Saturday, May 23, 2009

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

* Singer Ray Stevens has a point – “If 10% is Good Enough for Jesus it Ought to be Enough for Uncle Sam”!

* Roni Deutch explains “
Lien? Levy? What’s the Difference?” at her TAX LADY blog.

* TAX GIRL Kelly Phillips Erb is up to Colorado in her series on state taxes.

* William Perez reviews the Good, the Bad and the Ugly (more bad and ugly than good) of the BO tax proposals that were recently published in the Treasury Department’s “Greenbook” in a two-part post “Obama's Proposed Tax Changes” at ABOUT.COM: TAX PLANNING.

* Peter Pappas provides us with the first installment of his The Tax Lawyer’s Tax Lexicon” at THE TAX LAWYER’S BLOG.

Pete hits the nail on the head with his definitions of Tax Policy and Earned Income Credit. And I like how he describes the difference between Good Tax Planning and a Tax Loophole.

* And speaking of THE TAX LAWYERS BLOG, Pete ends the week with a review of the tax benefits for small business contained in "ARRA" in his post “IRS Announces Special Tax Breaks for Small Business

* Considering that a horse named “Tax Ruling” recently won the National Hunt Cup, Prof Jim Maule wonders why more horses haven’t been given tax-related names – and comes up with a good list of suggestions in his post “Horsing Around with Tax” at MAULED AGAIN.

Perhaps the most appropriate name for a race horse is “Tax Shelter”. Or, depending on the horse’s “track” record, “Tax Loss”.

His sample race announcing at the end of the post is a classic!

* The Professor ends the week with “Pay Taxes, Be Happy
in which he discusses several recent items that deal with money and happiness.

He starts off with a study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that finds, “the nations whose people ranked the happiest in a new survey are those with tax rates among the highest. Thomas Kostigen suggests that the reason may be that these particular nations provide so much for their citizens that their taxpayers feel that they get something in return and know what it is, whereas in the United States people ‘are never really quite sure of what we get in return for paying them, other than the world's biggest military.’ People who worry about being able to get health care and other services tend not to be happy, according to Kostigen.”

* Thursday’s “TIP OF THE DAY” at the Small Business Taxes and Management website gave some good advice -

Get a change notice from the IRS? . . . If it's correct, don't forget to file an amended return with your state. The IRS and the states exchange information regularly and, if you don't file with the state, you'll most likely get a notice from them too. In some cases a federal adjustment won't precipitate a change on your state return. Filing the amended return may keep the interest and penalties down. The reverse may also be true. Get a notice from your state; file an amended return with the IRS.”

Of course I must point out that, in my experience, more often than not a change notice from the IRS or a state tax department is wrong. Do not automatically pay any additional tax, penalty or interest billed. But also do not ignore any notice from a tax authority. As soon as you get a notice of any kind from any of your “Uncles” send it to your tax professional immediately!

* TAX RESOLUTIONARY Baby Boomer quotes an article from the Washington Times to report “
Obama's Plan Could Hurt Senior Citizens”.

TTFN

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