Tax Guru – Ker$tetter Letter

D-I-Y Tax Software

I am in no way endorsing the concept of anyone preparing their own tax returns.  However, some people insist on doing it themselves.  For those folks, this review of the major consumer tax prep software may be useful.  Remember that, no matter how well any software does tax calculations (including the very expensive software I use), it is a simple matter of GIGO (garbage in, garbage out).  You still need to know where and how to enter your data to maximize your tax savings and minimize your audit potential.

KMK

Tax Proposal Estimator

TurboTax rough calculation of taxes to be saved if the Bush tax plan becomes reality.

Man Saves $75,000 In Loose Change, Donates To Church

It took him 84 years to accumulate that much, but little things do add up.

One of the reasons I’ve never been a big fan of playing the stock market is that, with its volatility, you need to check each day to see if you’re doing well or lost it all. It doesn’t impart much in the way of feelings of long term security. 

Budget Simulator

I came across this simulation program for the Federal budget, where you can supposedly see the effects of changes in spending and taxation on the deficit.  It looks like it may actually be very similar to the kinds of models actually used by our rulers in DC because it uses the same kind of unrealistic static based assumptions that have been proven wrong so many times that they aren’t worth anything. 

Tax rate cuts are considered to be government expenditures, increasing the deficit.  This, in spite of the fact that Reagan’s tax rate cuts caused a doubling of revenues and anyone with any appreciation for the real world realizes that static scoring is complete bunk and a waste of time.  Only a dynamic look can reflect the fact that people do alter their behavior when tax rates are changed.  Lower tax rates cause people to earn more taxable income, increasing the overall haul for the IRS.  Any financial model that fails to consider that is no better than just fabricating numbers out of thin air, another popular technique used by our rulers.

KMK

Strange Formatting

If you’ve noticed the strange fonts and formats in my posts over the past few days, it’s due to a new program I just started using, called BlogWeaver.  It works with my normal Blogger.com posting page, and is supposed to function just like Microsoft FrontPage (which I do use for the main web sites I control); but I am still trying to figure out how to better control the font settings.  Hopefully, we will see more consistency over the next several days.

KMK

Not Ready For Prime-Time

I just completed a survey from Intuit on their online QuickBooks service and they asked why I wasn’t referring it to clients. Here is my answer:

Your data format is not backwards compatible and you are keeping clients captive. If someone decides to switch from online to desktop QuickBooks, everything I have seen says that the data from the online version cannot be imported into the desktop version.  When you make it so that clients can switch back and forth without losing any of their data, I will gladly recommend your service.

Rethink Mankiw

Bruce Bartlett doesn’t think Stephen Moore was correct in his assessment of the new chairman of Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers.  This is very strange because Bartlett and Moore normally see things in the same light.