A Tax Break for Educating Your Employees

Reform the Federal budget?

Ohio’s GOP governor may help Bush lose the election

I’ve discussed on several occasions why I’m not a big fan of investing in the stock market; mainly because it is too unpredictable, easily manipulated and completely out of the small investor’s control. I’ve been skimming some of the news about the upcoming IPO for Google and am amazed that anyone thinks it is a good investment opportunity. As this comic illustrates, the current owners want to have their cake and eat it too by preventing the new shareholders from having any control over the company’s operations; so they are planning to sell non-voting shares to the public. That is about as stupid from an investment perspective as the tracking stocks that were being sold during the dot-com stock market fiasco. Of course, there will be no shortage of fools eager to throw money at this latest hot thing.

Let’s hope people do remember what happened last time…

Thanks to Ben Cunningham for passing on this perfect illustration of the relationship between us voters and our public servants. Notice what they are serving us. It’s consistent with my infamous poster of how tax legislation usually turns out.

On Fixing the Alternative Minimum Tax

House works to hold back minimum tax for a year – This is better than nothing; but adjusting the thresholds just for one year is only a band-aid to an issue that needs major corrective (removal) surgery.

Social Security Time Bomb

Teresa Heinz Kerry’s Taxes

New Jersey Governor’s Attack on Business

Get on with the tax cuts

Why John Kerry Won’t Release Wife’s Tax Returns – Tax returns tell a lot about a person.

Ex-IRS Man Declares Himself Tax-Exempt – Tax protestor scam artist Joe Bannister continues to get plenty of press coverage. How long will it be until we see a story about his prison sentence, similar to this one about his fellow tax criminal, Richard Simkanin, who is on his way to a seven year stay in the Federal gray bar hotel? That should be soon, as it will be for anyone stupid enough to follow his advice.

Poll shows support for offshoring tax – I find this very hard to believe; that business executives would actually approve of a new tax on jobs they move off shore. If you look at the big picture, there already is a tax on such cost savings maneuvers. Lower costs for the company yield higher profits and higher income taxes.

Federal authorities investigating Smithsonian donation – Selling something to a charity for a below market price is tricky enough when claiming a charitable contribution deduction for the discount. It’s a guaranteed IRS audit when the items are supposedly worth $50 million and a deduction of $32 million is being claimed.