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

* Fellow tax pros - I have a new post at THE TAX PROFESSIONAL that discusses the proposed “Tax Practitioner’s Bill of Rights”.  What do you think? 

If you haven’t seen last week’s post yet do so now! 

* On a similar topic – Michael Cohn reports at ACCOUNTING TODAY that “Senators Introduce Bill to Enhance Taxpayer Bill of Rights”.

Senators Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and John Thune, R-S.D. have introduced the Taxpayer Bill of Rights Enhancement Act of 2015.  Apparently the act is more a reaction to the “IRS Scandal”, which Prof Paul Caron posts is now in its 771^st day (can you say “obsession”).  It doesn’t look like it addresses the rights identified in my TAX PROFESSIONAL piece.

* Have you entered by Trivia Challenge at BOB’S BABBLINGS yet?  Why not?    

* The CCH TAX NEWS HEADLINES tells us “House Appropriations Panel Approves $10.1-Billion FY 2016 Budget for IRS” (highlight is mine) –

“The measure, which passed by a vote of 30 to 20, includes $10.1-billion to fund the IRS for FY 2016, which represents a cut of approximately $838 million, compared to FY 2015.”

This appropriation, which comes on top of FY 2014 cuts to the IRS budget of $526 million, would “would fund the IRS at 2004 levels”.

The FY 2014 budget cuts have caused IRS taxpayer service to be abysmal.  Cutting another $838 Million would make it almost non-existent.

This is another reason (as if I needed one) why I will never refer to the members of Congress without identifying them as idiots.  These fools continue to force additional inappropriate tasks on the Service, as in the case of Obamacare, but do not provide the proper funding for these tasks. 

When the idiots in Congress give the IRS additional tasks it should provide additional specific earmarked funding to pay for them. 

I believe that fiscal mismanagement of the budget cuts have added to the drastic reduction in taxpayer service.  I think that IRS management purposefully applied much of the budget cuts to taxpayer service to anger the public into complaining to Congress – but that is just my opinion.

* Jeff Stimpson quoted me in his TAXPRO TODAY piece “Retro Grade: What Went Right and Wrong This Tax Season”.

* Jason Dinesen is up to “Part 10: Filing Statuses Arrive in 1948” in his series on “Marriage in the Tax Code” at DINESEN TAX TIMES.

* And Jason begins a new series of blog posts on “Choosing a Business Entity” by defining some “Basic Terminology”.

* Jason gives us a BUZZ trifecta with “Same-sex Marriage and Paycheck Withholdings – An Unpleasant Surprise on 2014 Tax Returns”.

Jason correctly observes –

“Contrary to what the H&R Block and TurboTax commercials imply, there’s no magic that a preparer can work to give people a bigger refund — tax refunds are almost always determined by how much tax was withheld from wages during the year.”

The examples, and the solution, in Jason’s post apply to “traditional” married couples as well as same-sex married couples.

* Thankfully I will not have to deal with this aspect of Obamacare, but in case you do Barbara Weltman asks “How Many Employees Do You Have?" At BARBARA’S BLOG.

What am I talking about?  As Barbara explains –

“Under the Affordable Care Act, you can’t rely on a head count. You need to determine an average each month throughout the year for purposes to know whether you’re subject to the employer mandate.”

* That tonsorially-challenged fool is at it again.  Political cartoonists and comics everywhere are giving thanks to God.  Tony Nitti tell us “Donald Trump Announces Bid For Presidency”.

As I “tweeted” to Kay Bell, I would vote for Homer Simpson for President before I would vote for “noted gasbag” (as Tony aptly describes him) Tronald Dump.

THE FINAL WORD –

Despite the sentiments of the popular song, back in the day when MTV was a legitimate cable station that actually provided legitimate entertainment, the musicians who appeared in the videos did really earn their money (although what they did with some of the money earned can be called into question).

Today it is truly the “featured participants” (I refuse to call them “stars”) of reality tv excrement that get “money for nothing”, and, with nonsense like THE BACHELOR, “chicks for free”

TTFN