Tax Guru – Ker$tetter Letter

New Study Quantifies Lottery Tax Revenue and Questions Government-Sponsored Gambling – It has long been said that lotteries are just a tax on the stupid.  I know it’s heartless to say things like this; but I can’t help being grateful that those people are helping keep the other taxes lower for those of us who understand basic math.

Tax Bloggers Use Internet To Widen Tax Policy Appeal – I received a pdf copy of this article by Warren Rojas of Tax Analysts for their Tax Notes subscription publication a few days back and was just recently granted permission to post it here.  He covers a good assortment of blogs from the practitioner and academic communities.

Georgia Man Busted For Selling “Tax Buster” Scams to Customers in 41 States

Bush to name tax reform panel – I’m still waiting for my invite.

Free Speech v. Tax Code

End Social Security

As I was afraid would happen, the new Simple Start version of QuickBooks has created more confusion among potential users, as with this email I received from a client who I had told would have to upgrade from Quicken to QuickBooks if she wants me to continue to prepare her tax returns for 2004.

Is Quick Books Quick Start OK, or do I specifically need Quick Books Basic? Is one easier, or are they the same thing? What’s easiest and fastest for you? A one word answer here is fine.

 As you can see, I didn’t know how to answer this in one word without creating more confusion.

The new Simple Start version of QuickBooks is a terrible waste of money.  I published a review of it on my blog a few months back: 
http://www.taxguru.net/2004/10/thumbs-down-for-qb-simple-start.html

Since posting that review, I have actually spoken with a number of QuickBooks employees who told me off the record that they agree that it is a crappy program and were over-ruled when they tried to prevent its production from inside their company. 

QuickBooks Basic costs almost the same and is a much better program.  You can also use the more powerful versions of QuickBooks (Pro and Premier) if you prefer; but they really aren’t worth the additional cost unless you’re going to be doing a lot of bookkeeping for several companies, as I do. For just keeping your own books, Basic will do everything you need for much less money than the other versions.

I hope this clears up any confusion.

Kerry

Colorado Smokers face 320 percent increase in state cigarette taxes on Jan. 1 – From 20 cents per pack to 84 cents.  Nicotine addicts continue to be popular targets for financial exploitation.

Market-based Social Security system would be less costly

2005 Ford Escape Sport Utility Vehicle Certified for Clean-Fuel Deduction – Someone was asking about this a few months back.

Tax Break Turns Into Big Business – I have heard of these facade easement donations; but haven’t handled any myself.  However, with as much work as I do with real estate, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of these.

Reticent to Reform Social Security, Dan Rather & his fellow left wing journalists prefer Taxes to Stock Market – Allowing people any control over their own money just goes against the grain for those media folks who are so much smarter than we little people are.

Bush focuses on fixing Social Security

As I’ve mentioned on countless occasions, vehicle leasing is a huge rip-off, often representing an implicit interest rate of between 20% and 30%.  However, they are very popular; so these recent articles (courtesy of AutoBlog) are interesting.

Study: US auto makers shut out of top spots for best retained value in different vehicle categories.

Web links car lease swappers. Drivers looking to unload autos find those who want short-term deals.