When the Check Isn’t in the Mail

What’s a nonprofit to do when a donor reneges on a pledge?

Balancing the Books – Tax cuts don’t cause deficits. Spending does.

Buffet Can Talk Stocks, Not Taxes. His death-tax analysis is all wrong for a number of reasons. – As I’ve been saying for years, this capitalism guru preaches a lot of Marxism.

Saving Your Nest Egg. Retirement funds suffer if you go on disability. An insurance policy can help

SEC Can Accelerate Hiring After Congress Waives Rule – Good move by our rulers in DC. People like me, who can easily spot corporate accounting fraud, aren’t going to put up with the normal civil service crap involved with working for the government.

Speaking of policing corporations, the WSJ has an interesting article on conflicts of interest when head honchos from non-profit organizations sit on the boards of for-profit companies. They see a tendency to look the other way from problems, as long as the corp contributes to the charitable organization.

To encourage more people to file their tax returns electronically (something I have consistently advised against), our rulers in DC are trying to give those people a special tax deadline of April 30, an additional 15 days beyond the traditional April 15. As always, this will make the tax system even more complicated and be as productive for our country as renaming French Fries as Freedom Fries.

IRS Workers Abuse Net Access – Why should IRS employees be any different than those of any other employer?

Walter Cronkite Declares: “We Ought to Be Increasing the Taxes” – For those who can remember the All In The Family TV show, Archie Bunker really had Cronkite pegged as a commie pinko who didn’t deserve the moniker of “Most Trusted Person In America.”

What’s even more upsetting than just the fact that East Coast columnists such as this support Communistic redistribution of wealth in our supposedly capitalist society is the fact that I was alerted to this via a CPA oriented publication that often supports this kind of thinking.

I receive a lot of criticism when I bring this point up, but I have a very hard time believing that clients aren’t being screwed over when the tax professionals they pay believe that our current tax rates are just fine and that everyone should be paying more. It’s a conflict of interest that makes no sense. As I’ve always said in my advice for selecting a tax pro, it’s essential to see if you both agree on whether or not it’s a good thing to legally reduce your taxes. In fact, if you think that it is your patriotic duty to pay in as much as possible, why pay anyone to prepare your tax return? Just have the IRS do it for you for free. They’ll make sure your wish comes true.

It’s interesting how many of the ridiculous kinds of taxes, similar to those mentioned in George Harrison’s classic TaxMan song, eventually become reality. We are all used to paying extra taxes while purchasing gas. Now, the New Zealanders are discussing taxing the bodily production of gas by livestock. Their argument is that burps and farts from farm animals contribute to the so-called greenhouse gas problem and thus must be taxed.

While this idea is half a world away from us in the USA, stupid ideas like this have a way of finding their way here. In spite of the fact that our real life temperatures are lower than normal and we have been having more precipitation than normal, there are still plenty of environmental wackos claiming that global warming will destroy the planet unless we stop driving our cars and shut down our industrialized society. They will jump at the chance to tax farmers for their cows’ farts.

Automakers Push for Tax Breaks on Fuel Cell Cars – Another way our rulers in DC can try to manipulate our behavior. Who would be surprised to know about campaign contributions (aka bribes) from the car companies to encourage this kind of legislation to help them sell vehicles that they don’t believe can survive in the marketplace without some taxpayer subsidy?