Sorry I have not
posted lately – have been finishing GDEs and corporate returns to meet the
October 15th filing deadline.
Thankfully I am done! I still
have a couple of GDEs left – but I did not received the information yet and
they will obviously be filed late and at my leisure.
* Have you checked
out the new “issue” of THE LAKE REGION SOMETHING?
* Jason Dinesen tells
us “I Don’t Like Calling Myself a ‘Tax Expert’ Anymore” at DINESEN TAX TIMES.
I understand where
Jason is coming from. With the tax law
so complex and ever-changing it is impossible for anyone to be a true “expert”
in the totality of the US Tax Code.
It is like the
medical profession. There are tax pros
who are truly “expert” in specific aspects of the Code, like a neurologist or a
urologist, and there are, the biggest category, “general practitioners” who
need to refer patients, or clients, to specialists in certain situations.
We tax pros are
literally, as Jason says, learning new things every day – even “old war horses”
like me. I do believe you can teach an
old dog new tricks – if the dog wants to learn.
For me personally there are tricks I do not necessarily want, or need,
to learn. I no longer accept any new
clients, and I am “winding” down my practice toward retirement – so if a “new
trick”, or an old trick that I do not know enough about, arises I usually
prefer to send the affected client to a “specialist”.
* I have two new
articles up at MEDIAPOST –
* Kay Bell reports
that “Social Security benefits, taxable wage base go up in 2019” at DON’T MESS
WITH TAXES –
“The Social Security Administration announced that she {Kay’s
mother} and her fellow Social Security
recipients will get a get a 2.8 percent
cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in 2019.”
And –
“In conjunction with the COLA that will take effect on Jan. 1, 2019, the
amount of earnings that are subject to Federal Insurance Contributions Act
(FICA) Social Security tax goes up to $132,900.”
* The Social Security
Administration has created a new Fact Sheet on the 2019 COLA changes.
* FYI – what is not
in either Kay’s post or the Fact sheet is the SSA announcement that the Nanny
Tax threshold remains at $2,100 for 2019.
* Returning to Kay
Bell, who lists “7 ways to make the most of your 401(k)”.
Pay special attention
to #’s 5 and 6.
* For once PA is
higher than NJ on a list of state taxes!
The TAX FOUNDATION’s latest “map” shows that “Pennsylvania’s gas tax rate is
highest at 58.7 cents per gallon”. NJ is
#11 at 37.10 cents per gallon.
This map appears to
be from July - and I think NJ's rate has been slightly raised since then, but
there is still a big difference. That is
why I try to fill up whenever I am in NJ (at least once every other week).
* The word from Uncle
Sam - “IRS extends Oct. 15 and other upcoming deadlines, provides expanded tax relief for victims of Hurricane Michael”.
“Hurricane Michael victims in parts of Florida and elsewhere have until
Feb. 28, 2019, to file certain individual and business tax returns and make
certain tax payments, the Internal Revenue Service announced today.”
THE LAST WORD
The arguments for
supporting and defending Donald T Rump don’t hold water. Read this.
TTFN
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