Unbelievable Pub 596

[RLymanC]

It's enough to boggle ones mind.

A fifty eight 58......58.....58......page publication to explain if you are eligible for the Earned Income Credit. UNBELIEVABLE.

[Unregistered]

Go ahead, Make My DAY

I dare you. just go ahead and ask me how I would fix this complicated mess
of complexity and obfuscation.

ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

[Bees Knees]

I dare you. just go ahead and ask me how I would fix this complicated mess
of complexity and obfuscation.

OK,

How would you fix this complicated mess of complexity and obfuscation?

[Joe Btfsplk]

Pub 596

If anyone who prepares their own return can read all that garbage and understand it before they take the EIC, then they are probably able to make a lot more than an EIC level income and must be cheating on their taxes.

The government has created a cost to the average taxpayer on top of the already confiscitory taxes we have to pay by forcing almost everyone who does not prepare taxes professionally to incur tax preparation fees.

Of course this puts more money in my pocket, but it is not fair to the average person who should be able to prepare his own return.

[Snaggletooth]

Harlan Lunsford

Harlan, you sound like our kinda guy.

What about joining the board as a regular?

Ron Jordan, Manchester, TN

[Unregistered]

Fixing the EIC

Well, i reckon I'm a fixin to join the group as a regular. After all, you need someone South
of TENNESSEE, right?

When I first saw the EIC in 1974 it was a boondoggle then, and has only gotten worse.
So the only way to FIX it, is to get shut of it. Abolish it.

ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

[Black Bart]

Danged smart-alecky EA's.

When I first saw the EIC in 1974 it was a boondoggle then, and has only gotten worse.
So the only way to FIX it, is to get shut of it. Abolish it.
,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

Take that back! I went to lots of trouble to write "In Defense of RAL" and got beaucoup sympathy here (except from Joe B...[I cayn't say it}, but even he says it okay if I need the dough). Now, I know most of 'em really don't think it's ethical (to put it mildly), but they had the common courtesy to be "nice" about it anyway.

Such an outrageous slur demands an apology. Since that's probably not forthcoming, the following is to be considered my rebuttal (I'm borrowing this apt paragraph from Paul Greenberg and I don't know if permission's needed, but he -- a Pulitizer Prize-winning Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial page editor -- wrote it); to wit:

"...when the best of the Southern tradition comes to the fore: a sense of place, a respect for eccentricity, a never-ending complexity when it comes to social relations, the lulling sense of the ever fecund land, the palpable feel of a past that is never past, the assurance that comes with knowing you will be treated with the greatest warmth and courtesy when not being challenged to a duel..."

Now, those first few sentences are a bit murky to me (can't speak for you), but we both know what the last one means, therefore I'm askin' Snag to be my second. It's indeed a pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir! And, the choice of weapons is yours.

[Snaggletooth]

Second

I second the motion. Ken thirds the motion.

South of Tennessee? I thought Harlan was in Kentucky...

Welcome to the board Harland - pick a surname and belly up to the bar
with the likes of me and Bart.

[Black Bart]

Harlan

Okay, I take it back myself (I keep forgettin' the boys need subscribers and board-members worse than they need blow-hards, i.e., me). Anyhow, if you haven't bought the book, read the thread "Congrats to Brad and TB editors" downstairs a few posts and you'll see that everybody likes it a lot--me too, I got mine in a couple of days ago and it's really nice--they e-mail you and letcha know it's comin'. Never mind that duelin' business--I don't even own a set of muzzle-loaders and anyway, Greenberg also said "there is no greater bore than the professional Southerner"--dead on, wasn't he?

Louise-z-anna man, eh? Just so happens I've got a client from down there..."D-Val-sump'n er 'nother. Since it's cold out, come on in and we'll talk about it and get you summa that there warmth and courtesy.

Actually, although EIC sometimes helps people (or their children--if they get any of it) who need it pretty bad, I do just hate it when small-business people come in, kids are gone, and they have to cough up $2-3K SS (usually don't have it--sunk it back in the biz). They're working and worrying theirselves to death, struggling to keep their little store open and maybe furnishing a job for a guy who just got a $4-5K refund for not doing anything extra except producing kids. Personally, I think there ought to be a similar credit for anybody that opens a small business and manages to keep it going for a couple of years. Now that would boost the employment rate, especially since small business already employs the majority of people in this country.

