I’ve been tied up for the past few days and unable to check as many news stories as I normally do; so some of these are a little older than is usually the case.

Bush’s shaky base – Taking the conservative voters for granted and trying to buy votes from liberals could be a problem for Bush. As I’ve said many times before, sitting out the November election won’t make as powerful statement to Bush about our disenchantment of his embrace of Big Government programs than actually registering a vote for a party that shares the conservative principles of small constitutionally justified government, which just happens to be the Libertarians.

Frist: Senate May Debate Tax Cut Budget

Attorney argues blacks don’t owe income tax – This is even more idiotic than the ridiculous reparations argument some morons have been trying to pursue.

Who’s profiting off high gas prices? Not the owner of the Kwik-E-Mart.

Legislation on IRS Collections Reflects Clashes Over Outsourcing – An issue that pops up regularly – using outside services to collect on unpaid taxes. Privacy and confidentiality issues still remain controversial.

Child Tax Credit Approval Caps Busy Month

Internet Lowers Real Estate Commissions – This is as it should be with information becoming more widely available.

A Scan of the Headline Scanners – A good look at some of the most popular ways to use the RSS feeds that are becoming more prevalent on the web. I have been very happy with my setup on the Bloglines service for the past several months.

Shrinking Government – The only way we can ever expect to see lower taxes.

Presidential Tax Returns – Actual copies of the 1040s from a number of presidents, as well as veep Dick Cheney.

Tax hikers are relics of past – We can only hope.

Dems: Soak the poor! – Imagine that. The DemonRats don’t want to make the new 10% tax bracket permanent.

Gassy EMails:

I’m sick of receiving those email chain letters claiming that not buying gas on Wednesday will have some effect on the price. Check out this analysis of that foolishness from the busy debunkers at Snopes.com.

More thanks to TaxProf Paul Caron for the link to this pdf chart showing the maximum Federal tax rates since 1916. I found it so interesting that I converted it to html and made it a permanent page on my main website for reference purposes.

TaxProf Paul Caron has an interesting look at the issue of a church’s tax exempt status and its technically illegal involvement in politics. While this current case deals with the Catholic church’s problems with John Kerry, we shouldn’t forget how the DemonRats have a history of using black churches as campaign vehicles. Bill Clinton, Al Gore and John Kerry have all very openly used such churches as campaign tools. Is there any wonder why we haven’t seen any media outcry for those churches to have their tax exempt status revoked for violating the ban on political involvement? It doesn’t take a NASA scientist to figure that out.

You can always find the latest news releases from IRS on their web site in easy html or in downloadable PDF, such as these latest ones:

IRS Lends a Hand to Small Business

IRS Offers Small Businesses New Tools to Help Manage Retirement Plans

IRS has been doing a good job of making an ever increasing number of tax resources available through their web site. However, we do need to keep in mind that they do have a natural bias in regard to generating revenues for the government. So, key decisions as to how to structure a business, such as the best type of corporation to use should still be evaluated with the assistance of a tax pro who shares your desire to minimize your taxes.

Feds bust $50M tax scam – Another dose of reality for participants in the Global Prosperity tax evasion scam.

Rules of the ‘Roth’ and ‘Roll’ – No shortage of confusion over the rules for IRA accounts. The complexity will only increase as more new types of plans are introduced.

Budget Seeks 75% of Awards for Damages – Interesting attack on wacky lawsuits by Governor Arnold. Have the State government seize 75% of the punitive damage awards.

Riding out the Gas Spike – Still no word from IRS on increasing the official standard mileage rate. My hunch is that they are still waiting to see if the fuel prices will come back down soon.

How to Introduce an Effective Tax and Expenditure Limit

A Profile of the 70 Million Taxpayers Benefiting from the Wider 10-Percent Tax Bracket