Tax Guru – Ker$tetter Letter

Guess who’s to blame for state budget problems?

Class warriors are playing politics with poverty numbers – What else is new?

The whole notion of poverty is extremely subjective.

– A repeated posting; but now with links to the actual studies.

New governor can’t just toss car-tax hike – Typical double standard by our rulers. It’s insanely easy to raise taxes, while almost impossible to lower them.

The Real Patriot Act – This moron wants to instigate a dollar per gallon of gas “Patriot Tax” as a way of supposedly making OPEC pay for the rebuilding of Iraq. That is so stupid it barely deserves a response. Consumers pay the taxes; not the producers. Donald Luskin also considers such a proposal to be lunacy bordering on incompetency.

Targeted tax cash is spent elsewhere. Governments often dip into special funds despite ballot pitches. – Tax hikes are always sold as being “for the children” yet end up being used for all the same standard boondoggles. It’s too bad our rulers are never held accountable for violating their stated uses for new tax revenues.

Employers expected to fight new worker health insurance law – Gray-Out Doofus is determined to do as much damage as possible to the PRC in his final days in office. Sticking employers with an additional expense of $14.2 billion is a classic parting gift from the soon to be ex governor. If you didn’t know that he’s just an incompetent boob, you could make a good case for his being on the payroll of other states looking to lure in employers.

Middle Class Tax Bill Shocker

– More victims of the evil AMT. Our rulers are continuing to keep their heads in the sand when it comes to doing anything about this insane tax.

It’s good to see others recognizing how out of control spending is by our rulers of both parties in DC. Unfortunately, the ruling class couldn’t care less what conservatives and supporters of the Constitution think. They are going overboard trying to buy votes. The fact that the level of education on exactly what the government is allowed to do under the Constitution gets worse every day doesn’t help our cause. That subject matter has been removed from the curriculum of the government schools just for this reason; so our rulers can continue to tax, spend and meddle in parts of our lives that a constitutionally aware populace would be less willing to tolerate.

Self-inflicted wounds

Bush’s socialist sympathies

Our rulers in DC are drunk on their power to spend without limit in their efforts to buy votes. Their utter and complete disregard for the limitations on such over-reaching of their power as described in the Constitution should be grounds for impeachment and removal, if anyone cared about the Constitution any more. Neither Bush nor the Congress seem to remember it even exists.

Passing the Buck on Spending

Marching toward fiscal Armageddon

The tax-and-spend 10 – Jack Kemp’s more descriptive name for the DemonRat wannabes than the more widely used “ten dwarves.” Whatever we call them, there isn’t a snowball’s chance in Hades that any of them can be elected President.

Another P for Your Pod – I had always understood James Glassman to be rather intelligent in matters of finance. You wouldn’t know it from this article, where he claims that a company’s sales figures are more important than its net profit. He mentions how easy it is for corporate accountants to manipulate numbers, yet fails to realize that inflating sales is a whole lot easier to do than inflating the bottom line. What investors really need to see when evaluating a company’s profitability is what is reported to IRS.

Accountants, Regulators Knock Heads Over Audit Workpaper Rules

What is poor? – As with practically all government statistics, the definition of poverty is extremely subjective, depending on the objectives of the users of those stats. It reminds me of the debate over what constitutes a millionaire. Is it someone who earns a million dollars in a year? If so, is it based on gross income, or net after expenses and taxes? Is a millionaire someone with a net worth over a million dollars? Since most people, especially in the PRC, have a huge chunk of their net worth tied up in their homes (a relatively illiquid asset), shouldn’t a true millionaire be someone who can lay his/her hands on a million bucks with a moment’s notice?

Tax cuts are good for you! – Well, duh!

Property sales out of this world – P.T. Barnum’s legacy lives on. Suckers have paid this guy over six million dollars for worthless deeds to acreage on the moon. It’s like the Pet Rock fad all over again.

The Cost of California’s Health Insurance Act of 2003 – Forcing employers to spend more than $11 billion more each year is just going to give them more incentive to move to more tax friendly states. As I was saying last week in the discussion of which states have the highest taxes, just looking at the direct taxes doesn’t tell the whole story. The costs of regulations and government mandates can increase the effective total expense due to government to much higher levels than any nominal tax rate.

Postings are sparse this week due to computer & network meltdowns here at the ranch. Many of our crucial programs are refusing to work until we do a complete reformat and reinstall of Windows. A new computer is on order and I’m hoping to have it by this weekend. Needless to say, these problems have put me even further behind on the tax returns I am trying to finish by October 15. There will have to be more extensions filed (to December 15) than I had planned on.

Judge Orders Ohio Accountant Barred From Preparing

Federal Tax Returns and Representing Clients Before the IRS – It’s not just amateur self proclaimed tax experts, like Irwin Schiff, who are stupid enough to fall for the idiotic tax protestor arguments.