THE WANDERING TAX PRO'S TOP TEN LIST

I have always said that bloggers love lists.

And I have also always said that David Letterman, and the overdone “bits” on his late night talk show, is/are not funny.  The only regular feature on his show that consistently provides any degree of humor is the Top Ten List.

So let me provide a list of the top ten facts, not necessarily in any order, that THE WANDERING TAX PRO blog continually tries to get across to readers, especially for new visitors.

(1)  The current members of Congress are idiots.  Like any nonproductive employees they should be “fired” and replaced.

(2)  The purpose of the federal income tax is to raise money to run the government, and nothing else.  The US Tax Code should not be used to distribute social welfare or other government benefits or to redistribute income.

(3)  The current Tax Code is a “mucking fess”.  It needs to be rewritten from scratch to be simpler and fairer.

(4)  Refundable tax credits are bad.  They are magnets for tax fraud.

(5)  Despite popular public, and journalist, misconceptions, a CPA is not automatically a 1040 expert merely by virtue of possessing the initials.  Just because someone has the initials CPA after his/her name does not mean that he/she knows his/her arse from a hole in the ground when it comes to 1040 preparation.

(6)  The tax preparation services of fast-food tax preparation chains like that of Henry and Richard “ain’t cheap”, or even reasonable, especially when compared to the quality of the service provided.  It is like paying gourmet restaurant prices for a Big Mac.

(7)  Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs) are bad.  Tax return preparers, and preparation services, should not be allowed offer them.

(8)  No tax preparation software is a substitute for knowledge of the Tax Code. And no tax preparation software is a substitute for the services of a trained tax professional.

(9)  CPAs, attorneys, and supervised employees who want to prepare federal individual income tax returns for compensation should not be exempt from the RTRP initial competency test or the annual CPE in taxation requirement.

(10)     The Internal Revenue Service must permit a grandfathering exemption from the RTRP competency test for veteran tax preparers.

TTFN