Good letter to the editor in today’s Wall Street Journal

Why Must Tax System Be a Burdensome Fear?

It should be alarming to every beleaguered, taxpaying American that the IRS recently reported its accuracy rate in answering telephoned taxpayer inquiries fell to 76% so far this year from 84% two years ago (Tax Report, April 1). I suspect the reason is the increasing complexity and breadth of the Tax Code. This is the unintentional consequence of tinkering with tax law, while maintaining the empire and dominion of the IRS and the influence it wields in our lives.

Would we tolerate a 24% error rate by a surgeon? Would McDonald’s be in business today if errors were made in 24% of its orders? Of course not. Why is there not a plan to do away with a system of taxation that makes miserable the lives of honest Americans, fearing an audit and April 15 each year? How can Americans be expected to suffer a system in which we cannot be assured of securing correct information as we navigate our way through the tax maze?

Will we ever elect a president who not only talks a good game about being a friend to the taxpayer, but who places his or her words into deeds, exerting political capital to end a system of tax law that even its administrators can’t comprehend and interpret?

Oren M. Spiegler

Upper Saint Clair, Pa.

The Blue-State Tax – A new name for the insipidly ridiculous AMT.

Nearly 1 million signatures for new phone tax in the PRC

The Deadly Third Rail of Politics – Social Security

The FICA slush fund

Proving personal accounts work

Why Housing Is About to Go “Pop!” – It is true that the historically low mortgage interest rates have helped pump up demand and prices of real estate. As has happened before, this will reverse when interest rates rise and fewer people can afford to make their payments. It’s a natural cycle and doesn’t mean that real estate is a bad investment; just that you need to take it into account and not overpay for properties that are too sensitive to interest rate fluctuations.

Study: IRS Audited More Individuals Last Year

Newsweek Misses Tax Freedom Day

John Kerry Sloganator – Some very funny and appropriate campaign signs for the possible DemonRat nominee. New ones are showing up continuously. Following are just a few of my favorites so far, including one I made myself with their easy to use tool.

Rising property taxes scare off homeowners – With property taxes, it is impossible to really truly own real estate. The complete tax burden is a combination of all taxes, including income, sales, excise, as well as those on property ownership and transfers.

States consider property-tax limits – California’s 1978 Proposition 13 is still the role model for setting limits on property taxes.

GOP Spinal Implant for Senate – Pennsylvania conservatives have a great opportunity to finally get rid of their RINO Senator Arlen Specter.

Get-rich spruiker puts $1m in limbo – This particular story of gullible people falling for a get rich quick scam is from Australia, but could very easily be from here in the USA. The word spruiker is a new one to me. It seems to be like a carnival barker, or as this definition I found on the web:

Spruiker, pronounced Sprooker…is a guy who stands on the door outside of a seedy strip joint and tells you what’s going on inside in an attempt to get you to go in.

That reminds me of walking around the North Beach section of San Francisco, where guys were always trying to lure us into their strip clubs, even when we were in our teens. The analogy to use this term for the get rich quick scammers is appropriate.

Down To The Wire? Move The Wire! – Some good tips on filing for extensions. Because of my backlog of 2001 and 2002 tax returns, I will have only prepared one 2003 1040 by April 15, with the other 90+ on extension. I only did that one in order to test out the settings for the 2003 Lacerte program.

National High Five Day – April 15 isn’t just Tax Day this year. It’s also on the third Thursday in April.

There are often certain indicators that you’re not dealing with the most reputable tax preparer: