of how much my severe ADHD held me back my entire life, it’s so obvious to me and millions of other neurodivergent views that ADHD colors this film.

Even on a meta level, it does. The title alone is a nod to ADHD, a mental disorder best described as “perpetual overwhelm”. It’s most exemplified in the scene where Evelyn first starts using the earpieces and is flooded by decades of memories and alternate timelines of how her life could’ve been different, then her head literally explodes.

When I went to film school in 2021, my professors hammered it home to us that as prospective producers pitching projects (alliteration unintentional), we had to narrow down genre mash-ups to just two or else we’d lose that investor or studio head. There’s at least four genres at play here!

A24 won’t just be the production house that potentially resurrects the mid-budget movie. It will also be the production house that changes industry standards for how to pitch and market a movie by making neurodiverse language more socially acceptable.

Per that Salon piece I linked, The Daniels originally wanted to make protagonist Evelyn Wang afflicted with ADHD, but were afraid of what the neurodiverse community would think about it. Well, we all picked up on it and most are applauding them for how eerily on the nose various aspects of ADHD are portrayed. Making Evelyn’s ADHD blatant instead of implied wouldn’t have changed the story for better or worse, the whole premise just would’ve made more sense.

Daniel Kwan wound up approaching his diagnosis and later treatment throughout the creation of EEAO, and even his Academy Awards speech was a good example of obviously neurodivergent communication style.

I cued it up for you but it doesn’t load, it starts right before the 5-minute mark and the therapist who made this video pointed out how Daniel Kwan’s gleeful info-dump is common with ADHDers.

One of our own depicted ADHD in a way that became accessible and understandable to millions of people.

What EEAO Got Wrong (and Right) About Federal Tax Audits

©A24

Here’s the part I know you were all excited about: what did EEAO get right and wrong about IRS enforcement and taxes? In true ADHD fashion, we’re going to get neck-deep into what is and isn’t realistic — hot dog fingers and tactical fanny packs aside.

Hollywood has long dramatized the audit process. To a fault, actually: decades of harsh film and TV portrayals of the IRS have stricken fear and anxiety into the hearts of millions of Americans, when it’s actually state tax authorities they should be afraid of.

Byzantine tax matters and IRS protocol are relatable things to pen into a movie plot. It’s the perfect “man vs. world” kind of conflict that can serve as an inciting incident, obstacle, subplot, or in this case, the entire premise of a movie.

Artistic license must be taken because most real-life IRS proceedings aren’t that exciting: a vast majority of tax return discrepancies are resolved by mail. Most of this correspondence is an Automated Underreporter Notice, more intense probing is called a “desk audit” in the field. This is what most people will actually deal with.

Your likelihood of being under a full-blown field audit is less than HALF A PERCENT. Although owners of cash-intensive small businesses like the Wangs are more likely to be put under examination than a business that has its income pre-reported to the IRS through 1099s and digital payment processor rolls.

A tax return is also more likely to be pulled for examination if the income and/or deduction items do not line up with historical data for that particular taxpayer, their region, and the industry code on their Schedule C or business tax return. More on this later.

Let’s break it down with an easy-to-read list instead of a wall of text full of citations:

