Posted by taxguru on July 14, 2010
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What is even more of a damper on the economy than the upcoming tax increases themselves is the uncertainty surrounding whether or not the Bush tax cuts will be extended. It’s extremely difficult to make any plans not knowing with certainty what the tax picture is going to look like over the next five to ten years.
Posted in comix, TaxHikes | Comments Off on Time is running out…
Posted by taxguru on July 12, 2010
Top Republicans want all tax cuts extended – We can only hope that the GOP is growing a spine and will fight to the max for this.
IRS starts mopping up Congress’s tax-reporting mess
Tax report rehashes debate over cost effectiveness of healthcare reform law
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Posted by taxguru on July 12, 2010
Posted in comix, IRS | Comments Off on Signs an audit isn’t going your way…
Posted by taxguru on July 10, 2010
I recently discovered the entertaining videos by Alfonzo Rachel. I particularly enjoyed this rant he had, where he gave a good quick comparison of basic economic principles with capitalism and communism. He even has an idea of how the proposed Fart Tax might be implemented.
The full almost five minute long video from which this clip is excerpted is here.
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Posted by taxguru on July 8, 2010
I recently came across this interesting short history of income taxes in this country from Glenn Beck’s website. It even closes with a reference to the still very relevant “TaxMan” song by George Harrison.
Posted in TaxBurden, video | Comments Off on Video – History Of Taxes
Posted by taxguru on July 8, 2010
I’ve never been a fan of showing the direct deposit info on 1040s to give IRS easier opportunities to snatch money out of bank accounts.
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Posted in comix, IRS | Comments Off on Giving IRS easy access to bank accounts…
Posted by taxguru on July 8, 2010
Americans may be slammed by shocking tax hike
How the Expiring Bush Tax Cuts Affect You – A brief summary of some of the biggest changes we will be facing next year if our rulers don’t do anything to extend the current tax rates. If they don’t act soon, the end of this year is going to be very busy with tax planning and income shifting strategies.
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Posted by taxguru on July 7, 2010
CPA Disbarred for Failure to Exercise Due Diligence and Compliance Problems – This IRS announcement is an important reminder that the numbers need to match when shifting income between a corporation and its owners.
I don’t know all of the details of this case, but it seems obvious that some taxpayers were audited and it was discovered that they hadn’t reported all of the income they had taken out of their corp. Of course, their response was to blame their tax preparer, Gainesville Florida CPA Tim Kaskey. Kaskey might have been able to claim innocence in this case if someone else had prepared the corp income tax returns. However he had prepared the corp tax returns and could very easily see how much money the owners had taken out of the corp as deductible compensation. I can therefore see how IRS would have a good case in holding him partially responsible for the erroneous 1040 and hit him with preparer penalties. Disbarring him from practice seems a bit extreme of a punishment, unless they also discovered a pattern of similar situations with other clients he worked on.
I have no idea whether this was an intentional attempt to defraud by the shareholders or the accidental consequence of sloppy bookkeeping. It is a perfect example of why I have always insisted that every corp client I work with has its accounting kept with QuickBooks so that we have detailed records of all payments made to the owners. It is one of my normal procedures when preparing the owners’ 1040s to examine the corp payments for the calendar year and make sure we are reporting the exact same totals on the 1040. I do often find differences between the figures on the corp and personal books and have to scold the clients to be more careful with their postings. I always adjust the personal figures to match what was reported on the corp tax returns and then we have no problems with IRS.
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Posted by taxguru on July 4, 2010
Six Months to Go Until The Largest Tax Hikes in History
The Obama Tax Trap. How some Republicans are preparing to walk right into it.
How the New Wealth Taxes Will Hit You
Take Some Profits, Before the Tax Man Takes ‘Em
Short-run tax hikes being used to fill gaps – and we all know how often “temporary” taxes are allowed to actually expire.
Plastic Bags: Untapped Tax Gold Mine? – They’re actually calling the five cents per bag tax a “sin tax” because it’s considered a sin by DemonRats to buy things at a time when they are trying to destroy our economic system.
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Tax Guru - Ker$tetter Letter 