Balking at tax cuts – More on the uncooperative GOP Senators. 

Negotiators Reach Rare Deal on Tax Cut – It gets smaller on each vote.

GOP Tries to Hold Together Budget Deal

With Bush’s popularity riding high with the successful Iraq actions, the only hope the DemonRats have for any success in the 2004 elections is to do everything they can to sabotage the economy and, with the willing assistance of their Fellow Travelers in the media, pin the blame on Bush.  They know full well that the Bush tax cut plan would stimulate the economy so much that they might as well not even campaign in 2004; so they are pulling out all stops in their opposition to it, including their standard class warfare (“tax cuts for the rich,” etc) lies.   

Tax Trends

I like to stay on top of as many new developments as possible in the world of taxation.  Since the PRC is one of the most creative and aggressive in concocting new ways to get money out of people, it’s always educational to see what the rulers out there on the Left Coast are up to.  If they succeed in generating enough revenues, you can be sure other states will jump on for their share of the loot.

Widening the state sales tax to include services is still being debated; but it isn’t sailing through as smoothly as the rulers had hoped.  With estimates of $30 billion of potential new tax dollars at stake, don’t expect the supporters of this idea to give up very easily.

 While there are a few jurisdictions around the country that already have income taxes at the city and county level, the rulers in the PRC are working on making it available to those levels of government in their state.  That means that you can soon look forward to preparing four separate income tax returns every year.  More work for professional tax preparers. 

Family Employees

As humorous as this may seem, there are several very lucrative tax breaks for hiring your kids to help out in your business. Besides deducting what you pay them, the kids under 18 are exempt from payroll taxes and you can deduct their employee benefits, such as medical and school costs. Payments for any kind of business support services, including filing and cleaning work, are perfectly valid deductions. With a closely held corporation, many of these tax breaks can be doubled.  If you have kids and a small business and are not claiming these deductions, you are literally throwing away thousands of dollars every year. There are also lucrative business deductions available for animal helpers, such as pest control handled by feline friends and security services by canine companions.  

Left hypocritically asks how much the war cost

Although I am a numbers type person, I have always understood that there are some things more important than money.  It has long been bugging the heck out of me to hear the Bush critics complain about the cost of defending ourselves against terrorism.  They are true hypocrites because they never worry about the cost of any of their other government welfare programs; yet the one most important thing that the Federal government is supposed to do, protect the people, can’t be afforded.

I see this as similar to another pet peeve that I have written about before.  Any time I see or hear a news story about a murder, where the reporter mentions how terrible it was due to the small amount of money involved, it sets me off.  I’ve lost track of how many letters I’ve written to news organizations asking for their thresholds to justify murder.  When they express such shock because someone was killed for just a few dollars, I ask them if the murder would be more acceptable if the amount had been a million dollars.  To date, no news person has had the decency to respond to my requests.

Putting a ceiling on what we can spend to prevent another September 11 terrorist attack just seems to be the same kind of mind set.

KMK

Tax Myths of ’86 

I remember the Tax Reform Act of 1986 very well.  It had been sold as the most wide sweeping simplification of the tax code ever.  The reality was exactly the opposite; making the tax code more complicated than it had ever been.  I inherited several clients after it passed when their tax preparers quit rather than have to learn the new rules.  It was also the inspiration for my infamous poster.  

Iraqi Currency Hot on EBay  – It’s like Confederate money, worth much more as a collector novelty than its face value

War, Deficit Fears Didn�t Slow Spending Binge

Bush must now apply his popularity to the full dividend tax cut