Wednesday, November 10, 2010

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

* My first slide show at MAINSTREET.COM! Check out “Financial Loopholes to Take Advantage of Now”.

* Russ Fox, the other RF, discusses my upcoming newsletter THE SCHEDULE C LETTER (recommending its purchase) and the issue of whether a business should actually file a Schedule C in his post “To C Or Not To C, That Is The Question” at TAXABLE TALK. Be sure to read the comments to this post.

Thanks, Russ, for the plug and the recommendation.

* Did you check out THE MISSOURI TAX GUY’s weekly Sunday “Week In Perspective” like I told you to in Saturday’s BUZZ? What are you waiting for?

Unfortunately I will not be meeting Bruce in St Louis in August of 2011, as, so far, I will not be attending the annual NATP national conference to be held there.

One DIY item that should be left to a professional is definitely preparing your tax return!

And the QE2 discussed in the post mentioned does not refer to the Cunard ocean liner, on which I crossed the Atlantic many times in the past.

* Kelly Phillips Erb, everyone’s favorite TAX GIRL, deals with an interesting, and timely, question in her post “Ask the taxgirl: Politicians and Job Hunting Expenses".

This is a question that I had looked up myself a few years ago, as I have a client who ran for local office in his township.

* Professor Annette Nellen attempts to initiate a discussion with her post “Expensing of Business Assets - New Treasury Report” at 21st CENTURY TAXATION, which discusses BO’s proposal, as explained in the Treasury report “The Case for Temporary 100 Percent Expensing: Encouraging Business to Expand Now By Lowering the Cost of Investment”.

I have a suggestion for a related revenue offset – do away with the deduction for depreciation of real property. Check out my 2007 post “Here is Something to Think About”. Of course I propose that this be a permanent change. Annette, and the rest of you, what do you think about this?

* Tonya Moreno reports on “Major State Tax Initiative Results - The results of major state tax-related elections for 2010” at ABOUT.COM: TAX PLANNING: US.

* Also from ABOUT.COM – at WILLIAM’S TAX PLANNING BLOG – Bill Perez offers some “Year End Tax Planning Tips if You Think Tax Rates Might Go Up in 2011”. He gives us some things to think about if Congress sits on its arse and does nothing to at least temporarily extend the “Bush” tax cuts. I would wait until December – to see what, if anything, the cafones in Washington will do – before acting Bill’s suggestions.

* Speaking on this subject – Kelly Phillips Erb, writing for WALLETPOP, suggests “5 Ways the Election Could Affect Your Taxes”. For the most part I would agree with much of her predictions, and would echo her bottom line warning –

My best advice is to pay attention and plan accordingly. Don’t make any big financial moves on what you think might happen.”

* Some good advice from the IRS, via NORWALKPLUS.COM in “Keeping Good Records Now Reduces Stress at Tax Time”.

You may not be thinking about your tax return right now, but now is a great time to start planning for next year and to make sure your records are organized. Maintaining good records can make filing your return a lot easier and it will help you remember transactions you made during the year.”

TTFN

1 comment:

Professor Nellen said...

Hi,

Regarding your reference to my post about the Treasury report on the benefits of allowing temporary expensing of some business assets and your 2007 idea to allow expensing of depreciable real property. Perhaps we will get to that point if corporate tax reform takes the form of replacing the corporate income tax with some type of consumption tax such as a business activity tax (a form of subtraction method VAT). This has been discussed and proposed a few times,such as by Treasury under the second President Bush - http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp749.htm.

Expensing of long-lived assets under an income tax is distortive and inconsistent with an income tax. It would make more sense if we had a consumption tax, such as teh BAT for businesses (see above link for short summary from Treasury).