Q:

Dear Sir,

I saw your advice on the net and really appreciate the work you have posted. I have a question I am hoping you can help with. I purchased a used BMW for the depreciation deduction at the end of 2004 to use in my
business, a vocational school, transporting books from the publisher to our school. It was 5,840 pounds, but when I added the necessary roof rack to carry the inventory it meets the 6,000 pound requirement. This works for the IRS
requirement, right?
Thank you in advance for your time.

A:

If the new rack becomes permanently affixed to the vehicle, you can add its weight to that of the vehicle to see if it is more than 6,000 pounds.  If it’s a removable stick-on rack, you will have a tougher time proving that its weight should be counted along with the vehicle’s.

This is no different than what some car dealers do when they sell their “tax upgrade packages” with various other features, such as towing equipment and racks installed to push the weight of an SUV or truck over that magical 6,000 pound threshold.

  Kerry Kerstetter

 

Q:

Hello

I am currently using QuickBooks Pro 99. My office manager thinks we should upgrade to 2005. Any real advantages?  Everything seems to work 

fine on this old version. We are a 2 million dollar graphic design firm. If you have time – any comments would be helpful

Regards

A:

I wholeheartedly agree that it’s long past time for you to upgrade.

While you rarely see huge differences in each year’s new version of QB compared with the previous year’s, when you jump six years forward, you will see dozens of very useful improvements that will make the upgrade very worthwhile.

It is also the case that Intuit officially abandons all versions of QB that are more then three years old, as another incentive to motivate hold-outs like you to upgrade.  QB 99 was dropped by Intuit years ago.  QB 2002 is scheduled to be orphaned in April of 2005. 

Good luck.  I hope this helps. 

Kerry Kerstetter

Followup Q:

Thank you for your quick reply. You have made Laura, our office manager very happy.

Do you think we will have trouble pulling the data from 99 to 05 since – as you correctly pointed

out – our version is old and not support. I really appreciate your insight.

A:

You shouldn’t have any problem rolling your data from the 99 program to any newer version, including the newest 2005.  I’ve done hundreds of such conversions, often skipping several years, and have never had any problems.

Good luck.

Kerry

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IRS says “Survivor” winner didn’t report his million dollar prize – Let’s see if Richard Hatch can survive this challenge, from IRS and the Federal government.  Not reporting his well publicized winnings was just plain stupid.

With Social Security’s well documented record as the worst performing investment, opponents of change have a lot of nerve claiming that people will be worse off by investing that money themselves.

NYC Smokes Out Smokers Who Buy Cigarettes Online – Nicotine addicts are always under attack, especially when they try to save money.

Are No-Interest Offers As Good as They Sound?

IRS Searching for Taxpayers of Mass Deception

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Breaking the Code – Thanks to Andrew Roth at the Club For Growth for the heads up on this NY Times lengthy look at the tax reform efforts.