Wednesday, January 26, 2011

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

I hope you agree with me that any BUZZ is better than no BUZZ. Have been busy lately and have not had the time to properly “wander” the internet in search of good BUZZ. I am sure there is a lot of good stuff out there that I missed.

* It’s nice to see some agreement with my annual “Don’t Assume” post. Caleb Newquist puts his 2 cents in on the CPA issue in “A Multitude of Big 4 Auditors Can Confirm This” over at GOING CONCERN (Accounting News for Accountants and CFOs).

Case in point: many relatives and clueless friends of auditors still ask said auditors to prepare their tax returns. In most cases, a) this is a HUGE mistake and b) they don’t want to help you anyway.”

Be sure to read the comments to this article. Here is an especially appropriate one –

I just tell people I will do it at my billing rate. When they ask what that is, I never seem to hear from them again on preparing it.”

* Tax attorney Darren Mish tells us that members of Congress, like Chuck Rangel, are not the only individuals who get away with tax fraud in his post “Preventing Tax Fraud in Prisons” at his IRS PROBLEM SOLVER BLOG

Darren reports –

Over the last five years about $123 million in tax refunds have been fraudulently received by prison inmates through phony applications made from behind prison bars.”

* And Darren brings us up to date on the progress of repealing the new 1099 requirements that begin with tax year 2011 in his post “Lawmakers Call for Repeal of IRS Rule

As I have said many times before – why the idiots in Congress did not just include the repeal in December’s year-end catch-all compromise Tax Act is beyond me.

* Not that I would recommend prematurely withdrawing retirement funds, but if you must ROTH IRA WITHDRAWAL RULES explains how to go about “Tapping Into Your Roth IRA Penalty Free”.

* I still do not have a cell phone – but for those of you who do TAX GIRL Kelly Phillips Erb tells you “Checking Your Refund? There’s an App for That”.

(T)he primary pitch for the app is that it allows you to check on the status of your refund right from your phone. It’s easy. You’ll need your Social Security number, filing status for the year and refund amount to use it. It’s just like the “Where’s My Refund?” tool online.”

* Bill Perez tackles an interesting issue in “Is Head of Household Status Possible for Two People at the Same Address” at ABOUT.COM TAX PLANNING: US.

* A “tweet” from Kay Bell told me that “Jersey Shore sets ratings record”. A sure sign of the Dumbing Down of America. How could anyone with even an ounce of intelligence watch (a) reality tv in general, and (b) in particular a show about brain dead drunks, sluts and horndogs engaging, on screen, in such “entertaining” activity as public urination (not one of the guys)? As Jay Leno keeps proving with his “Jay Walking” bit – the great unwashed masses ain’t very bright.

TTFN

2 comments:

Joe Arsenault said...

The Roth piece really misses on the most significant part of distributions being penalty free on a Roth IRA. Except for within 5 years of conversions, the 10% penalty does not apply to non-taxable distributions. The beautiful thing about a Roth IRA are the ordering rules, contributions come out first. So for any contributions made, those can be withdrawn penalty free at any time before earnings. Unlike a traditional IRA it is not pro-rata. This is a major advantage of Roth IRAs, although I agree with you and don't condone withdrawing retirement money early.

Robert D Flach said...

JA-

Thanks for the update!

TWTP