This is an interesting discussion by attorney Bob Klueger of some important recently enacted changes in the estate tax laws; including the use of A/B trusts.
Archive for January, 2011
Estate Planning Changes
Posted by taxguru on January 10, 2011
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Anything popular can expect to be taxed…
Posted by taxguru on January 8, 2011
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2011 Tax Days
Posted by taxguru on January 4, 2011
April 15th is not the official Tax Day this year. Because of holidays and weekends, IRS has announced that the official filing deadlines this year are:
Monday, April 18 for normal 1040s and 4868s (extensions)
Monday, October 17 for extended 1040s
We can all adjust our focus accordingly.
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It all adds up…
Posted by taxguru on January 4, 2011
Maybe it’s just our string of bad luck, but good customer service seems to be a rarer and rarer occurrence these days; so it really stands out when it still happens..Even with computers and other new fancy electronic gadgets, I still put a lot of miles on a good old printing desk calculator. The little calculator simulators that are in some computer programs, such as QuickBooks and Lacerte, are no substitute for a good physical adding machine with a paper print-out for double checking and taping into the clients’ files.
I have occasionally tried cheaper brands, but they never last as long as the Monroes, which I started using on my first jobs back in the 1970s with the CPA firms in the Bay Area after college. In fact, that reminds me that this was one of the most ridiculous omissions from a college accounting education; no training in 10 key entry, because they considered that to be beneath the status of a university. I had to learn this skill on the job.
Besides being much heavier duty and more customizable than the less expensive brands, the Monroes have their paper rolls inside the shell of the machine rather than hanging on flimsy holders outside of it. That has come in very handy with our cats constantly jumping onto my calculators and breaking the paper holders on the cheaper brands.
About a month ago, I was doing some basic adding on my seven month old Monroe Ultimate and could notice that the results were off by a bit. I messed around with some of the switches and finally got the proper result. However, this kept happening. The final straw was adding up some postage for Sherry and not coming up with the same total she had.
That was a bit scary for me, when I rely so heavily on the accuracy of the calculator; so I figured I would have to buy a new one ASAP. I chalked it up as another fried casualty of the power spikes we constantly get up here in the boonies. I even figured that I might just get another less expensive brand and be resigned to the fact that I would be replacing them every six months or so.
However, Sherry doesn’t give up as easily as I do; so she called Monroe and reached a very helpful salesman, Mike Prasch. She gave the phone to me and I described the problem to Mike. He immediately diagnosed what was happening. Somehow, I had activated the Nickel Rounding feature in the machine. He offered to walk me through how to turn that off. It was then that I remembered that a few weeks earlier, I had consulted the manual and activated a few other features that I had wanted to use – Paper Saver and Subtotal Display. I must have accidentally also turned on the Nickel Rounding feature as well.
After walking me through the very simple deactivation process for the Nickel Rounding, I told Mike that, as impressive as the dozens of special programmable calculation features the Ultimate had, I was nervous about using them and just stuck to the basics. He explained that they weren’t as scary as I imagined and then proceeded to walk me through an example of how to use the Two Column and Crossfooting features; which were much easier than I had expected.
Maybe I’m just so accustomed to salesmen who only care about the sale and don’t know any of the technical capabilities of their products; but my experience with Mike Prasch at Monroe struck me as very unusual in this day and age. I obviously didn’t need to buy another calculator that day; but when that time does come, or if anyone else needs to buy one, I have no hesitation in recommending a Monroe from Mike Prasch, who can be reached at 1–888–666–7631.
This may sound like a paid commercial for Monroe calculators; but it is completely uncompensated and is my way of acknowledging Mike’s extraordinarily good customer service, as well as sharing my recommendation for the best printing desk calculators with the other tax pros who read this.
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Dave Barry’s take on new tax law
Posted by taxguru on January 2, 2011
From his hilarious review of 2010:
…a partisan debate rages over what to do about the expiring Bush tax cuts. The Democrats, suddenly alarmed about the deficit, want to raise taxes on people making $250,000 a year — or, as the Democrats routinely refer to them, “billionaires.” The Republicans want to extend tax cuts for everybody, but compensate by cutting federal spending at a later date using an amazing new spending-cutting device they have seen advertised on TV.
Finally, Obama and the Republican leaders reach a compromise under which income-tax rates will stay the same for everybody, but the death tax will be expanded to include people who are merely hung over…
Obama, trying to sell the compromise, appears ambivalent, saying that “it is less than ideal,” but also pointing out that “it totally sucks,” adding, “I hate it.” Despite this smooth sales pitch, many Democrats are unhappy.
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Tax Guru - Ker$tetter Letter 