Posted by taxguru on January 15, 2009
From Jay Leno via NewsMax:
Obama says that he wants to bring a “sense of accountability” to Washington. I have a better idea — why not bring some accountants to Washington?
Speaking of that, Obama’s new secretary of the Treasury nominee, Timothy Geithner has come up with a new plan to lower taxes: Don’t pay them.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on
Posted by taxguru on January 14, 2009
Geithner Accepted IMF Reimbursement for Taxes He Didn’t Pay – Byron York seriously explains the problem.
Scott Ott of Scrappleface explains how the incoming Treasury Secretary can solve all of the country’s economic problems, but can’t file a proper tax return.
Posted in comix, Geithner, Obambi | Comments Off on The IRS’s new OverLord…
Posted by taxguru on January 14, 2009
Posted in Accounting, comix | Comments Off on aka Creative Accounting
Posted by taxguru on January 14, 2009
Q:
Subject: Section 179 Suggestion
Hello Kerry,
I came across your site here today trying to make heads or tails of my deductions for a store I just opened. I found your explanation to be quite clear and easy to understand over the IRS one. I didn’t completely understand the cut off for vehicles. Thank you.
I also have a suggestion. I think it would be great if you added a calculator for section 179. I found a good one that helped me as well here. I think it might help others as well to get an estimate on what their deduction will be. I hope this was of help.
Have a nice day,
A:
I’m glad you found my info on Section 179 to be informative. It is meant to just be a starting point. Any actual calculations should be handled by your own professional tax advisor who can factor in the other criteria that will determine the actual expected tax savings. No online calculator can do a decent job of that kind of analysis.
For example, the one that you referred to is dangerously simplistic and incomplete in the information it works with and is really nothing more than a sales tool to make it appear that equipment costs less than it actually does. When I entered the figure of $100,000 in the Cost of Equipment box, it automatically assumed a tax savings of $35,000 for a net cost of $65,000. It didn’t take into consideration some critical factors that could seriously limit the actual Section 179 deduction, such as how much other equipment was acquired during the year and the level of Taxable Income before any Sec. 179 deduction.
I don’t mean to be harsh here, but one of the biggest mistakes I see constantly is people believing they can function in business without the assistance of an experienced professional tax advisor. While you may think this quick and easy calculator is helping you, it is almost certainly giving you the wrong information unless you are making huge profits and are in the 35% Federal tax bracket. Again, not to be cruel, but anyone making that kind of money is insane and financially irresponsible to try to navigate the tax waters on their own.
I’m sorry to dump on you here, but you pushed a button that needed expressing.
Good luck.
Kerry Kerstetter
Posted in 179 | Comments Off on Calculating Sec. 179 Tax Savings
Posted by taxguru on January 13, 2009
Posted in comix, Forms | Comments Off on New addition to the 1040?
Posted by taxguru on January 13, 2009
California’s Gold Rush Has Been Reversed – High taxes have consequences and are huge motivators for people to leave rather than just accept more fiscal rape.
Many states’ lottery sales are rising in recession – Makes about as much economic sense as the government’s bail-out schemes.
We probably won’t have the tax free deaths in 2010 that are currently scheduled.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on News Bits
Posted by taxguru on January 11, 2009
Fake IRS Emails – Snopes.com has an updated piece about the scam emails that are still going around pretending to be from IRS. It would really be great to see some news from IRS that they have been able to prosecute the scumbags behind these.
Posted in scams | Comments Off on
Posted by taxguru on January 10, 2009
Record keeping requirements – Good summary of rules from the California FTB that apply for IRS purposes as well. Calif. taxpayers need to be sure to catch the fact that the statute of limitations (SOL) for FTB to come after you is four years after filing a tax return, one year longer than IRS has. FTB is sneaky in exploiting that extra year. I have seen plenty of cases where people had tossed their records after the IRS’s three years SOL had expired, only to be unable to defend themselves against FTB assessments. With the current budgetary disasters in Sacramento, we can expect FTB to pull out all of the stops in regard to squeezing every last dime out of people, whether they really owe the money or not.
Posted in audits | Comments Off on
Tax Guru - Ker$tetter Letter 