Saturday, August 2, 2008

WHAT’S THE BUZZ? TELL ME WHAT’S A HAPPENNIN’

* The Tax Foundation’s TAX POLICY BLOG wonders, with the new credit and deduction from the housing bill and the need to reconcile the economic “stimulus” rebate check, “Will the 1040 Be 3 Pages Next Year?
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* We welcome Joe Kristan of the ROTH AND COMPANY TAX UPDATE BLOG back from vacation. BTW, I like his definition of "bipartisan" - “We're all screwed regardless of party affiliation.”
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And thanks for reminding us in the post “Iowa’s Sales Tax Holiday Runs Today and Tomorrow” to “mark your calendar to go to South Carolina in November to get accessories during their new
sales tax holiday for guns.
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Theodore Seto, the professor of tax law and policy at Loyola Law School Los Angeles who writes the blog UNDERSTANDING TAX, makes some interesting points in the first posts in a series “Who Pays Taxes: The Concept of "Incidence," Part I”. I like his example of the “luxury” tax on yachts. As he correctly points out – “The ‘rich’, it turns out, can do without yachts. Yacht makers, on the other hand, cannot do without customers. And yacht makers’ workers have no choices at all.”
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* Walter Antoniotti, a retired accounting teacher, has created
Free Internet Libraries for students, teachers, and professionals – including one for the accounting profession. He has included TWTP in the Interesting Accounting Sites, Accounting Organizations and Blogs, Teacher Sites section.

* The opening paragraph of Friday’s “News and Tip of the Day” posting at the Small Business Taxes and Management website reads –
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Because the Senate has again failed to begin consideration of the extenders tax bill, it's anticipated that no action will be taken until Senators return after the August recess.”
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Oi vey! Looks like it will be “down to the wire” again this year.

* We tax professionals love our acronyms!

Speaking of the Small Business Taxes and Management website’s “News and Tip of the Day”, an earlier entry discussed a Revenue Proclamation that concerned a CLUT – a Charitable Lead Unitrust. As opposed to a Charitable Lead Overseas Trust, or a Charitable Lead Investment Trust? (Sorry – I couldn’t resist!)

A few years ago at my previous host I blogged about the LUST Tax, which has nothing to do with the recent talks of taxing pornography or a “pole tax” on “exotic dancers”. It actually refers to a Leaking Underground Storage Tank.
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* In my “wanderings” on the web I have come across THE TAX PROTESTER FAQ, created by Philadelphia lawyer Daniel B. Evans to debunk all the ridiculous arguments that the federal income tax is unconstitutional, the income tax does not apply to individual citizens, the government cannot tax wages, etc.
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According to Evans - “The purpose of this FAQ is to provide concise, authoritative rebuttals to nonsense about the U.S. tax system that is frequently posted on web sites scattered throughout the Internet, by a variety of fanatics, idiots, charlatans, and dupes, frequently referred to by the courts as ‘tax protesters’. This ‘FAQ’ is therefore not a collection of frequently asked questions, but a collection of frequently made assertions, together with an explanation of why each assertion is false.”
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TTFN

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