1. A language barrier is a realistically stressful situation if you get an IRS notice. Most people do not know that you have the right to an interpreter in IRS audits and correspondence if you have limited English proficiency and lack a representative or a friend/family member who can interpret. Also, many IRS employees are multilingual to better serve America’s diverse tax base.
2. Even if Evelyn didn’t have the right to an interpreter, it’s a violation of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights enacted under the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 for IRS personnel to be rude towards a taxpayer and hassle them about limited English proficiency.
3. Deirdre violates Internal Revenue Manual (IRM) protocol big time by telling the Wangs to get paperwork to her by 6PM or else the shit hits the fan. That is a threat under duress. If a taxpayer needs more time to gather their information, interest and penalties may still accrue on their account but those documents will get to the IRS when they get there for the most part. Because you have due process under federal tax law, an arbitrary deadline improperly set under duress can’t be held against you. Especially if you were in touch with the Service regarding your account and acting in good faith to resolve its issues.
4. The Wangs have the right to appeal decisions made by the IRS. The outcome of the examination wouldn’t be final: if you disagree with the IRS, you can file an appeal. If you disagree with IRS appeals, you can escalate the matter to Tax Court — then the Supreme Court if you also disagree with Tax Court. This process is how we got the ability to deduct home offices.
5. Evelyn can also report Deirdre to the Taxpayer Advocate Service for her obvious violations of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, and can even stop the collection process by requesting that her account be made temporarily uncollectible due to the insane circumstances of universe-jumping after being served with divorce papers.
6. This leads to the realistic portrayal of Deirdre postponing the Wangs’ audit due to divorce. Divorce, severe illness, natural disasters, domestic violence, homelessness, job loss, and other extenuating circumstances are all grounds for delaying examinations and making your account uncollectible.
7. Common unrealistic portrayal and major IRM violation: not only does an armed federal marshal show up at the laundromat unannounced, but Deirdre is with him. This would not happen in real life, ever. Revenue Agents handle audits while Revenue Officers handle tax collection, seizures, and selling seized assets. But most of all, officers and marshals cannot show up at your home or place of business unannounced. If one of those rare field audits is underway, they need to have your permission to enter the premises by appointment. An armed marshal would only show up if you’re well up shit’s creek by ignoring IRS letters for months or years on end, to the point that your assets are being levied. But even then, you can get a levy reversed. Literally, at the last minute before the repo men come, if you file the correct papers!
8. While this “IRS coming to take your house, car, and pants” depiction dates back to Hollywood’s golden age, a disproportionately egregious enforcement measure like armed marshals with seizure notices would NOT happen just for missing an audit appointment or needing it to be rescheduled. You have due process for federal tax matters.
9. When I did audit defense, no phone call or trip to IRS offices was ever as exciting as this movie. But federal marshals would certainly show up if you punched an IRS employee and took down all the security guards, with additional penalties and jail time after a federal prosecution.

Number 10 on this list ties the movie together, but we need a bagel break first. 🥯

The Everything Bagel as an Obvious Metaphor

©A24

A concentric circle is a recurring symbol throughout EEAO. It’s visible in the way that Deirdre marks up Evelyn’s receipts, the doors of the dryers in the laundromat, and of course, the headdresses in the everything bagel cult where we get a little foreshadowing with Waymond chomping an everything bagel after the IRS office battle escalates.

Circles have inherent symbolism: they commonly represent a life cycle that endlessly loops. The conjoined yet separate relationship between overwhelm, inertia, passion, hyperfocus, and burnout that endlessly repeats in every ADHDer’s life is veritably symbolized in the everything bagel.

Around the midpoint of the movie, Joy/Jobu explains the origin of the everything bagel. That the truth is that Evelyn must feel pain and guilt from “making nothing of her life”, and it goes away by feeling that nothing truly matters.

I can’t be the only ADHD-addled creative who felt mountains move after Stephanie Hsu uttered this line.

We regularly fight inertia, decision fatigue, “I only want to do what I’m not supposed to”, burnout, and hyperfocus. It’s not as simple as “just get a planner” and “just get meds”. ADHDers often grieve what our lives could’ve been, or what they could be NOW, if we had proper support and treatment in a world that doesn’t ostracize neurodivergent folks.

I’ve used phone batteries to describe the way ADHD can manifest in a lot of people. Even after I “changed the battery” by relocating and starting a monumental new chapter of my life, I still suffer with severe executive dysfunction and vicious cycles of ADHD burnout.

Even treatment isn’t a guarantee that your problems will go away! I uprooted my entire life across the country and planned on devoting more time to game-making after I sold my home. I wound up spending less time in Unity than I thought I would and more time writing, consulting, making lizard art, and accidentally building a side hustle in the reptile hobby.

I now live in a city where “strange” creative and entrepreneurial careers like mine are accepted and even celebrated, whether you do 10 different things by choice or circumstance. It’s worked wonders for my self-esteem and creative processes! But ADHD is still an incurable mental disorder.

Even though I do have finished projects, it’s both a struggle and strive to finish more. I keep searching for new ways to treat and manage my ADHD that include trying medications and ADHD-specific therapists, but I’ve definitely been crushed under the pain and guilt of feeling as if I have not done enough with my life.

There’s no line ever put on celluloid or digital that I identified with so much as this one.

