Wednesday, June 6, 2012

WHAT’S THE BUZZ? TELL ME WHAT’S A HAPPENNIN’ – WEDNESDAY EDITION

My motel on LBI has wifi – so I can BUZZ!

* Have you seen Bruce McFarland’s latest “McTax Hangout” episode?

* Joe Kristan, of THE ROTH AND COMPANY TAX UPDATE BLOG, also shares his wisdom at IOWABIZ.COM, where he correctly tells us “To Deduct Business Expenses, StartWith a Business”.

* Scott Hodge of the Tax Foundation is rightfully confused to learn that “Record 58 Million Off the Tax Rolls, Yet Outrage Over 1 in 189 Wealthy Nonpayers?” at the Foundation’s TAX POLICY BLOG.

As Scott points out in his post (highlights are mine) -

Despite the fact that the number of non-paying high-earners amounted to just 1 in 189, or 0.53 percent, of the 3.9 million taxpayers over $200,000 in 2009, there has been a general lack of perspective in the reporting and commentary on this issue . . .

The fact is . . . 2009 had the largest percentage of Americans paying no income taxes since 1940 – 42 percent of all filers, or 58.6 million. In other words, 1 in 2.4 taxpayers in the general public paid no U.S. income tax in 2009 because of the generosity of the credits and deductions in the tax code.”

* I hope my clients read “If You Hide Stuff From Your CPA, Don’t Start Pointing Fingers When the IRS Comes Calling” (despite the faulty title – “Your CPA” should read “Your Tax Preparer”) from the DOUBLE TAXATION: A TAKE ON ALL THINGS TAXES blog.

In discussing a recent Tax Court case the author reminds us (highlights are mine) -

There was just one small hole in Garcia’s argument: you cannot rely on the fact that a CPA prepared your returns if you concealed the information necessary for your accountant to prepare an accurate tax return. In fact, the purposeful suppression of relevant tax information works the other way; it is evidence of a taxpayer’s intent to conceal and deceive, one of the major indicia of fraud.

The lesson? Be honest with your tax preparer. Give them all of the information necessary to file a complete return, and if they screw up or do something unethical, while an increased tax liability may be coming your way, at least you won’t be stuck with a 75% fraud penalty, like poor Gary Garcia.”

* I remembered to submit an item to Kay Bell’s “Tax Carnival #103: June Tax Swoon” at DON’T MESS WITH TAXES – my post “It Ain't Necessarily So”.

I especially liked the advice in “A Business Is Not Your Personal Piggy Bank” BY Eric J. Nisal of DOLLARVERSITY.    

* Jason Dinesen posts “More on Last Week’s DOMA Ruling” at DINESEN TAX TIMES.

* Kim Kislak reports that “Weekly Tax Tidbits Are Back” at KISLAK TAX AND NOTARY SERVICE’S BLOG.  This week’s tidbit concerns SIMPLES and SEPS.

* Click here for a comparison of BO’s and MR’s dueling tax proposals, compliments of WithumSmith + Brown, PC.  For me, I tend to favor Mitt’s.  I will discuss the two plans in more detail in a future TWTP post.

TTFN

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