[ChEAr$]

choice of weapons

Okay, I take it back myself (I keep forgettin' the boys need subscribers and board-members worse than they need blow-hards, i.e., me). Anyhow, if you haven't bought the book, read the thread "Congrats to Brad and TB editors" downstairs a few posts and you'll see that everybody likes it a lot--me too, I got mine in a couple of days ago and it's really nice--they e-mail you and letcha know it's comin'. Never mind that duelin' business--I don't even own a set of muzzle-loaders and anyway, Greenberg also said "there is no greater bore than the professional Southerner"--dead on, wasn't he?

Louise-z-anna man, eh? Just so happens I've got a client from down there..."D-Val-sump'n er 'nother. Since it's cold out, come on in and we'll talk about it and get you summa that there warmth and courtesy.

Actually, although EIC sometimes helps people (or their children--if they get any of it) who need it pretty bad, I do just hate it when small-business people come in, kids are gone, and they have to cough up $2-3K SS (usually don't have it--sunk it back in the biz). They're working and worrying theirselves to death, struggling to keep their little store open and maybe furnishing a job for a guy who just got a $4-5K refund for not doing anything extra except producing kids. Personally, I think there ought to be a similar credit for anybody that opens a small business and manages to keep it going for a couple of years. Now that would boost the employment rate, especially since small business already employs the majority of people in this country.

then we can settle on double single malt scotch whiskies at arms length. After all, it IS Happy Hour, here in the South and elsewhere.

glad to meet you too, BArt, and Snaggletooth (He's ... greeeeaAAATTT!).

I'm not apologizing; after all, here is a forum where we can all share our opinions along with
the tax facts. To me, the income tax (return) should be a means of raising federal gobment
revenues only and not as an instrument of social policy. (Have you read the new proposals?)
At least me and Adam Smith that wise Scotchman agree.

And excuse me for passing up on the RAL posts here on the board. I do'n't do them, but I know many EA's do of course. Chacun a son gout.

Nope, no clients in Loosana. Only here in Lower Alabama.

As for a type of EIC for struggling business owners, hmmmm. welll...
I could have used that meself for a couple of years when I first started in the tax business.
Never thought of that before you mentioned it.

Keep the faith, and
Christmas ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

[Black Bart]

Harlan

Chacun a son gout.

Only here in Lower Alabama.

I know you're new and all and I'm sure the boys 'preciate your business, but even if it's okay to do that (or whatever) in Lower Alabama, I feel obliged to tell you that the moderators here don't allow any cussin'.

Just last month here, a furriner was trying to answer "yes" to a question and kept sayin' ooey-ooey (oui-oui, he spelled it). After I told him he wasn't gettin' through, then, all of a sudden and out of the blue he started sayin' "wee-wee" (hope that isn't bleeped out before you read it). I told him that that was really out-of-line and no mention of bodily functions is allowed. Just a word to the wise.

[ChEAr$]

mea culpa, y'all

[QUOTE=Black Bart]I know you're new and all and I'm sure the boys 'preciate your business, but even if it's okay to do that (or whatever) in Lower Alabama, I feel obliged to tell you that the moderators here don't allow any cussin'.

Of all people; me, using a frenchified phrase. Heck, I don't drink Glenlivet OR that Chivas
Regal any longer cause they're owned by the frenchies.

But plenty more from Scotland from which to choose.

Merry Christmas, y'all,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

[Joe Btfsplk]

[QUOTE=Black Bart]Take that back! I went to lots of trouble to write "In Defense of RAL" and got beaucoup sympathy here (except from Joe B...[I cayn't say it}, but even he says it okay if I need the dough).

Some people have trouble pronouncing Bftsplk, It is pronounced "b-f-t-s-p-l-k."

If you practice saying it a few times, it rolls trippingly off the tongue as William Shakespeare would say.