Most people have pain and guilt over things they didn’t get to accomplish. It can be from undiagnosed ADHD, it can also come from systemic issues like how Millennials were told to wait all their lives and suddenly this country is wondering why we’re not buying houses or having kids. But even if you are considered successful by traditional markers, it doesn’t always equate to happiness or surety in who you are.

The everything bagel is an obvious symbol of constantly having too much going on. If you can’t decide on sesame, poppy, onion, or salt for your bagel topping, the point of an everything bagel is that you don’t have to choose. You get to have everything all at once and just don’t know any other way to go about life.

But while it seems exhausting and overwhelming to some, many of us happen to thrive that way. Which brings me to the denouement you’ve been eagerly anticipating like TSA rolling back that stupid 3-ounce liquid rule: what’s an accidentally correct portrayal of IRS enforcement that addresses a common aspect of ADHD?

Evelyn’s Rejection-Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) That is Both Obvious and Latent

©A24

RSD is an aspect of ADHD that tends to go undetected, often written off as anxiety or poor self-esteem. But you can have a strong sense of self-worth and still horrendously suffer from RSD. “Dysphoria” is in the name, it’s a state.

RSD isn’t just worries over whether everyone at work hates you and thinks you’re stupid. It’s a powerful vortex that whisks you into different universes just like in EEAO. Except the universes all suck and make you think you’re a complete non-entity of a person who doesn’t do anything “real”.

We are shown that Evelyn is frequently made to feel small. She doubts herself in all of her familial relationships, and the tribulations of being a middle-aged mother with an elderly father who hasn’t fostered the warmest relationship with her. Evelyn feels like she could’ve done more with her life had she made different choices, or more choices were presented to her. But it seems she feels that she’s not enough.

This is mostly by Evelyn’s own perception of how others view her rather than what people actually say and think, and it’s a common aspect of RSD. Although she has traumatic memories that clearly compound those feelings and unfortunately validate RSD, like her father being disappointed she wasn’t born a boy.

It’s most cogent at the beginning of the movie during a strangely realistic part of the audit. Deirdre interrogates about the karaoke machine and other business expenses that were large and/or bizarre enough to raise a flag in the tax processing software.

Time to remove that pin from when I dove into what the movie got right and wrong about audits.

I mentioned that cash-intensive businesses are more likely to be selected for audit than a digital business, but you’re also more likely to get IRS letters if a line item appears way off from what other companies with your industry code, location, and revenue range tend to report.

Now here’s where you need a former tax accountant to point something out that other reviewers probably haven’t: Deirdre inadvertently validates Evelyn’s manifold abilities and passions by treating them as multiple professions instead of hobbies.

This would actually make the universe where they’re lovers with hot dot fingers make even more sense, and here’s why!

It really got my attention when Deidre says that Evelyn needs to file multiple Schedule Cs. This term might mean nothing to a reader unfamiliar with American tax law. But to this former tax accountant, this scene spoke volumes to me.

The IRS demarcates hobbies from businesses. While you’d have to report the income from hobbies, it doesn’t get the same treatment as a business does where you can deduct your expenses and carry losses forward using Schedule C.

Waymond writes off her multiple interests that brushed with the law as Evelyn just being quirky and constantly preoccupied with many hobbies. Deirdre says that Evelyn must file multiple Schedule Cs for different activities. She didn’t say “hobbies on Schedule 1”. The IRS recognizes Evelyn’s pursuits as viable business ventures, but her own family doesn’t.

Neurodiversity aside, how many creative people feel this way where the government literally recognizes that you write, make games, draw, and/or make music for a living yet your own family tells you to just focus on one thing or “get a real job”? Or that what you do is just a hobby, even if you generate income and have some recognition with it?

There’s the very real experience of feeling shit on that people with unconventional careers tend to encounter, and it only heightens RSD. It can make us inflict our RSD even onto people who support us.

How many people in the real world subsidize their passion with an unrelated day job? Or fluidly move between careers depending on the time of year and how it affects supply and demand?

Being a singing martial artist who can also run a brick-and-mortar business wouldn’t even get you a second glance in LA, although it would be considered odd in those “work the same job 30 years, retire, and die” towns that are ironically dying out nowadays.

The neurodiverse will inherit the earth, and we have this beautiful chaotic movie to thank for it.