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

* Check out the TAX FOUNDATION’S “Weekly Tax Update”.

* Speaking of the Tax Foundation, a new study explains that “Tax Fairness Challenged by Rise of Nonpayers”.

“Recent debates over the equity of the income tax system have centered chiefly on whether high-income Americans are paying their “fair share” in taxes. There has been less discussion about the growing number of Americans who pay no federal income tax—the so-called “nonpayers.”

I believe that the growth of “nonpayers” is a much bigger problem.  As the Foundation points out (highlight is mine) -

“Recent IRS data reveals that in 2010, over 58 million federal income tax filers had no income tax liability after taking deductions and credits. This amounts to nearly 41 percent of the roughly 143 million tax returns filed that year. In fact, many of these filers actually had a negative income tax burden because they were eligible for “refundable” tax credits even though they had no income tax liability. These taxpayers did this through the wholly legal and legitimate use of deductions and credits provided in the income tax code.”

* I figure I will save $11,000 + per year by moving from NJ to PA.  ACCOUNTING TODAY tells us that “Jeremy Lin Expected to Save $1 Million in Taxes in Texas” by moving from NY to TX. 

I would not want to live in Texas – too damn hot!

* Thanks to instructions from the idiots in Congress, tax pros were required to include Form 8867, a “due diligence” checklist, with all claims for the Earned Income Credit beginning with 2011 returns.  I do not believe the form is required for “self-prepared” returns.  Taxpayers do not have to certify that they qualify for the credit, but we tax pros have to make sure they do – we are social workers as well as tax preparers.  

Thankfully I do not have more than a handful of clients who qualify for the credit.  In haste, I did forget to include a Form 8867 on a return of a couple with no children who claimed a small credit for the first time in 2011 due to very small earned income.  I remembered it after I had sent the finished return on to the clients – but when I contacted them they had already mailed the return.  Neither I, nor the client, had heard from the IRS about the oversight.

Now I find that, also from ACCOUNTING TODAY, “IRS Sends Warnings on Missing EITC Checklists”.  So I expect I will receive a letter, but no penalty.  However, the article tells us that “penalties will be assessed for 2012 that lack Form 8867”.   

* I don’t need any more proof that Rush Limbaugh is, like the members of Congress, an idiot.  But in case you do, Kay Bell tells us “Limbaugh Decries Bane/Bain 'Conspiracy'” over at DON’T MESS WITH TAXES.

FYI, as Kay points out, “Bane first appeared {in DC comics} in 1993.

* Tax pros – don’t forget my Special Summer Savings.

THE LAST WORD-

 A recent item on one of the entertainment news programs discussed various tv personalities’ “cost per viewer”, based on earnings and ratings.  The bit said that Spookie from the steaming pile of excrement known as “The Jersey Shore” (who has moved to Jersey City for a “spin-off” piece of crap with JCow – one reason why I finally decided to leave Jersey City and New Jersey) was relatively “cheap” on a per viewer basis– earning $1.2 Million per year.

Jesus H Christ – being a brain-dead drunken slut is certainly lucrative!

This is disturbing, considering that many, many people in the television industry with actual talent and ability (and personality), and who actually contribute to society, make substantially less.

This certainly goes to verify the “dumbing down” of America.

TTFN