Posted by taxguru on September 12, 2009
Why is ACORN giving tax advice? Started with shakedown of H & R Block – That was the first thing I was wondering while watching the clips of the ACORN rep giving advice to a pretend pimp and hooker on how to handle the taxes for a child sex slave business. I have long known about their organized crime and voter fraud activities, but was ACORN also in the tax preparation business?
I thought they may have been part of the IRS’s VITA program, which is designed to provide free tax help for lower income people in the community. That’s where I started my tax career in the early 1970s. I don’t recall their policy on who we could prepare free tax returns for; but I am guessing that an illegal alien child sex slave business would have been off limits.
Which brings me to the other thing running through my mind while watching those undercover videos. What would other tax professionals do if confronted with new clients like the ones James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles were portraying? I doubt that any reputable tax pro would accept them as clients and give the kind of illegal advice the ACORN rep was presenting, even in these tough economic times. The proper response would be to either kick them out of your office or even to call the police on them.
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Posted by taxguru on September 12, 2009
Snopes.com covers this latest phony email pretending to be from the IRS. Sherry actually received one of these the other day and wondered if it was real, until I explained that IRS does not send out emails to people. Their notices are sent via snail mail.
As I advised Sherry, anyone receiving these kinds of emails should forward them to the special IRS email address that was set up to handle this growing problem: phishing@irs.gov
Hopefully, IRS is using these emails to hunt down and nail the scammers who are sending these out.
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Posted by taxguru on September 11, 2009
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Posted by taxguru on September 11, 2009
From the latest Intuit ProConnection Newsletter:
Is 2010 “The Year of the Roth”? – After 12/31/09, more people will be eligible to convert conventional IRAs to Roth IRAs as the evil rich clause (AGI over $100,000) expires.
I pass this along in the spirit of better understanding your available options. As I have explained several times since Roth IRAs came into being, I am still strongly opposed to these kinds of IRA conversions if they will require you to pay actual taxes in exchange for the promise of future tax free Roth IRA benefits. If you have other kinds of losses to offset the IRA income so that there are no actual taxes on the conversion, such a strategy might be a good move.
While the actual Federal taxes on 2010 IRA conversions can be paid with the 2010 1040 or spread out over the 2011 and 2012 1040s, I still have very serious doubts that our rulers will leave the tax free status of Roth IRA income alone for those they deem to be evil rich. We have seen time and time again where our rulers in DC reneged on promises of this kind and every indication is that they will have no qualm whatsoever about taxing evil rich folks on their Roth IRA distributions even though that was not the way it was supposed to be.
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Posted by taxguru on September 8, 2009
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Posted by taxguru on September 7, 2009
(Click on image for full size)
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Posted by taxguru on September 5, 2009
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Posted by taxguru on September 4, 2009
Florida Exodus: Rising Taxes Drive Out Residents – This is a bit ironic because so many people relocated to Florida specifically to escape income taxes in other states. However, as the shortsighted rulers of Florida fail to realize, it is the overall tax burden, including rapidly escalating property taxes, that motivate people to relocate to less expensive states.
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Posted by taxguru on September 3, 2009
STAFF AS ‘FORGETFUL’ AS THE BOSS – Not quite a huge surprise. Rangel’s staff is made up of a lot of the same kind of crooks as he is.
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Posted by taxguru on September 3, 2009
Posted in comix, TaxHikes | Comments Off on Whine Tax?
Tax Guru - Ker$tetter Letter 