An annual Fall ritual is the release of a new version of QuickBooks.  I haven’t received my copies of the final 2006 programs yet; but should be getting them in the next few weeks.  I am curious to see if they acted on my criticism and will be including the Macintosh version of the program in the package we Certified Pro Advisors are given.  For those users and accounting pros who are curious as to the new features of the 2006 programs, Intuit has set up this page.

Life expectancy has always been the big unknown when making retirement plans.

News From NATP:

National Association of Tax Professionals Answers Your Tax Questions About Hurricane Katrina Donations

What tax information affects those affected by Hurricane Katrina?

Investigation Clears Treasury in Flap Over Analysis of sKerry Tax Plan – And people say FEMA takes a long time to get things done.  This is in response to an analysis done in March 2004.

GOP Promising Fall Tax Package Despite Waning Public Support – Let’s hope they have enough stamina to stand up to the growing onslaught of leftist propaganda against any reduction in the tax burden.

 Guidelines for Filing Insurance Claims – Some good tips from the Wall Street Journal.

Top Retirement Plans For the Self-employed

Gaining Nonprofit Status For a Charitable Business

Tax-Averse Firms Cross a State Line – Nothing new that people will move to lower tax states. This is obviously exacerbated when the discrepancies in tax burden are wider between different states.

Nonresidents’ Gain From Sale of Painting Was New York-Source Income – This also isn’t a new concept.  Sales of items in another state are taxed by that state, regardless of where your official tax home may be.  This is usually related to real estate sales, but other big ticket items have the same problem.  The people in this case should have taken the painting to their South Carolina home before selling it.  Hopefully, others will learn from their mistake.

The Feds send another tax return scammer to the clink –  Joseph W. Flickinger of Ohio claimed to be able to “detax” his clients. He will now be “de-liberated” for the next 70 months. 

A reminder from Scott Stantis of Prickly City

I just sent the following message to Snopes.com, my favorite scam debunker.

An alert for your readers:

Yesterday (9/10/05), we received a phone call that showed up as “Salvation Army  800-725-2769” on our caller ID.  My wife answered and the person claimed to be soliciting donations for the SA.  Being a suspicious person, my wife told the caller that we already donate directly and do not appreciate these calls.

I later did some checking on the web and confirmed that SA does not make outgoing calls soliciting donations, such as in this article:

 Legitimate relief groups will not make phone calls soliciting donations.

“Criminals do that,” said Kane County Assistant State’s Attorney Scott Larson. “The Red Cross doesn’t do that, the Salvation Army doesn’t do that.”

People who get calls asking for Hurricane Relief donations should simply say, “No thank you,” and hang up, Larson said.

You’ve been doing an excellent job covering scams from Hurricane Katrina; so I wanted to pass this along.

Kerry Kerstetter
Osage, Arkansas

The real Salvation Army website

I have come across yet another interpretation of George Harrison’s classic TaxMan song.  This one is a jazzy instrumental version from a concert by The GreyBoy AllStars on 5/1/04 in New Orleans. Although there are no vocals, the words just popped into my mind while listening to it, from the decades of hearing the Beatles sing this song.

I found this song as I was downloading the concert from Nugs.net, a great source of live music recordings.  In fact, this week’s Nugscast is a tribute to New Orleans music. 

IRS Increases Mileage Rate Until Dec. 31, 2005 – As I predicted a few weeks ago, IRS has finally raised the standard rate for business mileage.  However, they have made the change effective a month earlier than I expected. 

For the last four months of 2005, the rate is 48.5 cents per mile.  This means you will need to show separate totals for miles driven from January 1, 2005 through August 31, 2005 (40.5 cents) and from September 1 through  December 31, 2005 (48.5 cents).

As always, this extra eight cents per mile for the final four months of 2005 may not be adequate for a lot of people; so it’s extra crucial to be keeping track of actual operating costs so that you can compare them with the standard rate deduction when you and your professional preparer are working on your 2005 1040.   If you set up sub-accounts for each vehicle in QuickBooks, getting these totals for the year isn’t a very time consuming task.

IRS has also increased the deduction for charitable and medical miles for the last four months of 2005 by seven cents, from 15 cents per mile to 22 cents.

The rate to be used for charitable purposes remains at 14 cents per mile because our imperial rulers in DC have carved that rate into stone, and not allowed IRS to increase it based on such trivial things as a doubling of gas prices.

The IRS Is Watching Old Business Accounts – If you decide to abandon a corporation and don’t wrap things up properly, you could be looking at some heavy taxes personally.  I have seen this quite often with California corporations, where until you officially dissolve it, the $800 per year minimum tax, plus lots of penalties and interest, grow into thousands of dollars very quickly.  Just leaving the PRC isn’t good enough protection.  The FTB will hunt down the owners wherever they may be and seize bank accounts.  I have seen it happen here in the Ozarks.