Celebrity’s not the same as credibility – Good piece on why it’s important to be wary of financial gurus who seem to be more concerned with being famous than in serving their clients properly.  I’ve long had similar thoughts about the experts on the many stock picking shows.

William F. Buckley’s thoughts on the prospects for tax reform.

The Medicare Mess. It’s hemorrhaging money. – No surprise here.  Medicare is the classic case of incompetence by our rulers in forecasting future costs, which is why I always remind people that all such official financial predictions are nothing more than WAGs (wild ass guesses) and anyone (especially in the media) who refers to them as reliable is either an idiot or a liar, or more likely both.  Please remember this as numbers are tossed around during discussions of tax and Social Security reform.  Those numbers will be as bogus as the figures were when the Medicare program was started.

I guess if you had seen one of my comments without the proper context or any knowledge of my history, you might come to the same conclusion as this person.  Actually, calling me disrespectful of rich people is as accurate as calling Bill Clinton gay or celibate.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Tax Guru:

I was linked to your web-site when I queried my search engine on new information regarding the 2004 tax brackets. I was very surprised to read your definition (Evil Rich) of those individuals who have worked very hard and persevered to be able to live a comfortable lifestyle. As a “Tax Guru” I find your comments to be tremendously un-professional and down right offensive. Moreover, it’s clients like the “Evil Rich” that allow CPAs to charge a more than healthy fee.

My Reply:

I can’t tell if you are joking here or are truly unclear as to my opinions on people who I routinely sarcastically refer to as “evil rich.”

Just in case it’s the latter, and assuming that others may share your confusion, I will clarify.

I have never considered people who are wealthy to be evil.  I have long been a very proud Libertarian and defender of capitalism to the nth degree.  Punishing or otherwise degrading people who have worked hard to achieve success is entirely opposite from all of my beliefs.

My use of the term “evil rich” is a very unsubtle slam at people who subscribe to the undeniable and very pervasive undercurrent in this country among most of the mainstream media and people in the DemonRat Party who consider it the epitome of evil for any person to have one dollar more than anyone else.  It is their mission in life to rectify this situation by any means possible; but most often by use of the tax code to redistribute wealth from the producers to those who don’t have as much.  
As a result, we have a tax system that is extremely punitive of success.  The list of provisions that punish people for doing well is literally endless and those punishment are meted out based on arbitrary definitions of “evil rich” that are established by our elected officials who consider their jobs to include ruling our lives as subjects in a kingdom, which is why I refer to them as our “rulers.”

If you think my pointing this fact out is unprofessional, that is your right to have that opinion.  One of my long running complaints about many people in the tax practitioner community is how they just accept the tax system as it is and ignore the underlying reasons for why things are as they are.  They act as if tax policies and laws just materialize in a vacuum.  I have always recognized the tax system as just the symptom of  much bigger underlying problems and I feel it is my responsibility to point those facts out.

I hope this clears this issue you for you.  If you were just making a joke, I’m sorry for being too dense to catch it.

Thank you for writing.

Kerry Kerstetter

 

Don’t Use Your Mortgage To Play the Stock Market – This is almost too obvious a warning to need stating; but there are plenty of people who do foolishly play the risky stock market with their home equities and their retirement accounts.  However, using the equity in one property to purchase additional real estate is a standard long running technique to use leverage to accumulate considerably more wealth over time than tossing the dice in the stock market.

The U.S. has dropped out of the top 10 freest economies in the world because of its high tax rates. – As I’ve always said, when you take away someone’s money, you are reducing that person’s freedom.  The full list of freedom rankings does have some very odd components. I’m not sure how Hong Kong can be anywhere near Number One now that it is controlled by the murdering rulers of Red China.

Social Security: All Trust and No Fund – Any private market or employer sponsored retirement plan with the same kind of financial commingling as used by Social Security would be shut down and its officers tossed into prison.  Why our rulers in DC are allowed to continue to perpetuate such a scam has always been a testament to the ignorance of the American people and the cover-up by those on the Left who insist on having the government control every aspect of our lives.  

Social Security pickle fuels expert discord – I’d say that anyone under 50 who counts on Social Security being a safe investment will be in a very sour pickle indeed.

What Social Security reform would mean for blacks – The lower a person’s life expectancy, the worse the return on the “investment” in SS.  Those who have little chance of living long enough to recover all or any of their contributions get screwed the worst since the SS accounts aren’t actual assets that can be left to survivors, as privately owned retirement accounts can be. 

Social Security Formula Weighed – The left’s “scare the old folks” strategy is underway.

Graham Crackers on Social Security – RINO Senator wants to raise Social Security taxes.

Finance Leaders Propose to Extend 2004 Deduction Window for Tsunami Relief Donations – We may be able to claim disaster relief donations made in January 2005 on our 2004 1040s rather than having to wait to claim them on the 2005 1040.  If this passes, we’ll  need to be careful to not overlook these donations when assembling info for 2004 tax returns. I usually run QuickBooks reports based on the client’s calendar year, so I’ll need to extend the report into January for the Donations expense account. 

Tax Pros Doubt U.S. Code Will Get Any Simpler – It never gets simpler. The more our rulers try to simplify things, the more they mess them up even more.  All we ever get is more work for us tax pros.

Slow Start Expected for Tax Reform Panel

IRS Updates Sales Tax Table Publication -Something tells me this modification for Arkansas, California & Virginia won’t be the last change IRS has to make to their tables if they used rates in effect as of 1/1/04 for all of their tables. 

Lottery winner, 94, loses in court – The judge has ordered this woman to stick around until she is 114 years old if she want to see all of her lottery winnings.

Social Security Fear Factor – In their true loyal left fashion, the DemonRat’s official newspaper (NY Times) twists things to claim Bush is an alarmist for pointing out how financially unstable the Social Security Ponzi Scheme is, while ignoring the true fear tactics being used by AARP and other of their Fellow Travelers who are petrified at the mere thought of allowing average people control over their own money rather than allowing the all knowing, all seeing, imperial federal government to control everything.  

Medicare dwarfs Social Security as long-term issue – Another government program constructed by the same financial geniuses who developed Social Security, and using many of the same idiotic underlying assumptions. 

Investing Resolutions

IRS’s Highlights of 2004 Tax Law Changes

Sales Tax Deduction Option – From IRS

State taxes roundup – Handy list of income and sales tax rates for each state.

Hatch sues Capital One over “No Hassle” credit card ads – A credit card company jacking up its interest rate from the promised 4.99% fixed to 27%?  Who do they think they are – the Federal government?