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

* Robert W Wood talks about the “Five Stages of Grief, IRS Version” at FORBES.COM, explaining the progression of a taxpayer dealing with “a common offshore account problem”.

I have always felt that tax preparers (at least this tax preparer) went through three (3) stages during the annual filing season (February 1 – April 15):

1.   Welcoming – “There is plenty of time.  Bring on the 1040s!”

2.   Despair – “There is so much work and so little time left.  What am I going to do?  I’ll never get all the 1040s done in time!”

3.   Indifference (aka the “Rhett Butler Stage”) – “F**k it!  If they get done they get done.  If not so what – they are extended.”

* A client recently questioned a 2013 Schedule E I had prepared as part of a GDE, asking why I did not claim all of the expenses that he had provided related to the property. 

I prefaced my explanation by explaining the specific tax treatments of renting out a second or vacation home, which are pointed out in the recent post “Knowing the Three Tax Scenarios for Vacation Homes” from Ken Berry (I expect not the MAYBERRY RFD and F TROOP actor) at ACCOUNTINGWEB,COM.

Methinks I will adapt my response to the client to a future post here at TWTP.

* Samantha Salazar reminds us of “4 Summertime Tax Deductions & Credits” at the GENERATIONS BLOG.

I have discussed these four in detail before.  Here they are, with a reference to my previous discussion –

1.   Day Camp Expenses – “Summer Day Camp and the Child Care Tax Credit” 

2.  Clean House & Donate to Charity – “Getting Ready for Summer – Spring Cleaning” 

 

3. Summer Job Search – “Deduct Job-Seeking Expenses on Your Taxes”  

4. Travel for Business and Pleasure – “How to Take a Deductible Vacation”

* Bad news for NJ homeowners from NJ.COM - “Christie's NJ Budget Delays Property Tax Rebate Again, Angering Seniors”.

“The elderly, the disabled, and low-income homeowners enrolled in the state’s Homestead program were supposed to receive an annual credit on their property tax bill in August. But faced with a $1.7 billion budget shortfall, Christie moved the credit until May of next year — 21 months after the last rebate.”

I do believe I had warned about this here back in May,

* Speaking of New Jersey – and actually nothing to do with taxes – here are “53 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Jersey City” (city of my birth and where I lived for most of my life).  Some things I actually didn’t know about.

Item #15 shouldn’t be on the list – it is one of Jersey City’s true black marks.  

* On Wednesday Kay Bell, the yellow rose of taxes, wished “Happy 61st 'Nameversary' Internal Revenue Service” at DON’T MESS WITH TAXES, telling us -

“And on July 9, 1953, the agency was renamed. Per Treasury Order 150-06, the Bureau of Internal Revenue became known as the Internal Revenue Service.”  

* From he “Slott Report Mailbag” – the answer to the question “Can I Mix Pre-Tax and Post-Tax Money in the Same IRA?”

FYI – the answer is yes, “You can mix pre-tax and post-tax money in the same IRA”.  

* Joe Kristan once again hits the nail squarely on the head when talking about the “extenders” in the introductory item of his Thursday “Tax Roundup” at THE ROTH AND COMPANY TAX UPDATE BLOG (the highlight is mine) - 

“This implies that Congress has no intention of letting the extenders expire.  It only passes them temporarily to hide their real cost, because Congressional funky accounting doesn’t treat them as permanent.  It also requires lobbyists to come to fund-raising golf outings every year to ensure that they get their pet provisions extended.  Honest accounting would at least treat any provision extended twice as permanent, but accounting you and I would do time for is business as usual on the Hill.”  

TTFN