WHAT’S THE BUZZ, TELL ME WHAT’S A HAPPENNIN’ - TUESDAY EDITION

Better late than never – no wifi at my LBI motel.

Truly enjoying a totally-1040-free “recovery” at Jersey shore.  While 1040-free, I am not tax-free, and have been wandering the web when wifi is available as usual.

* Peter Reilly of FORBES.COM opens another BUZZ.  He talks about a recent court case in “Book On New Jersey Wines Does Not Support Deducting Trips To France”.

I seem to recall a similar situation where an “author” tried to deduct monies paid to “ladies of the evening” as research for a book on the “oldest profession”.

BTW, I share Peter’s fond memories from the 1970s (also in New Jersey, but one county over) of Boone’s Farm Apple Wine, although not in the same context.  Also vaguely remember a strawberry wine variation.      

* Kay Bell takes a “journey down memory lane” in her response to the announcement that “Tax-Writing Committee Chairmen Launch Tax Reform Website” over at DON’T MESS WITH TAXES.

* And at TAX RESOLUTION UNIVERSITY Michael Rozbruch adds his more than 2 cents to the discussion of “IRS Prepared Tax Returns: Are They a Good Idea?”.

His bottom line on the subject agrees with mine –

“Sadly, the American taxpayer will be the ones who suffer and experience the setback of this ‘system’, not the benefit.”

 

* Just a reminder - click here to submit your ideas on tax reform to Max and Dave.  I did.

Tell them not to clutter the Tax Code with social welfare programs like the Earned Income Credit.  And to move the tax benefits for education where they belong - to the federal student financial aid program administered by the Department of Education.    

* While I truly believe that the Tea Party movement is a danger to effective democracy, and is one of the reasons why the Congress is so ineffectual, and that it’s candidates should be opposed on all levels, I also believe that certain IRS employees went too far in targeting Tea Party and other “conservative” (the Tea Party is not true conservatism) organizations for extra scrutiny when evaluating tax-exempt status requests.

Joe Kristan of the ROTH AND COMPANY TAX UPDATE BLOG (here) and Russ Fox of TAXABLE TALK (here and here) discuss the issue.

I seem to recall that the IRS targeted liberal groups under Dubya.  It is not right for either side to use the IRS for political dirty tricks.

TTFN