As I have written on several occasions, I have long been a big fan of the QuickFinder reference books. I’ve been buying them for myself and my staff for well over the last 20 years. Every so often, they add a new book to their library. This year’s new offering is called Tax Planning For Individuals QuickFinder Handbook. I recently received my copy of the 2004 printed edition, and had a chance to look through it over the past few days as I’ve been waiting for my computer and network problems to work themselves out. I must say they have hit another home run with this book.

It is jam packed with reference materials and tips for just about every aspect of individuals’ lives, including small businesses. The tabs include:

Tab 1: Tables and Worksheets

Tab 2: Form 1040 Roadmap

Tab 3: Residences and Vacation Homes

Tab 4: Sole Proprietors

Tab 5: Compensation

Tab 6: Stocks, Bonds and Mutual Funds

Tab 7: Real Estate (including a lot of info on 1031 exchanges)

Tab 8: Children and Education

Tab 9: Divorce

Tab 10: Charitable Giving

Tab 11: Retirement Plans

Tab 12: Alternative Minimum Tax

Tab 13: Elderly

Tab 14: Estate and Gift Tax

I wholeheartedly recommend any tax practitioner add this new book to their library and if you are like me, it will be right next to your desk and referred to several times a day. For nontax professionals, it is a super bargain for all of the useful information it contains. At just $43 (less if multiple books are ordered), it costs the same as about 13 minutes of my time; so if it answers one question that you would normally have to pay your advisor for, it’s paid for itself. I’ve never understood why books such as the J. K. Lasser tax guides are big sellers every year, when the QuickFinder books are so much more useful.

I also ordered the CD-ROM versions of all the books for this year. None of them have arrived yet, but I’m looking forward to that. I haven’t been using the CD-ROM versions as often as the paper versions. However, there are often times when clients ask questions about certain topics and it’s easier for me to cut and paste from the CD version into an e-mail or a letter than to make photocopies from the printed version.

As some people may know, the original founder of the QuickFinder company passed away a few years back and there were concerns about whether the company would stay in business and the quality would stay as high as it’s been, especially after it was purchased by Thomson PPC a short while ago. This newest book is the first one I have received that has the Thomson PPC logo on it. You literally cannot tell that there was a change of any kind of the ownership or management of this company. The format and layout, even the little cartoons, are exactly how they’ve always been shown. There is definitely no slippage in quality.

The biggest problem in any forward looking tax book is the cloudiness of the crystal ball, especially in light of the expiring tax provisions and even the recently passed extender bill. Many of the 2005 and beyond figures will have to be revised in this book. QuickFinder has been great about putting updates on their web site, which I try to check at least once every couple of days.

State sales tax deduction gains support – There has long been a desire to reinstate the sales tax deduction for people who live in states with no income tax.

House Budget Panel Mulls Tax Reform Options – The scariest thing here is the discussion about having combined consumption and income taxe to replace the current system. The only way the Fair Tax proposal makes sense is if the 16th Amendment is repealed and the Federal income tax is completely eliminated and replaced with a national sales tax. Having a national sales tax on top of the income tax is just making things worse. Even if the Federal tax rates were to be dropped as an offset to the new sales tax, just keeping the income tax system in place guarantees future rate increases. It is humanly impossible for our rulers to resist.

The 2004 Tax Law – Kaye Thomas’ summary of the recently signed law.

MAXIMUM SEC. 179 DEDUCTION FOR SUVs TO BE SLASHED – This isn’t an actual law yet, but the environmental wackos seem to have been successful in forcing their opinions of suitable transportation on the rest of us. Of course, with a new threshold of 14,000 pounds, you may want to buy something like this. If you’re worried about that weight qualifier being pushed even higher, this one will more than cover it.

169 Business School Profs Criticize Bush Tax Policies – In case anyone was under the false assumption that business schools were immune from the Marxist infiltration of college campuses in this country. Let’s see how many profs sign a comparable letter supporting capitalism.

A New Strategy For Giving Away Your Money. IRS Blesses Accounts That Let Donors Keep Managing Money They’ve Given to a Charity