Posted by taxguru on May 21, 2013
Surprisingly, this week’s episode of NewsBusted didn’t have anything about the IRS political enemies scandal; but they did have some good zingers about the ObamaCare monstrosity that is getting closer and closer to clobbering us all in far too many ways.
Posted in NewsBusted, ObamaCare, video | Comments Off
Posted by taxguru on May 9, 2013
I have always stressed how important good bookkeeping is for making financial decisions, as well as for preparing the most accurate tax returns. Several years ago, I made a video showing people how to best use the Quicken programs for bookkeeping and tax return preparation purposes.
I have long wanted to do a similar one for QuickBooks. While I have made some short instructional videos and guides for certain QB tasks, the program has far too many features for me to be able to cover everything it can do. Also, since I don’t use a lot of the features in QB, such as invoicing, inventory and payroll, I don’t feel as qualified to do as good a job on these specific topics as someone who does use them on a daily basis.
I had been unable to recommend a good training video to clients and other readers who wanted to learn how to work with QB. Every time I saw an ad for a hands-on live class or seminar on QB, they were always using a two or three year old version of the program instead of the most current one.
That’s why I was glad to learn about a new instructional video series focusing on the QuickBooks 2013 program from a company that has a ton of excellent instructional videos. This one is broken up into 115 separate videos totaling nine and a half hours. making it easy to just focus on those aspects of QB that you need to use but are unfamiliar with. At only $99.95, it’s a lot less expensive than most live seminars and much less costly than my time would be to explain these topics one on one.
It’s available on DVD or as a download. They also have 17 free videos from the course that you can check out to see if it will work for you.
Beginners QuickBooks 2013 Training Videos 
Posted by taxguru on May 7, 2013
Posted in NewsBusted, TaxCode, video | Comments Off
Posted by taxguru on April 19, 2013
Allen West has this great summary of the mess our tax system has become, starting with an analysis of George Harrison’s “TaxMan” song. He even mentions what I have been saying for decades; that our “Progressive” tax rate structure, which punishes success, has its roots in the Communist Manifesto.
Posted by taxguru on April 15, 2013
Posted by taxguru on April 8, 2013
Bob Jennings recently posted this short summary of the rules for when people need to file Gift Tax returns.
He did leave out a few key facts that I think people should know.
The only potential tax obligation for gifts is on the Giver (aka Donee). This usually surprises most people who are so accustomed to paying taxes on money they received. The recipient has no tax obligation on the receipt of the gift.
The annual exclusion (currently $14,000 per Donor per Donee) is adjusted upwards every few years in $1,000 increments based on inflation. It was $13,000 per year from 2009 through 2012 and just increased for 2013.
Gift Splitting between spouses allows large gifts to be considered as made half by each spouse. That effectively increases the annual excludable gifts to $28,000 per donee (recipient).
The trickiest issue, and the one that requires the most studied consideration, has to do with the basis of transferred assets. For non-cash assets that have increased in value, the current fair market value is used to determine the size of the gift; but the cost basis of the gift for the recipient remains the same as it was for the giver. This effectively transfers the capital gain obligation from the donor to the donee. Sometimes this may be a wise move, but often it may have been better for the donor to sell the asset and just give the money. This is a time when the advice of an experienced tax professional is critical.
Of course, if he had included all of these additional points, it would no longer be a short summary.
Posted by taxguru on March 28, 2013
Another TV show themed training video from IRS. Don’t expect reviews from the original show’s cast since most of them have passed away.
