Anyone who bills for their time should be able to relate to this funny song about people who feel no qualms about stealing our stock in trade.  When people complain about having to pay for our time, we ask them if they feel the same way about owners of retail stores.  Do they feel it’s okay to just walk in and help themselves to the inventory without having to pay for it?

TheTaxBook has a four page update on how tax preparers can opt out of this new stupid requirement to e-file client tax returns. 

Form 8944 is the IRS request to be exempted from this requirement. 

Reading the form and its instructions, I am drawn to this section which defines the issue of filing tax returns. 

From Tax Info

I guess there are tax prep firms that actually send in the paper 1040s directly to IRS.  It has always been our policy to prepare the tax returns and give them to the clients to sign and mail to IRS.  Only on a very few occasions, such as when a client is very ill or out of the country, have we actually mailed client tax returns from our office to the IRS.

Under this definition of having to file more than 100 tax returns (10 next year) rather than prepare that many, I don’t feel that we are even subject to this new rule; so I see no need to submit a 8944. 

Other preparers who want to avoid the e-filing requirement may want to consider allowing their clients to also mail in their own 1040s.

Latest GOP repeal tactic: Starve the IRS – Great idea.

Interest Rates Increase for the Second Quarter of 2011

The Internal Revenue Service today announced that interest rates for the calendar quarter beginning April 1, 2011, will increase by one percentage point.  The rates will be: 

• four (4) percent for overpayments (three (3) percent in the case of a corporation);
• four (4) percent for underpayments;

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=taxfreeexchacorp&o=1&p=13&l=ez&f=ifr&f=ifr

Healthcare Reform Law Requires New IRS Army Of 1,054 –  Consistent with the overall trend of massive growth in the number of government employees, while the private sector unemployment rate is in double digits.

Uncle Sam wants you … to repay the home tax credit. Payback is due for those who took advantage in ’08, not in ’09 or ’10

It’s tricky to keep this straight, so this chart from TheTaxBook is extremely handy.

From Tax Info

Downloadable PDF version.

Amazon.com Widgets

Obama’s FY2012 Budget: Taxes, Taxes, and More Taxes –  And who is surprised by this?