Washington Today 4-6/2006

[Bees Knees]

P.S. I just noticed -- we're beating a "dead" thread again. Where do these things keep popping up from lately?

Any time you post to a thread, it "bumps" it up to the top of the list of threads. So if you go back several months and post something to a thread long buried in the past, you just resurrected it by "bumping" it to the top of the list.

Sometimes people like to go back and read all of our prior ramblings, so be careful of what you post. It could come back to haunt you

[jesslvaudio]

where do I go to check my private messages?

[veritas]

It's being an advocate for those of us that report all of our income.

Ok I'll bite how does her advocating for more compliance from me help me?

[S T]

Private Message

Go to the upper right of your screen, under where it says "Welcome", you will see Private Messages, and #Unread, Total #, click on and it will take you there.

Sandy

[Black Bart]

Well gosh, Jessie V,

where do I go to check my private messages?

Seeing as how this is your very first post, I believe you're countin' your chickens before they're hatched. You've got a catchy board name (I think), but you pretty well have to have said something in a previous post before anybody's got anything to PM you about.

[Donanita]

And What About

Quote ( The thing I was thinking about mostly was those employee retirement plans wherein the company buys half and the employee buys half of 6/10 of a share or so per week for the employee for the last 15 or 20 years. That's usually the point at which I decide I can live with an "average" cost if he (the taxpayer) can. Funny thing though; I've never met one yet who didn't say (although it may usually be true) "I lost money on that stock.")


The mergers and buyouts. Try and get a basis from the BabyBell,A T & T and others. How many of your clients know how many shares they had before a merger or have the worksheet that the company sends them.

Interview with client:

Question: Do you have the worksheet?
Answer: No, I didn't understand what it was so I threw it away. Was it important?
Question: How many shares did your have with company A before they merged with Company B?.
Answer: I have no idea. Company matched us with stock shares is all I know

[Black Bart]

And here's another couple of good, useful statements

I would tell my clients that " I am not an average tax preparer therefore I charge an above average fee".

I tell MY clients that "You are not an average client therefore I charge an above average fee."

This first one above (very good) belongs to Sea-tax; followed by your (jainen) equally good one.

[Black Bart]

Good point, Dona

Quote

Question: Do you have the worksheet?
Answer: No, I didn't understand what it was so I threw it away. Was it important?
Question: How many shares did your have with company A before they merged with Company B?.
Answer: I have no idea. Company matched us with stock shares is all I know

That's just about exactly the way those conversations run. If, by some lucky chance, Olsen's "new and improved" 1099-B does go through, then that's the cost the IRS clerk will be looking to match up to and I'm going to give it to her.

[veritas]

Nina testifying to the Senate on "The Tax Gap"

"If the IRS were able to collect all taxes due under current law, we would not have a
budget deficit. If the IRS were able to collect half the taxes that currently go
uncollected, we could repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax. Of course, it will never be
possible to eliminate the tax gap entirely, but even modest improvements have
significant revenue implications." ha ha ha

Nina lives in a dream world. If the government had 300 billion more they would spend 350 billion.

"As the National Taxpayer Advocate – the statutorily designated advocate for all
taxpayers as well as specific taxpayers – I am concerned about the economic and
social costs that this noncompliance imposes. In my 2003 Annual Report to Congress, I
identified the tax gap, after the AMT, as the most serious problem facing taxpayers. I
have continued to address the tax gap in my more recent reports to Congress, and I
have testified before Senate committees on the subject on four previous occasions."





Here's a money maker for us:

"In my view, each proposal to expand third-party information reporting or withholding
should be evaluated on its own to determine whether the likely revenue benefits
outweigh the likely economic burden the requirement would impose. Let me describe a
few situations where I think expanded third-party information reporting should be
considered. Under current law, an individual taxpayer can escape information reporting
by incorporating. This is true even if the taxpayer is performing the same services that
would be subject to Form 1099-MISC (Miscellaneous Income) reporting if the taxpayer
were conducting business as an unincorporated entity (e.g., a sole proprietorship).
For Form 1099-MISC information reporting purposes, I believe there should be no
distinction between taxpayers providing the same services for compensation merely
because one taxpayer has incorporated and another has not. There are, of course,
many valid reasons for choosing to conduct business as a corporation, but informationreportingavoidance should not be such a reason. Corporate taxpayers who intend to comply with the tax law should have no objections to receiving a 1099-MISC for
compensation for services performed or to IRS awareness of this compensation. Thus,
we recommend that corporate taxpayers (including Subchapter S corporations) be
subject to 1099-MISC reporting requirements to the same extent that unincorporated
businesses are today."

[Unregistered]

Ok I'll bite how does her advocating for more compliance from me help me?

As long as the government spends it, they have to get it from somewhere. Every time someone else pays less, you pay more.

[veritas]

As long as the government spends it, they have to get it from somewhere. Every time someone else pays less, you pay more.

As long as the government wastes it, they have to get it from somewhere.