Tax Guru – Ker$tetter Letter

Car buyers burned by negative equity

When Welfare Is Disguised as a Tax Cut

New Tax Withholding Takes Effect – You can also download the new withholding tables (IRS Pub 15-T).

SEC’s Own Accounting Requires Tightening, Internal Audit Says (link to article expired) – This is more of the typical government “do as I say, not as I do” philosophy. It’s just like the annual reports that the IRS’s books are a mess and they can’t account for something like $60 billion each year.

As Companies Shave Aid, Nonprofits Suffer the Sting

The Billing Of America – Bill O’Reilly takes on Bill Clinton’s love of high taxes.

How Audits Must Change. Auditors face more pressure to find fraud – The old CYA engagement letters that we used to have, where we disavowed any responsibility for rooting out fraud, but would report it if we accidentally tripped over it, are not going to be good enough any more, if we CPAs expect to be taken seriously any more as independent verifiers for investors.

The check, and the recovery, is in the mail

Voters must face Gray consequences – Jonah Goldberg has a good look at why the PRC voters must be forced to live with the consequences of falling to remove the governor at the appropriate time last November. They need to understand how important regularly scheduled elections are and it’s not right to expect a do-over when they screw up.

Income Tax Gives Feds Open Checkbook – Having taxes withheld up front has been the sneakiest way for our rulers to prevent people from feeling their true tax bite. People would be much more supportive of large tax cuts if they had to write checks for their taxes rather than have them taken out ahead of time.

A Significant Tax Break From the New Tax Act – Some ideas of how to capitalize on the new lower tax rates for dividends and long term capital gains.

Draft Tax Forms – It’s that time of year again, when IRS starts designing the forms for next year’s tax season. You can get a preview of what to expect and even provide some feedback to IRS if you think something should be shown differently.

High Wisconsin taxes rooted in state history, study says

Trim that tree, and you risk jail – Just another reminder why we are so glad to be out of the PRC. A $1,000 fine for trimming trees on your own property. That kind of control over every aspect of people’s lives was the big reason we made the move to the Ozarks ten years ago. We can do absolutely anything we want with the 150+ acres of trees we have without needing anyone else’s permission.

New Zealand Farmers Threaten Rebellion Over ‘Flatulence Tax’

The Wisdom of Pollack (link to article expired) – The judge who wisely concluded that the so-called victims of stock market losses were really nothing more than high risk speculators

Web sites can help financial neophytes

How to Help Your Credit Before Applying for a Loan (link to article expired)

Garrett and Russert Note Biggest Tax Cuts Go to Middle Class

Your Body May Be Worth More Than $45 Million – Just like parting out a car, where you can make a lot more money selling it piece by piece, someone has concluded that the components of a human body can be worth quite a bit. I’ve always thought it very unfair that, when people donate their organs, they (or their families) are not allowed to receive any payment; yet the hospitals literally sell those organs for huge amounts.