WHAT’S THE BUZZ? TELL ME WHAT’S A HAPPENIN’

+ Don’t forget to check out the NOVEMBER issue of LOIS.

+ Did you catch my “Year End Tax Planning Guide” at MAINSTREET.COM?

+ A belated Happy 6^th Anniversary to Kay Bell’s DON’T MESS WITH TAXES blog (November 14^th).  Check out her first post.

+ At her BANKRATE.COM tax blog Kay has good advice for newly married couples “Couple Bonding Via Withholding” =

“But for the rest of us who have been married longer or plan to be, marriage means tax sharing, including payroll withholding responsibilities.

When both spouses work, it generally is worthwhile for the husband and wife to take some time to tweak the amount that comes out of their individual pay.”

However, I was disappointed with the gratuitous Kardashian reference.  That rectal cavity has had enough publicity to last a lifetime.

+ And BANKRATE.COM’s Dr Don Taylor tells parents of college students “Don't Make 529 Plan Distribution Taxing”.

+ The approval rating of the idiots in Congress is only slightly more than that of Fidel Castro, but less that the rating of BP during the oil spill. or so explains  Chris Cillizza in “Congress’ Approval Problem In One Chart” at the Washington Post’s THE FIX.

And you will note from the chart in the article that the IRS is 4x more popular than Congress!

+ And the WASHINGTON POST also gives us the “Republican Tax Plan At a Glance” -

“— All marginal income tax rates would be lowered by 20 percent, meaning the top rate would go from 35 percent to 28 percent and the bottom rate would go from 10 percent to 8 percent.

— The top tax rate on capital gains would remain 15 percent.

— The top tax rate on dividends would remain 15 percent.

— The estate tax would stay at 35 percent, with the first $10 million of a married couple’s estate exempt.

— The tax benefits from itemizing deductions and excluding employer-provided health insurance from taxable income would be limited to 2 percent of taxpayer’s adjusted gross income.

— A new measure of inflation would be used to adjust the tax brackets each year, resulting in more people jumping into higher tax brackets as their wages increase.”

+ Over at the ROTH AND COMPANY TAX UPDATE BLOG Joe Kristan tells us that there is no “Rule of 72?” when it comes to filing taxes.

This idea is not new to me.  Over the years I have come across individuals who thought that they no longer had to pay either federal income taxes or Social Security taxes because they were age 72.  I do believe this comes from the old rule (BC – Before Clinton) that you could have an unlimited amount of earned income (i.e. W-2 wages) and not have to pay back any Social Security benefits once you reached age 72.

THE LAST WORD:

We’ve come a long way, baby! 

In my youth we protested to end the war and in support of equal civil rights for all Americans.  Today’s youth protest because they are not rich, and apparently have nothing better to do.

Just what do the cafones that make up Occupy Wall Street want, besides attention?  I am confused about the purpose of these demonstrations.  The only thing I have heard that makes any sense is a call from a small sector for WPA-like public service construction projects as a way of creating jobs – which is actually a good idea.  Otherwise the “99%” just seem to be upset that they are not part of the “1%”.

I support neither the Tea Party movement (I actually strongly oppose it) nor the Occupy Wall Street “movement”.  As the song goes – “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right”!

TTFN