State Budgets Boosted by Bush Tax Cuts, Analysts Say – Just another example of the fact that lower Federal tax rates stimulate more economic activity, resulting in more tax dollars.

Sarbanes-Overkill – John Stossel looks at the biggest beneficiaries of the SOX laws, accountants.

Tax Practice Across State Lines – As I’ve mentioned a few times before, Spidell has been following the issue of whether CPAs who prepare out of state tax returns need to be licensed by those states.  In this latest announcement, Spidell links to Art Berkowitz’s website, where he has an Excel sheet available for download that shows the rules for each state for both individual and business income tax returns. 

After looking over his spreadsheet, it seems that the rules are still very nebulous, with some states allowing out of staters to prepare tax returns, as long as they don’t use their CPA designation, and others that don’t want to regulate unless you actually step foot inside the state.  As someone who prepares tax returns for dozens of states that I never visit, I’m not planning to go through any more licensing than what I already have with Arkansas and the PRC.

New IRS Stats Show Bush Tax Cuts Shrinking Revenues, Magnifying AMT – Does anyone else smell some book cooking here? This is a very different spin on the numbers than other reports have shown.   

Tax Cut Conference to Wait Until February, Grassley Says – There’s nothing better for tax planning than mid-year changes in the laws.

I’ve written several times of how the IRS pulls numbers out of thin air as the supposed tax gap in order to justify more power for that agency, as well as how the media slavishly accept those figures without any kind of skepticism.  A new fictional tax gap is in the works now.

Ohio CPA Dana Stahl writes:

Mr Guru – more BS on the so-called “tax gap”.  At least, I’m on the right track, aren’t I?  I wonder who can be approached to challenge the thrust of this article.

DS, CPA

My Reply:

Dana:

I saw a summary of that report yesterday and figured right away that this was another case of our rulers comparing apples and oranges.  There are so many ways to calculate the value of economic activity in this country (GNP and GDP are just two), that it is impossible to match any of them up with what is shown on income tax returns.  Anybody who claims that such a comparison is possible has been smoking far too much wacky weed to be trusted.

As we have seen for several years, the mainstream media don’t care one whit about accuracy when it gets in the way of their agenda.  Giving more power to the IRS has obviously been their goal for a very long time, and anything they can use to bolster that argument will be used regardless of its legitimacy.

Kerry

More from Dana:

Mr Guru -couldn’t agree more.  The MSM just pisses me off royally, with their obvious bias & agenda (yet they continue to deny such!).  Fortunately, there are more options today, with the internet, talk radio, etc. to at least get the true word out.

DS

 

 

Snopes.com looks at the recent wave of phony IRS emails trying to convince people to reveal their Social Security numbers and credit card info.

Andy Roth at Club For Growth passes along this T-shirt on eBay for those IRS employees on your gift list.