Check Carefully Before Applying for Offers in Compromise – One of the many popular topics in spam is from scammers promising to wipe out past tax debts. They are as credible as the other kinds of spam.

IRS Revises Offer in Compromise Application Form; Now Available for Use

I finally had a chance to try out the newest version of QuickBooks, Simple Start. Unfortunately, it turned out to be even worse than I had suspected it would be based on the descriptions of its features.

Here are some of the notes I made as I was testing it, both with the program’s sample data as well as a new company file I set up myself.

There are almost no setup preference options to customize things, which is a crucial feature of QB to allow it to work more efficiently, especially in regard to reports. Supposedly, some of the Preference settings can be changed in the full QB program by us professional accountants and then the file sent back to the client to use in Simple Start. This is just plain stupid.

There is no Accountant’s Review feature; so clients have to stop using their company files while their accountants work on the copy they are given. This is no better than with Quicken.

No Classes, although the P&L screen says that you can show columns by Class. Even Quicken has Classes, which is where I learned how useful they can be.

Can’t show more than one window.

No ShortCuts or Navigators windows.

The only good feature I could find was that the backup is as good as with regular QB; with one compressed QBB file.

Bottom line, this is just a crippled QuickBooks program, with fewer features than even Quicken has. I give it a thumbs down and advise staying away from this program and just using QuickBooks Basic.

Whichever geniuses at Intuit who thought this crappy program was a positive addition to the QuickBooks product line should get their resumes ready.

This is similar to the dart board picks that the Wall Street Journal used to compare with those made by high paid professional advisors. More often than not, the dart board’s picks beat the pros in terms of return on investment.

Bush’s Tax Cuts Are Unfair …To the rich.

Thomas Sowell takes on the Tax cuts for the rich! class warfare mantra of the Left.

Dealing With Life-Changing Events

For Libertarians, Candidates Offer Little Choice

The States Want to Tax a Tax! – This isn’t an entirely accurate description of what some states are considering. They are proposing adding postal services to the definition of what is subject to their sales taxes. This is just one more item that many states are adding to the taxable side of the equation in their search for additional revenue. If some states had their way, every single economic transaction would be subject to the sales tax.

States Betting on Gambling Proposals – Stupid people deserve to pay their fair share of taxes.

Phony donor duped St. Mary’s College in big scam. $121 million pledge tied to real estate scheme, report says – Not a smart move by the college; spending money before it has been actually received.

Some less than ordinary cash payments that weren’t very welcome to the recipients.

100,000 Pennies Saved Are 100,000 Pennies Spurned

Old bills create fuss at Taco Bell

It’s hard to know which is more frightening; the thought of this elitist snob, who despises people who actually work for a living and considers herself a saint for spending money she inherited, as First Lady, or her gigolo husband in the Oval Office.

The Committee For Justice is giving away some very cool bumper stickers that will still be quite useful around here long after the upcoming election. You can order yours here.

This is an excellent analogy for the Social Security system. Fewer and fewer workers supporting more and more retirees can only have one result.