Saturday, December 24, 2011

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

+ If you have not already done so - check out the December issue of LOIS.

+ Peter J Reilly starts off the year-in-review posts with “Of Thongs and Sheet Music - The Lamest Taxpayer Arguments of 2011”.

I will publish mine tax year in review piece in early January.

+ Trish McIntire talks about “the expectations we bring to choosing a tax pro” in “Expectations” over at OUR TAXING TIMES.

+ Richard Rubin and Steven Sloan remind us that a “Payroll Tax Tiff Times 25 Awaits Congress in ‘Utter Dysfunction’” at BLOOMBERG.COM.

Unless Congress acts by the end of 2012, income tax cuts will expire, automatic reductions in defense and domestic spending will start and the alternative minimum tax will ensnare millions more taxpayers. The same Congress that can’t find a way to extend the widely supported payroll tax cut beyond Dec. 31 will be seeking to bridge long-held ideological differences.”

Nothing will be done in 2012.  I expect that next December the idiots in Congress will extend the “Bush” tax cuts and the extenders for another two years.

The article quotes Leonard Burman, a former Treasury Department official who teaches public affairs at Syracuse University in New York, who agrees with most of us who follow the idiots –

I’ve never seen such a high level of dysfunction in the 25 years or so that I’ve been paying attention to government.”

+ ABC NEWS tells us that “Americans Frustrated by Congressional Stalemates”.

Around the country, people of different backgrounds, incomes and political leanings say they're angry and downright disgusted by the posturing in Washington after the House rejected a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut passed by the Senate, then both chambers adjourned for the holidays.”

The item quotes Greg Kirksey, a pastor in Little Rock, Arkansas –

But I'm afraid because it's a political year ... I'm not thinking anybody's really got the guts to make the hard decisions. They just keep putting a Band-Aid on, putting a Band-Aid on, kicking the can down the road a little farther."

+ Joe Kristan provides a “Year-End Tax Tip for Iowans: Fund Your College Savings Iowa Plan” at the ROTH AND COMPANY TAX UPDATE BLOG.

Iowa's state-sponsored Section 529 plan, College Savings Iowa, adds another benefit for Iowa taxpayers: a deduction on your state tax return. Iowans can deduct up to $2,865 per donor, per donee for 2011 contributions to CSI. For a couple with two children, that adds up to a maximum deduction of $11,460 for 2011.”

NJ does not offer a similar state tax deduction, but several states do.


So you can get in trouble for both under-reporting and over-reporting income!

+ MISSOURI TAX GUY Bruce McFarland explains “What Should Non-Filing Taxpayers Do?

THE FINAL WORD

I wish you all a “successful” Christmas.

Except for the idiots in Congress – they all deserve a large lump of coal in their stockings!

TTFN

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