Wednesday, September 22, 2010

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

I am off to Long Beach Island for the rest of the week. FYI – there will be no BUZZ post this coming Saturday. I have scheduled a post for Thursday (tomorrow) on the responses to my post on The New E-File Mandate.

* Have you seen my piece on “12 Tax Myths Debunked” at MAINSTREET.COM?

* After reading my piece be sure to read Kelly Phillips Erb’s excellent post “Does Congress Understand Who Works in Small Businesses?” at TAX GIRL.

We all know that Congress is basically lazy - reacting to problems to get quick headlines rather than responding to situations with understanding and intelligence - and that their primary, if not only, interest is not the proper running of the country but getting re-elected. Lately the more I read about Congress and the laws they pass the more it seems the cafones have absolutely no clue as to what they are doing or what they are voting on.

* “IRS to Hold Special Open House Saturday, Sept. 25 for Veterans and Persons with Disabilities.” No need to add a comment.

* TAX MAMA Eva Rosenberg answers a question I have often thought about in her post “IRA Attached for Bad Debt”.

* Kay Bell, the Yellow Rose of Taxes, had a great post last Wednesday in which she properly explained that, in addition to many of its members being actual tax cheats (like Chuck Rangel), “Congress Creates Tax Cheats” at DON’T MESS WITH TAXES.

* MISSOURI TAX GUY Bruce’s most recent weekly Sunday BUZZ-like post was titled “The Week In Review” instead of “Reads From Last Week”.

TWIR is chock-a-block full of great posts from tax and personal finance bloggers. He also has a listing of links to recent posts on the Bush tax cuts.

* Joe Arsenault has joined Bruce and I with his regular posting of “Blogroll Beans”, a listing of “recent web browsing that caught my eye”, over at CAFÉ TAX.

* According to the National Association of Tax Professionals weekly email newsletter TAXPRO WEEKLY –

We have been told by the IRS that the online PTIN registration system would be available mid-September. As of today, there is nothing from the IRS indicating it is available. If the online registration system becomes available within the next few days, NATP will send you a separate e-mail detailing how to log onto the IRS website to register and either obtain or refresh your PTIN.”

If I receive an email from NATP, or any other source, stating that the online registration system is up and running I will let you know in a TWTP post.

* TAXPRO WEEKLY also reported that the new per diem rates for travel within the continental United States (CONUS) for the fiscal year beginning October 2010, which can possibly be used as a tax deduction, are now available on the U.S. General Services Administration website.

Click here for the new rates.

* Megan Hughes has written a series of posts on LLCs and asset protection at DIANE KENNEDY’S US TAX AID blog, the most recent being “Why LLCs are Better than Corporations for Asset Protection”.

* The Senate has passed by a vote of 61-38 the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 (H.R. 5297). It now goes on to the House. The Somerset CPAs’ TAX POLICY blog does a good job of itemizing the bill’s provisions and revenue offsets in the post “Senate Passes Small Business Jobs Bill

One provision that I am especially happy to see is –

For a tax year beginning after Dec. 31, 2009, but before Jan. 1, 2011, when calculating self-employment taxes, the deduction for health insurance costs of a self-employed taxpayer under Code Sec. 162(l) could be taken into account (i.e., could be deducted) in computing net earnings from self-employment.”

I am only sorry that it is temporary.

* I couldn’t resist this one. At THIS WAY TO CPA, “Bean Counter, Shmean Counter: Five reasons the CPA stereotype is supremely ridiculous” tells us -

PREPOSTEROUS MYTH #3: CPAs are for doing taxes.

Wow. Taxes are just a fraction of the accounting industry, and many CPAs have nothing to do with them
.”

TTFN

1 comment:

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