An important reminder for all taxpayers –
Every person has a unique tax situation. No two tax returns are the same. Your situation is different from other taxpayers. Not every question has the same answer for
every taxpayer. The actual correct
answer to just about every tax question, except “Should I cheat?” – is “It
depends”.
Now, on to the BUZZ.
* Leandra Lederman
makes some very good points about the alleged “IRS Scandal”, which TAX PROF
Paul Caron tells us in now in its 1600+ day (I agree with fellow blogger Peter
J Reilly that the Professor has most certainly “jumped the shark” with this
blog post series) in “The Real IRS Scandal” at the SURLY SUBGROUP blog -
“The fact that IRS employees were using keywords to identify progressive
as well as conservative organizations doing too much political activity to
qualify under 501(c)(4) should have been clear to anyone who dug into the
public documents. But it wasn’t the message that the House Oversight
Committee–and thus many media stories–disseminated. The real scandal was the
damage the resulting witch hunt did to the IRS.”
There was no IRS scandal. IRS employees were doing their “due
diligence” in investigating the organizations applying for 501(c)(4) status
(organizations “for the promotion of social welfare”). Tea party related organizations should have
been closely investigated, as well as more “politically liberal” organizations,
which also were.
The unacceptable and
inappropriate act was not by the IRS, but by the idiots in Congress who
continually underfund the IRS as “punishment”.
* Paul D Allen explains “If It Isn't Taxable Why Do I Have to Put It on My Tax Return?” at the PIM TAX SERVICES BLOG.
PDA is correct when he says, “It’s important for your overall financial
well-being to understand your taxes,” even if you use a tax professional to
prepare your return. I have said for
years that the more informed you are on
taxes the better prepared you will be when you see your preparer at tax time. A good reason to “subscribe” to THE WANDERING
TAX PRO (see upper right-hand margin).
* This week’s Monday post at THE TAX
PROFESSIONAL asks “Is Silence Golden?”.
Be sure to return there on Wednesday for an interview with the President
of NATP.
* Professor Annette Nellen gives us her “Tax Reform Framework Observations” at 21st CENTURY TAXATION.
In the post the Professor also exposes
arrogant Trump’s obvious “pants on fire” lie that the “plan” does not help him
personally -
“The
rate cut helps him. Also, he likely holds his vast business operations in many
different types of entities including partnerships and S corporations and will
benefit from the top rate of 25% on such income even after paying himself
reasonable compensation. Also, if he is still carrying forward a net operating
loss, repeal of the AMT helps him. And repeal of the estate tax is a tremendous
tax cut for him.”
* Kay Bell suggests “5 things to consider in choosing workplace benefits” at DON’T MESS WITH TAXES.
* And Kay wonders “Will Equifax hack affect 2018 tax filing season?”.
She ends the post with a reminder -
“ . . .
the IRS urges tax professionals and their clients — and all of us who do our
taxes on our own, too — to assume that some tax identity thief somewhere has
our personal and financial information should continue to monitor our accounts
and credit reports.”
* FREE! FREE! FREE! New tax e-newsletter -
TAX TOPICS. Check it out!
* Robert W Wood deals with the issue of
“Paper or E-File Your IRS Return” at FORBES.COM.
Most of you know that
in 45 years I have never used flawed and expensive tax preparation software to
prepare a tax return, and so have never electronically submitted a federal
return. It is not because I oppose
electronic filing – but because I cannot do so without using software.
The requirement is
that tax preparers must submit electronically returns that they “file”. The word “file” in this context means
“mail”. RWW is correct when he says in
the below post-
“It’s still possible in some cases to file on paper by having your
preparer give you your return for filing.”
I have all my clients
sign a statement, which I keep with my file copy of the return, that says –
“I do not want to file my return electronically and choose to file my
return on paper forms. My preparer will
not file my return with the IRS. I will
file my paper return with the IRS myself.”
Before leaving for
Intuit David Williams, the IRS tax-preparer regulation “czar”, specifically
told me that what I was doing was ok – and that I did not have to submit my
returns electronically or include the Form 8948 with each return if the client
signed my statement.
THE LAST WORD
Everything I feared would
happen if arrogant demagogue Donald T Rump became President has come true.
Every single day the
idiot continues to prove that he was the worst possible candidate for President
– or for any elected official.
TTFN
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