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.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Of Pay-Option ARM Loans

San Leandro tax preparer pleads guilty to bogus write-offs

Taxing battle over Botox – A tax on vanity would hit people like John sKerry right smack in their faces.

IRS Warns of Questionable Deductions for Donated Vehicles – Need to work with the new Form 1098–C for proper value to deduct.

From Ohio CPA Dana Stahl a few weeks ago:

Subject: NYSlimes article on SOX

 

Mr Guru – thought you’d like this article in the Slimes on SOX.  I haven’t really followed SOX, since it doesn’t really impact my firm.  Regardless, this article lauds SOX, as you’ll read.  However, when I see the media praising something, I’m already suspicious.  What do you think of SOX and of this article.  In your prospective, is the author getting it right?  Has SOX been beneficial or a bust?  Perhaps you can address this in the blog.

DS, CPA, ABA, ATA, ATP

Dana:

For the same reasons as you have, I haven’t been following the details on SOX as closely as I would have been a few decades back, when I was an internal auditor for a publicly traded corporation, where I helped prepare the 10Q and 10K reports.

However, the cursory mentions I have seen over the past several months gave me the impression that it was the same as other attempts by our rulers to legislate ethical behavior; a lot of window dressing with no real tangible effects other than to increase the paperwork.  Plenty of loopholes still allow enough opportunity for creative book cooking to continue.

I share your skepticism of trusting anything the DemonRats’ official news organ says.  If the NY Slimes claims something is good, the best interpretation is that it is counter to basic principles of capitalism.

I saw another good look at this by Joe Kristan, Jack Ciesielski and Dan Meyer on their blogs:

http://tickmarks.blogspot.com/2005/12/sec-head-cox-accounting-rule.html

http://www.rothcpa.com/archives/001506.php

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=794831

http://www.accountingobserver.com/blog/2005/12/the-complexity-conundrum/

 

They seem to share our doubts that SOX has accomplished anything more than adding additional complexity to the accounting game.

Kerry

These New Businesses Grew Out of Scandals

Deducting high tech gadgets

How You Can Create Your Own Charity

IRS to Raise Some User Fees in 2006

The Feds Bust Some More Tax Scammers Who Lured In Gullible Fools:

Institute of Global Prosperity’s offshore bank account scheme

Hawaiian woman who sold tax fraud schemes to military personnel