To quote an Alan Jay Lerner lyric
from MY FAIR LADY – “Damn, damn, damn,
damn!” Blogger.com continues to FU
the formatting of my blog posts. This is
very frustrating, and I waste too much time trying unsuccessfully to fix the
FUs. Will I have to change my blog host?
A “shedfull” of BUZZ again this
installment.
+ Don’t forget to
check out the OCTOBER issue of LOIS – or the new NOVEMBER issue!
+ Tax
attorney Robert W Wood, Kelly Phillips Erb and Peter J Reilly’s tax blog
colleague at FORBES.COM, talks about the effects of the Tax Reform Act of 1986
in “Reagan’s Law Redux”.
Robert
states that - “Of the myriad changes made
in 1986, most were good. Some were not.”
He goes on to correctly note that perhaps the worst outcome of TRA 86 is
the monster that the dreaded AMT has become -
“When enacted in 1969, the AMT targeted tax
shelters used by a few wealthy households. The 1986 reform unleashed the AMT in
ways aimed at virtually every kind of deduction. Indeed, for all the good the
1986 Act did, the grasping hand of the AMT arguably took away what the other
hand gave. The AMT today lacks theory
and equity and cries out for repeal.”
+ And
Len Burman joins Robert and I (click here for my FORBES guest post) with
FORBES’ theme of the 25th Anniversary of TRA 86 by providing some
personal reminiscences about his personal involvement (as a then Treasury
staffer) with the passage of the Act in “Fundamental Tax Reform Is Essential, Inevitable and Impossible”.
Len also muses on the possibility of
a “Tax Reform Act of 2014” -
“Everyone agrees that the tax system is
complex, unfair, and inefficient. And it doesn’t come close to raising enough
revenue to pay for the government, whose needs will only grow as the baby
boomers retire and health care costs continue to rise.”
However
-
“The only problem is that tax reform is
really, really hard and the political process in Washington has eroded far more
than the tax code since 1986.”
I tend
to agree when Len concludes -
“My bottom line: tax reform has never been more
necessary, it’s hard to see a solution to our budget problems without it, and
it’s just impossible.”
+ I
will put the subject of TRA 86 to bed with Joe Kristan’s “Tax Reform Carnival”.
+ The
National Society of Accounts (NSA) is making a “Special Limited-Time Only NSA Trial Membership Offer”.
"Main Street"
tax and accounting professionals are invited to join the National Society of
Accountants with a free trial membership through 12/31/11!
“Take
advantage of this opportunity to experience the national tax and accounting
professional community absolutely free of charge- no payment is required to
participate in the trial.”
I was a member many years ago. Maybe I will try the free trial.
+ Thanks to Twitter I came across a
new (to me) tax blogger – Kathy Bylkas of
Colorado Springs – who writes the YOUR TAXLADY blog (not to be confused with
former “just plain” TAX LADY Ronnie Deutsch).
Here recent posts have concerned
real estate issues, such as “Tax Guide for Vacation Rentals”.
+ Even a crazy person can say
something sane every now and then.
According to KFGO (the Mighty 790) “Bachmann On Taxes: Everyone
Should Pay Something”.
During the Las Vegas debate she said
every American should pay some amount in taxes “even if it's a dollar.''
For some
time now I have been, in response to the fact that half of Americans pay
absolutely no federal income tax, calling for a true “minimum tax” – every
non-student taxpayer with income age 18 or over should pay a minimum tax of
$100.00.
+ Daniel
Stoica, fellow twit and frequent “retweeter” of my TWTP post tweets, had
provided an excellent and comprehensive post to answer the question “Can a Husband and Wife Run a Business As a Sole Proprietor Or
Do They Need to Be a Partnership?”
Thanks,
Daniel, for the retweets!
+ Trish
McIntire explains what to do to “clean
up your files and make sure you have documented your work” in “After the Audit”
at OUR TAXING TIMES.
+ A “tweet” from @IRSnews led me to
a great resource on the IRS website titled “Life Events That Can Affect Retirement Savings”.
TTFN
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