* From the “I couldn’t have said it better” file – Kay Bell said it all when she pointed out “From the get-go, the lack of oversight in administering the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has made every bailout handout a very unfunny, and egregiously costly, joke. And since Congress opened up the bailout door so wide, then who’s to stop any legal business form seeking relief?” in her post “Next In Bailout Line: Porn” at DON’T MESS WITH TAXES.

* Kay has also provides a good basic overview of the many educational tax benefits that are available in her post “Rags, Riches and College Costs”

* TAXPROF Paul Caron quotes from the Wall Street Journal to tell us “Obama Plans to Keep Estate Tax” -

“President-elect Barack Obama and congressional leaders plan to move soon to block the estate tax from disappearing in 2010.

Under the Obama plan detailed during the campaign, the estate tax would be locked in permanently at the rate and exemption levels that took effect this year. That would exempt estates of $3.5 million — $7 million for couples — from any taxation.”

*Jeff Rose provides a good answer to ”Reader Question #4- Can I Take a Tax Loss on My Kids 529 Plans?” over at GOOD FINANCIAL CENTS (Helping you make “cents” of your investments).

Jeff smartly ends his answer with, “be sure to speak with your tax advisor just to make sure”.

* An AccountantsWorld.com article reports “Americans Failing Taxes 101”.

A survey by of all people The Tax Institute at H&R Block indicates that “most can’t answer even the most basic tax questions correctly . . . the majority doesn’t know a credit from a deduction”. Duh! Hey – it seems that many Americans have something in common with H+R Block tax preparers!

*WebCPA reports that “IRS May Expand Enforcement During Tax Processing” and pay closer attention to returns claiming the Child and Dependent Care Credit and Earned Income Credit while in the course of the initial processing of returns.

* The weekly NATP member email newsletter reports-

“The IRS has announced that victims of the severe storms and flooding on December 10, 2008, in the city and county of Honolulu, have more time to make tax payments and file returns. As a result, the IRS is postponing certain deadlines for taxpayers who reside or have a business in the disaster area until February 9, 2009. The postponement applies to return filing, tax payment, and certain other time-sensitive acts otherwise due between December 10, 2008, and February 9, 2009.”

* We have a winner – actually two. Peter Pappas of THE TAX LAWYER’S BLOG reports the results of his online poll in “Worst Tax Cheat Poll Results Final: Kiss Your Sister, We Have a Tie”.

* It appears that BO’s proposed economic “stimulus” package will include some individual tax breaks – Among them, according to the press release by Charles Rangel for the House Ways & Means Committee, the following:

· refundable tax credit of $500 per worker/$1000 per couple (up to $200,000 income)
· expansion of EITC
· expansion of child tax credit
· simplification of education credits and making the credit partially refundable
· turning the $7,500 loan for first time home buyers during 2008 into a subsidy (no repayment requirement)
· increased expensing for businesses
· increased bonus depreciation for businesses
· increased (5-year) carryback of net operating losses for businesses
· “prospective” repeal of Treasury’s illegal section 382 ruling (Notice 2008-83).
· annual one-year AMT fix {I added this to list – rdf}

More and expanded refundable credits – great! The mouths of tax-fraud scammers are most certainly watering.

I will provide more information when available.

TTFN

* Professor James Maule has some interesting comments on depreciation in his post “Just Because It Didn’t Work the First 50 Times Doesn’t Mean It Will Work Next Time” at MAULED AGAIN.

”The depreciation provisions . . . have contributed to the current economic mess by allowing taxpayers to compute taxable income as though their economic position declined when in fact it remained the same or improved”.

Jim agrees with what I discussed at TWTP in my post “Here is Something to Think About”. He discusses the idea in more detail in “Instead of More Favorable Depreciation Deductions, Eliminate Them?”.

Goose the Tax Dog (I am assuming Goose is the name of the Dog) also adds his 2 cents on the topic in his post “Real Estate Depreciation” at THE TAX STUDENT.

I would be interested to hear your comments on what I propose in this post.

* TAXGIRL Kelly Phillips Erb points out that it seems that somewhere someone from the press is giving out bad information on BO’s stimulus package in her post “Ask the taxgirl: Don’t Look for a Second Rebate Check in the Mail!”.

Read my, and Kelly’s, lips – THERE WILL NOT BE ANOTHER “STIMULUS” REBATE CHECK! While he didn’t take my advice regarding refundable credits, at least BO listened to me about rebates.

* Right on Prof Daniel Shaviro of START MAKING SENSE – “Happiest word in the English language {is} ‘Ex”, when placed with a dash in front of the words ‘President George W. Bush’.”

* A great Q+A post from Gina Gwozdz at TAX TIPS BLOG on “1099 vs W2?” She makes the excellent point – “Your employer does not get to decide if they can pay you as a W-2 employee or a 1099 contractor. The law determines your classification.”

* Trish McIntyre of OUR TAXING TIMES provides the word on the economic “stimulus” rebate you did or didn’t receive last year in her post “Stimulus Rebate-Taxable This Year?”. The answer, of course, is NO – for both federal and state returns.

Trish points out that you could get an additional rebate added to the refund, or subtracted from the balance due, on your 2008 Form 1040 or 1040A – “For example, the full stimulus rebate a married couple with one child could receive was $1500. A child born in 2008 qualifies the couple for an extra $300.”

The 2008 “stimulus” rebate election year bribe caused tons and tons of confusion last year, completely overwhelming the IRS – and I expect the confusion to continue to apply to 2008 tax returns. As was the case with the last rebate check, there will be millions of errors on 2008 federal returns.

* I came across an interesting bit of information in my “wanderings” on Thursday – “The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the global body for professional accountants, views the U.S. tax regime as one of the world’s most complex, according to Chas Roy-Chowdhury, London-based head of taxation.”

* In item from Freep.com (Detroit Free Press) titled “Tax Rebate Impact on Economy is Weak” we learn “Two University of Michigan economics professors have some advice for President Barack Obama about how not to design his economic stimulus package. Their advice: Don’t make tax rebates a big part of it.”

The professors confirm what I have been saying all along – “Onetime payments from the government are a weak economic stimulus”.

Some statistics from the article – ”The U-M economists found that only 20% of U.S. households mostly spent their tax rebates, while about 48% used their rebate mostly to pay debt and roughly 32% mostly saved their rebate checks.”

* Always leave ‘em laughing – you will find some good parenting advice from BUSINESS PUNDIT in the post “Always Check Your Child’s Homework Before it Gets Turned In”.

TTFN

Her bottom line is also something all clients should take to heart – “A little bit of planning and preparation on your part will enable your tax pro to do a better, and bigger tax-saving, job for you”.

Check out the post when you get a chance!