Web Bill Payments Hurting Check Printers – As technology changes, so do the ways in which people pay their bills. In spite of my extensive use of QuickBooks, I don’t use any online bill paying service except for PayPal, which I do use a lot as more online vendors accept it.

I did try another online bill paying service a few years back; but considered the process to be less efficient than just sending out my own checks. If they ever set things up so that we can transfer money directly from our bank account to the payees’, that will be an efficient way to do things. As these services work now, they charge you a fee to print out a check and mail it to the payee via snail mail. I have received a few such payments from clients. I don’t like this because it still puts you at the mercy of the postal service and gives you no control over the timing. They often take weeks to make the actual payment.

Besides the growth of online payments, the check printing companies have to be feeling the impact of software that allows us to print our own checks in smaller, more convenient, batches. It’s been a while since I’ve written about the VersaCheck programs, which I have been using for several years to print blank checks to use in Quicken and QuickBooks, as well as to print check drafts for clients who fax their payments to us.

I have been buying each year’s new version and have found enough improvements in each one to justify the additional expense. In fact, the 2004 version has had the handiest new feature in several years. It has what they call “one pass printing.” With past versions, I had to print out a bunch of blank checks with our company and bank info, which I would then later put into my printer’s paper tray when I wanted to print checks from Quicken and QuickBooks. With this newest version, I can put virgin blank check paper into the paper tray and when I go to print a check from QuickBooks, it starts up a driver that activates VersaCheck and prints absolutely everything onto the check paper at one time. Other than a problem with the memo info printing below the line instead of on top (which I have reported to the company and yet to see any fix for), I have been very pleased with how much time this saves me from printing checks twice.

And, as I’ve had to remind several clients, if you are not using QuickBooks to print out your checks – whether preprinted ones you buy or via a utility like VersaCheck – you are missing out on the biggest time saving feature of QuickBooks. It also improves the accuracy of the data input over entering check info after the fact.

Firms taught to milk ‘cash cow’ – I guess we in the tax practitioner community each have our own ideas of what is ethically acceptable in terms of services we provide for our clients. Helping them minimize their tax outlays is something I’ve always been proud to do. However, helping them fleece taxpayers through various corporate welfare schemes is far beyond anything I could stomach doing. It seems that Ernst & Young has no qualms about assisting in this.

Maybe it’s just my Libertarian philosophy that believes strongly in small inexpensive government; but I could never take part in anything that adds to the cost of government. I’ve even refused to take part in any of the lucrative farm subsidy programs for my 55 acre ranch back in California and our 285 acre ranch here in the Ozarks for that very reason. If we couldn’t make money from them on our own, it wouldn’t be fair to have the taxpayers pick up the tab.

High Gas Prices: Man Drives Eleven Hours to Save Four Dollars on Tank of Gas – While this is obviously a satire, I have seen plenty of similar real life stories of people doing the same kind of thing.

We are still on our crusade to get all of our clients using QuickBooks. I received the following inquiry from a client today.

Is QuickBooks 2000 acceptable? My husband has a copy of it.

My answer:

In regard to QuickBooks, you would be best off buying a copy of QB 2004 Basic. All of the programs before the 2002 version have been abandoned by Intuit; so you won’t be able to get any support from them. There are also several features in the newer versions that make the program easier to use.

You can get the absolute best prices on eBay. Next best are from Sam’s Club. You can also get a good price by clicking the banner ad on my website.

The cheapest single user Basic version is all you need. No need to waste the money on the fancier versions.

Thanks to Mike Bahnmiller, CPA for forwarding this copy of the proposed new simple form for senior citizens. Interesting that it’s two pages and will still need attached backup schedules (A, B & D) where applicable.

Virginia Passes $1.6 Billion Tax Hike: Voters May Not Forget – Let’s hope they don’t forget. Unfortunately, very few people connect their tax burden to the votes they make. This is why putting the tax filing deadline closer to Election Day would be so useful. Holding politicians accountable for what they are costing voters is the only way to exercise any control over them. They are supposed to be “public servants,” which is supposed to mean that they serve us. Unfortunately, it has become the other way around. We work to earn money to send to our rulers.

Growing an economy – Good contrast between capitalism and the DemonRat Left. Capitalists want to stimulate garden like growth. DemonRats want to stomp on the ground to prevent anything from sprouting.

IRS is asked to investigate Springs diocese – The complaint isn’t actually that a church is advising on the best ways to vote. It’s because they advised to vote for the GOP. As we all know, political campaigns from the pulpit must only be in support of the DemonRats or they are in violation of the law.

Where Does Your State Rank Among Those Raising Taxes?

Council for Citizens Against Government Waste’s (CCAGW) 2003 Congressional Ratings

Fiscal Shenanigans – Big news here. The New York Times hates the very concept of tax cuts and anyone who supports them.

Separating Tax Facts From Tax Fiction – Nice look at the truth about the tax burden and the idiocy of the “tax cuts for the rich” mantra of the Left.

They are as desperate as ever for new sources of revenue in the PRC, as indicated by these latest proposals, courtesy of Spidell

Independent contractor withholding proposal – This is an extension of a popular tactic by government rulers, snatch some money right up front. In this case, they are proposing two percent of the gross of payments for services. It will in effect deputize millions more people as tax collectors for the State government.

Proposed tax on wealthy to pay for mental health – More of the typical soak the rich mentality from the rulers in Sacramento. How hard will it be to get people to vote to stick it to those evil fat cats making over a million bucks a year? After this passes, the floodgates will open for many more such levies on the wealthy. It may only be one percent; but when you have a few dozen of those one percent taxes, we’re talking about some big bucks.

Downsizing the Federal Government