Passing the week. . .

Posted by Bruce Mc on Aug 24, 2008 in Opinions, Taxes, Week in review | 0 comments

If you are new to blogging (as I am), Andy from $aving to Invest has a great piece you should read called Characteristics required for successful blogging. Thanks to informative post like this, I will get better at this blogging thing.

            Have you ever wondered about a reverse mortgages? Andy from $aving to Invest as a great look at them in his post ”A look at the Pros and Cons of Reverse mortgages”

            Blunt Money turns two! Happy blog birthday on Tuesday. In this post she mentions the book Your Money Or your Life. If you haven’t read it, why not? It may not change the way you think, but it is a great read.

            From Cash Money Life Patrick has a great post on the four day work week. It’s been on the news and a lot of businesses or following this plan. Be sure to ask yourself Would You Prefer a Four Day Work Week?

            Did you miss the Money Hacks Carnival No.26? Catch up here. It was hosted at Our Fourpence Worth. Who also hosted Festival of Frugality No. 139. And if they weren’t doing enough they have great advise how to Save by Not Saving on These Things. Great job all the way.

            A bit of information from Roth & Company, PC. High Corporate Rates: Responses From the Left. And a great reference to a famous duck.

            Keep your eye on these post if you’re thinking about your 401K. Michelle is about to start her career as a real busy person. I mentioned this last week as did TWTP on Wednesday. Follow along as she takes her skills to evaluate her own choices in her 401k. Saving for Retirement. She also did a book review on a book she (at the time of the post) was only half way through, I have given recent thought about the book and Michelle gives more insight for me to consider in her post Anticipating Grad School – Recommended Reading: Ahead of the Curve.

            Wanna good laugh at Wal-Marts Expense? Check out this post from the TAXGIRL.  While there read the peace titled “Does Wal-Mart Want Your Kid To Read?” or follow link from here. And incase you are wondering I am a great big hater of the Super store. Great piece Kelly.

            Still no emergency fund? Shame on you. More assurances that you need one. Well Check out the poll done over at No Dept Plan “Twitter Emergency Fund Poll” and if that doesn’t help then read the (what I call ) follow up from Ashley at Wide Open Wallet “Emergency Funds”

            Still more on the Government Accountability Office study released this month that found two-thirds of both American companies and foreign companies doing business in the United States end up avoiding all federal income tax obligations despite corporate sales totaling $2.5 trillion. From Kay Bell at Don’t Mess with Taxes in her post Business taxes: too much, too little. Kay goes much deeper into the situation than my piece from Friday titled A Compromise that only touched on the GAO study.

            My Web site update. . .

            Well I have come to the conclusion this is for sure going to take longer than I anticipated. I am a far way from computer literacy. Through a friend and contact from someone who lives very near where I once did I found Joomla! Joomla is a content management system (CMS), which enables you to build web sites and powerful online applications. And it is free.

It is all very new to me and though it boast easibility (is that a word?) it is a new concept for me in how it works. It is taking some time to figure it all out.

            I have decided that losing my other site (despite the hits it was generating) was truly a good thing, in that the new one will be better all the way around. Easier on the readers eyes and easier to navigate.

            The drawback is the information is currently not out there, and the time it takes for me to get it back. I am doing all this in the midst of a really busy time for me in my continuing education and other such avenues that keep me busy, like clients.

            I am to the point on the new site where I am trying to find a look, one that goes with the color scheme of L & R Tax Preparation and an overall layout. Surprisingly this is taking forever as there is either to many choices or I am being way too picky.

 Still Looking

            I am still looking for a finance blogger to fill in on the days I am unable to get post out. I have had several inquire about it and actually had one set up for Saturday, but they no showed.

            So my search continues. If you are already a blogger and have way too much to write about in your blog, lets talk.

            If you are interested please go to my contact page and let me know.

A compromise. . .

Posted by Bruce Mc on Aug 22, 2008 in Opinions | 0 comments

“A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes that he has got the biggest piece.”

- Dr. Ludwig Erhard

            I recently read the above and gave a great deal of thought to this.

With the study recently done by the Government Accountability Office, in any given year at least 60% of U.S. corporations surveyed paid no federal income tax, for the years of the study, 1998 to 2005. This reported by TAXGIRL in her post More Than Half of US Companies Pay No Income Tax. This is very interesting.

            The nation has been screaming for a fair tax system throughout history. (Remember the Boston tea Party?) Sooner or later there will be a revolt again, and studies like this are going to help incite such a thing.

            Where am I going with this? No where really. It just seems that more of us should think about what is going on. Our cost on, everything have gone up, we work and we pay our taxes. There is a system in place that mandates that corporations pay income tax. They have their rules and then there are rules that govern us, the working people of this country.

            Any business has the ability that if it has a good year, it can offset its taxable income from losses it faced in a bad year. NOL allows a company to deduct losses generated in previous years, in a current year. However, an individual is not allowed to carry forward federal income tax losses. In other words, if an individual has a bad year, the loss is wiped clean.

            I’m not suggesting a revolt by any means but how is this fair? If you earn income pay your taxes. A big advertising scheme by a lot of different folks is one announcing the complexity of the IRC (Internal Revenue Code). Does it really need to be so complex? I think not. However I don’t agree with the flat rate tax either. Too much goes on in life.

            I have clients that still rent. If they decide to buy a home (and they are planning for such) it would be imposable if there was a flat tax. So there needs to be cuts for this and that. Relief for different situations. If one entity is allowed to do something, so should we all.

            One of the biggest reasons I got into tax preparation was my desire to level the playing field somewhat. What I mean by this, is everyone deserves a fair share but not everyone knows how to get there. Corporate America (and around the world) gets breaks that would just make a person tax payer want to picket, something. There are a lot of rules and slides on rules that can help with your preparation and lower your tax bill. But with politics dictating that middle America pays the majority of the taxes then I say we need to change things.

            Corporate America has the biggest piece of the cake, we should have ours, you should have yours.