Tax Guru – Ker$tetter Letter

Helping real people win the tax game.

  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 675 other subscribers
  • Blog Stats

    • 372,372 hits
  • Posts By Day

    November 2026
    M T W T F S S
     1
    2345678
    9101112131415
    16171819202122
    23242526272829
    30  
  • Subscribe

  • Special Pages

Posted by taxguru on July 21, 2003

Out of Balance. Bush’s next challenge is to get spending under control.

Campaign Donations Sway Lawmakers’ Vote – As I’ve long said, the highest potential earning investment with the lowest risk is campaign contributions (aka bribes) to our rulers. While the first gut reaction is to consider the donors to be the bad guys here, that’s not how I see it. The problem is that our government has grown so large and so involved in too many aspects of our lives that our rulers have influence over areas that our founding fathers never envisioned. If our government were scaled back to only what it is constitutionally allowed to do, there would be no need to give money to our rulers to buy favors.

Bush sees tax cuts spurring job creation – We’ll have to see if this happens. However, the quadrupled Section 179 deduction (to $100,000 per year) is a very big incentive to buy new business equipment. I know that a lot of people are checking the weights of new vehicles more closely than ever to make sure they are over the 6,000 pound threshold that makes them eligible for the full Section 179 expense.

Teen says he learned how to print fake money in magazine – It may seem to be nit-picking, but there really is a difference between “making” money and earning money.

Posted in 179 | Comments Off on

Harrison Abstract Update

Posted by taxguru on July 21, 2003

They are trying to freeze many of Dian Brown’s assets and are having a hearing today (7/21) to discuss it. She and her attorney are still trying to claim that her personal assets should be exempt from any action since the problems were with her corporation. This is a ridiculous argument that will hopefully be tossed out by the judge. It’s been reported that Brown admitted transferring $400,000 of client money from the corporate accounts to her personal accounts. That makes an easy connection to why her personal assets should be frozen ASAP and used to pay off her victims.

The news accounts of this case have given the impression that all funds held by Harrison Abstract have been frozen since the end of June. I just learned from some clients whose funds were part of this mess that their money was released after pressure was exerted by a Harrison bank and it was explained that there may be additional damages due to the failure to complete a 1031 exchange. Hopefully, other people who had their money in Harrison Abstract’s account when everything was frozen will also be able to close their deals without having to wait months or years.

Posted in 1031 | Comments Off on Harrison Abstract Update

Posted by taxguru on July 18, 2003

Bush’s Bigger, Fatter Welfare State. Administration spending plans are out of control.

A Tip on TIPS. You need to understand the real interest rate.

Anti-tax groups vow to fight easing voting rules for budget – It’s good to see there are still some folks in the PRC with the anti-tax fever.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on

Posted by taxguru on July 18, 2003

The Pension Time Bomb

New Kids on the Block. Under-25 Crowd Buys Homes In Ever-Growing Numbers. (link to article expired) – This is great for their future, building equity in real estate rather than wasting it on rent.

Bush becomes ‘big government conservative’ – Just like his father, Bush 43 is alienating his conservative base by trying too hard to buy DemonRat votes with taxpayer money.

Deficit politics

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on

Posted by taxguru on July 17, 2003

Panel looks at ways to reform Arkansas state tax code – A laundry list of tax hikes.

Who’s Rich? Part II – Different perspective from Thomas Sowell on the “hate the rich” stories regarding the recently released IRS stats on the 400 tax returns with the highest incomes. An interesting fact is that between 1992 and 2000, there were 2000 different people in that top 400. It’s not as cut and dried as the stock complaint of the lefties that the same rich get richer and the same poor get poorer. There is more up and down mobility between the wealth levels in this country than anywhere in the world.

Running on Tax Hikes: Presidential Candidate Releasing Fiscal Plan – Not exactly a novel idea for a DemonRat.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on

Posted by taxguru on July 17, 2003

It’s a strange mental condition found in Demonrats and RINOs. To them, there is no such thing as a good tax cut and they can be blamed for anything and everything that they don’t like. On the other hand, they never see anything wrong with more government spending, unless it’s on an investigation of Clinton crimes.




Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on

Posted by taxguru on July 17, 2003

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on

Posted by taxguru on July 17, 2003

If Bush doesn’t take the scalpel to spending, we who understand how tax cuts work (and don’t cause deficits) will not be able to defend him against criticism over the growing deficits.




Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on

Turpentine Creek Property Tax Problem

Posted by taxguru on July 17, 2003




Here is an article in the local paper on the back taxes issue. They don’t dig into exactly what the motivation is for refusing to allow this legitimate charity to have the same exemption from property taxes as do other charities. It’s probably the classic case where some snake wants to steal the property away for his/her own profit. It is in a very desirable and scenic location.

Just the fact that they charge admission is no reason to claim that Turpentine Creek is a for-profit business. It’s hard to find a zoo, museum or park that doesn’t have an admission fee, including government owned ones, which are technically already subsidized by our tax dollars. Hopefully, Turpentine Creek will be able to locate an attorney to do some pro bono work and appeal this bone-headed decision to a higher authority, and allow them to have the taxes they pay refunded.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Turpentine Creek Property Tax Problem

Big Story In Little Harrison, Arkansas

Posted by taxguru on July 17, 2003




Sherry & I were walking into the Harrison Wal-Mart yesterday and saw this headline (Brown surrenders to police ) screaming out from the newspaper box. It didn’t show up the paper’s website until this morning.

I’m not a criminal attorney, but it seems odd that she was able to stay free by posting only $5,000 cash, considering the amount she has allegedly already confessed to taking ($400,000), plus whatever additional amounts are discovered after a complete audit.

Brown loses real estate title issuing license – Her name is mud in this town; so she will probably have to relocate to another state in order to find a new job.

The chain reaction ripple effects from this mess are spreading very wide. It’s not just the people who had money in Harrison Abstract’s account that are suffering the consequences. The sellers whose money is tied up were normally planning to use those funds to buy something else, delaying or canceling that deal. The sellers of those properties are then without the proceeds that they may have been planning to use for another purchase. It goes on for several levels.

This is going to be a field day for lawyers. Even after everyone is hopefully compensated for all of their direct monetary losses, there will be litigation over the other deals that fell apart because of the inability to access the funds in a timely manner.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Big Story In Little Harrison, Arkansas