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

Today is Ann Margaret’s 74^th birthday!  And Bobby Rydell was 73 on Sunday.  Perhaps I should watch BYE BYE BIRDIE to celebrate.  I saw Ann Margaret’s live act twice – in Vegas and in NYC.

* No surprise here.  TAX GIRL Kelly Phillips Erb tells us that the “Top 10 Most Expensive Real Estate Tax Bills Found In Just 2 States”.  Guess which state had 7 of the 10 most expenses counties.

* And Kelly brings back “Fix The Tax Code Friday” asking for responses to the question “Should We Repeal The Federal Estate Tax?”.

My answer would be yes – but if doing away with the federal Estate Tax also does away with the step-up in basis for inherited assets it is no.  Doing away with stepped-up basis would create a nightmare for tax preparers and taxpayers.

* Jason Dinesen continues his series on “Marriage in the Tax Code” with “Part 7: 1920s Court Battles”.

* Another no surprise here. NJ 101.5 tells us “Worst Tax Systems in the US? New Jersey Ranks Second”.

The ranking comes from the report “Business Tax Index 2015: Best to WorstState Tax Systems for Entrepreneurship and Small Business” put out by by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council).

“In the five years that we’ve done the small business tax index New Jersey has either been 49th or 48th. This year the state is 49th,” said Ray Keating, chief economist for SBE Council and author of the report. “You can always count on California being at the bottom. If there’s something that you want to do wrong on the tax front California is the example and you just don’t want to follow that state, but unfortunately New Jersey hangs right there with them.”

The article goes on to say –

“New Jersey scores low in most of the tax measures looked at in the study, including:

Property Tax (50th)

Personal Income Tax (46th)

Individual Capital Gains Tax (47th)

Corporate Tax (45th tie)”

In case you are interested –

“According to the survey, South Dakota, Nevada, Texas, Wyoming and Washington have the five best state tax systems in the U.S.  In addition to New Jersey and California, Minnesota, Iowa and Hawaii also rank in the bottom five for the worst state tax systems in the country.”

* Another reason not to use tax preparation software from Kay Bell at her other blog (BANKRATE.COM) – “Turbo Tax Faces Tax ID Theft Lawsuit”.

“Two taxpayers have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the leading individual tax preparation software company didn't do enough to prevent the theft of their tax identities.”

TTFN