Treasury and IRS Issue Final Regulations on Student Exception from Employment Taxes

Study Indicates Tax Shelters Improve Companies’ Financials

I just learned that Intuit has another what appears to be unnecessary product on the way to the market place, Quicken Rental Property Manager.  We have been using plain old QuickBooks just fine for keeping track of all rental activities for years and years.  Setting up a Class for each property makes it a very simple task to complete Schedule E.  If Intuit sends me a copy of this program to review, I’ll check it out; but I doubt if it will be any more useful than the Simple Start program I reviewed a few months back. 

As much as I love the QuickBooks programs, the folks at Intuit are creating a lot of unnecessary confusion with these various new versions that serve no useful purpose in the real world of accounting and taxes. Just a guess here; but it’s as if they set a goal of introducing a certain number of new products each year and quantity has taken precedence over quality. 

I wonder how many bad reviews of their products I am allowed before they kick me out of their Certified Pro Advisor program.  I guess we’ll find out if they continue to pump out stupid programs.

The Early-Retiree Problem. Another strain on the Social Security system.

The ‘Fair’ Tax – No argument here that the current income tax system punishes achievement and is counter-productive to a capitalist society.

Agency calls TV money man’s claims deceptive  – Another bubble has burst.  That wacko on TV, Matthew Lesko, and his free money schemes may not be on the up and up.  Who would have figured that?

Average American Spends over $250,000 on Automobiles – Thanks to AutoBlog for this article.  Amazingly, there is no mention of the fact that the financial wizards at the IRS long ago proved that vehicles cost much less to operate when used for charitable (14.0 cents per mile) or medical (15.0 cents per mile) reasons, than for evil money making endeavors (40.5 cents per mile).  Think of the savings if we only used our cars for charitable or medical trips.

As artistically inept as I am, I was able to create this in a matter of seconds at this Tombstone Generator website.  I used 1913 as the IRS’s birthdate because that was the year the 16th Amendment was ratified.

I guess last year’s addition of less traditional people to the gallery of action figures (aka dolls), such as political commentator (and real life doll) Ann Coulter, should have tipped us off that other professions would soon be represented with semi-lifelike plastic replicas.  

We financial pros now have MoneyMan to give to the younger generations so they too can dream of one day growing up to beat back IRS auditors and jump over tax shelters in a single bound. I doubt if MoneyMan could beat G.I. Joe in a fist-fight; but I’m sure he could reconcile a bank account much faster.