Say No To E-File

IRS has ramped up its PR campaign to encourage us in the practitioner community to offer electronic filing of tax returns and will soon start a similar PR campaign aimed at taxpayers to pester their preparers to offer such a service. As I have written on several occasions, I do not believe that submitting an income tax return within the limited confines of the IRS’s format is in the best interest of my clients; so I am once again refusing to participate.

KMK

IRS Audit Targets

I hope this announcement by IRS is correct, that they will start focusing their energy on going after those people who flagrantly violate the tax laws, such as tax protestors and users of off-shore accounts. It will mean they will have less time to harass those of us who obey the laws. Here are more articles about this IRS announcement from the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Just another reminder that any mention of the “tax gap” of uncollected taxes is nothing more than a guess. By definition, such a number is impossible to know for certain. The bigger numbers attract more attention; so everyone latches onto them, when the real amounts could be just a small fraction of the $207 billion that they are guessing it to be. Of course, they could also be much higher; but that’s not likely. When coming up with their numbers, IRS only uses gross revenues and ignores expenses and other costs that would reduce the actual unreported taxable income.

KMK

Leasing Vehicles

As I have described in depth before, leasing a vehicle is generally a big rip-off for several reasons, especially if you drive more miles than the meager allowances the leasing companies provide (5,000 to 15,000 miles per year). The leasing companies secretly build in an interest factor of between 20 and 30 percent, making it a much more expensive method of finance than a normal vehicle loan.

However, I did want to pass along a pretty good recap from the Wall Street Journal to use in deciding whether or not leasing your next vehicle is the best move.

KMK

Credits vs Deductions

As always in discussing tax matters, many people, including those in the media, don’t understand the difference between a tax credit and a tax deduction. Even Rush Limbaugh, who is normally very accurate, frequently uses the terms interchangeably.

A tax credit is a dollar for dollar reduction in taxes. However, there are two types of credits. The most common type is the nonrefundable credit. This allows your income tax, but not your Self Employment tax, to be reduced to zero. Any credit above the amount needed to reduce the income tax to zero is essentially forfeited.

The other kind of credit is the refundable type. The most common example of this is the Earned Income Credit. With this, any excess credit after reducing your income and Self Employment taxes to zero can be refunded to you in cash.

Deductions, on the other hand, are used in calculating your taxable income. Your taxable income will determine the rates and amount of income tax you are assessed for the year. The amount of tax you save from a deduction is based on your marginal tax brackets. The higher tax bracket you are in, the more tax you will save. Conversely, if you are in a low tax bracket, your tax savings will be minimal. I tire of hearing people assume that a tax deduction will equate to a dollar for dollar reimbursement. That could only happen if they were in the 100% tax bracket, which thankfully doesn’t currently exist in the USA. Of course, if certain people had their way, we would have tax rates that high.

Hybrid Vehicle Deduction

I mention this distinction yet again because of the recent IRS announcements regarding the special $2,000 deduction that is available to buyers of vehicles that use gas & electric hybrid forms of power. Too many people are treating this as if it’s the same as a $2,000 rebate from the dealer. I’m sure people will, in their mental calculators, reduce their effective purchase price by a full $2,000, just as we are encouraged to do with mail-in rebates. Of course, I’m sure car salespersons will be misrepresenting this as equivalent to a $2,000 rebate in their sales spiel.

So, let’s see how much a $2,000 tax deduction will actually yield a person in tax savings. As you can see in the tax rate schedules, the most common rates are 15% and 27%. Someone in the 15% bracket would have his/her taxes reduced by $300. A person in the 27% bracket would save $540 by claiming this special deduction. My understanding is that the three hybrid fuel vehicles that IRS recently certified for the special deduction sell for between $20,000 and $25,000; so the effective reduction in purchase price isn’t really that much.

One of the reasons for the confusion around this special deduction is that there is also a special 10% nonrefundable tax credit available for the purchasers of qualified fully electric powered vehicles, with a maximum credit of $4,000. This is claimed with Form 8834.

IRS Announcement

Purchasers of the following new vehicles can claim the special $2,000 deduction. This one-time deduction must be claimed for the year in which the vehicle was first used.

Honda Insight for model years 2000, 2001 and 2002.

Honda Civic Hybrid for the 2003 model year.

Toyota Prius for model years 2001, 2002 and 2003.

Taxpayers can claim this deduction whether or not they itemize their deductions with Schedule A. For previously filed tax returns, taxpayers can file amended returns to claim this credit. There is no special IRS form for this deduction yet. You just write the $2,000 in the Adjusted Gross Income section on Page 1 of your 1040 (Line 32 on the 2001 1040) and attach a copy of your purchase receipt.

KMK

Overly Optimistic

While I hope Bruce Bartlett is right about a chance for more tax cuts for investors, I don’t see how that is very likely, given the attacks the current tax reduction plan is receiving. When so many of our rulers are calling for a repeal of the miniscule tax cut from last year, there isn’t much chance for an additional tax break for the supposedly evil rich folks who make up the investment community, according to the mainstream media who do their best to influence public opinion.

KMK

Checking Your Own Work

Working pretty much independently, there is nobody to check my work for errors; so I have had to devise various methods to do that on my own. With tax returns, I will generally put the file down for a day & then pick it up later with fresh eyes as if I were reviewing someone else’s work. It’s amazing & a little scary how many small and sometime large errors I catch that way, especially on returns that were done very very late at night.

I have also developed a number of check figures with QuickBooks and Lacerte to make sure everything balances properly and nothing slips through the cracks. When adding up long lists of numbers, I always add from the top down and then again from the bottom up with a good old fashioned paper tape adding machine until I come out with the same total both ways.

KMK

Living Long Enough

This recent announcement that the average life expectancy in this country is 76.9 years shows that we have definitely made great progress in dealing with medical conditions. It also clarifies what a scam the Social Security system is for younger people. According to this, somebody retiring in 2030 would have to live to 110 just to get his own money back from the system. Maybe medical technology will allow people to make it that far; but not likely.

The only fair thing to do would be to make the participation in the Social Security system completely voluntary. However, as I have to repeated ad nauseam, don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen. If you want to protect your own retirement assets, and avoid flushing more money down the Social Security commode, there are steps that can be done on your own. While there is no one size fits all, I have found that the most effective way for most people, especially the self employed, is to utilize a corporation.

KMK

State Tax Problems

Victor Canto has an interesting look at the revenue shortfalls most State governments are facing and how they are poised to compound their problems by trying to raise tax rates rather than cut back on some of the spending programs that were established when their idiotic financial forecasters predicted an endless stream of increasing tax dollars for all time.

He also points out a very interesting observation. The states without a personal income tax have had either a much smaller decline in revenues and/or a slight increase.

KMK

Tax Heroes In DC

I’m not sure I would go so far as to categorize 202 members of the House of Representatives and 31 Senators as Heroes of the Taxpayer; but everything is relative in DC. The Americans for Tax Reform organization has tallied up how all of the Senators and representatives voted on the 20 most important taxpayer related bills in 2002. Those individuals with a “grade” of 85% or better are in the “heroes” ranks. You can see how your elected rulers stack up in this comparison.

KMK