In the Blogs: Filer Up!

Highlights of some of our favorite tax-related blogs from the past week.

“Filer up!”

  • Tax Policy: A breakdown of each candidate’s plans to change the Tax Code. Some ideas are small and others very far from such. Analysis and note of a new simple tax calculator to help sort out the confusion as we roll on toward November.
  • The Income Tax School: “Gimme a Big Gulp and a standard deduction…” Paying taxes at 7-Eleven, along with other payment options to avoid the midnight neon and our favorite line of the week: “Who wants to pay their tax bill at a gas station?”
  • Tax Vox: You’d think the PTIN is a clever way to combat ID fraud. And so it is, at least until the numbers get lost or stolen. This entry, from an actual site coordinator at a VITA program, gives an in-the-trenches view of the difficulties taxpayers face if they lose or never receive IP PINs.

Added wrinkles

  • The Tax Times: More on how “the offshore planning world was set on fire with the news that 11 million documents were leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.” Linchpin of the big news: that MF helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax.
  • Federal Tax Crimes: Where to go online for info on the Panama Papers, as well as a searchable list from the Sunday Times. “Enjoy!”
  • Rubin on Tax: What happened after a decedent died and left a majority stake in a real property management corporation to a private foundation. Thing is, the estate tax value of the stock was $14.182 million …
  • Due Diligence: In this week’s collection: “Chamber’s Dumb Arguments Against the Overtime Rule”; “The Dark Side of Medicaid Fraud – When Patients Suffer”; “Another Shale Bond Default – Energy XXI Ltd.”; and “New Jersey Says No to Patient Recruiter Schemes.”
  • Taxjar: A handy glossary for your clients who are involved in consignment sales.
  • BNA blogs: “Cash might be King, but not so the statement of cash flows.” How rampant diversity in reporting of the statement of cash flows is no easy fix: “Currently, FASB’s Emerging Issues Task Force unit is tackling nine cash flow issues – whittled down by FASB’s staff from a broader list.”

Raising the FBAR

  • Taxable Talk: Headline of the week: “Bozo Tax Tip #1a: They Shoot Jaywalkers, Don’t They? (Or Ignoring the FBAR!).” The blogger then opens with an acquired competence in the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts that he considers unfortunate.
  • Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders: Opening with a George Carlin quote (“The status quo sucks”), this entry takes a look at the perils of doing things in your practice the same old way. One of the biggest pitfalls: turning “bright, young, creative young accountants into bored, disappointed accountants.”
  • ClientWhys: A look at the latest search-result tips as Google continues to streamline itself for increased mobile usage. The devil for your higher rankings is sure in these details: “For instance, Google has removed the right-side ads in its search results and has pushed organic listings down the page. Google has also been putting more emphasis on Google My Business (GMB) listings …”

Where credit’s due

  • Tax Analysts: Intriguing look at whether news companies should accept tax credits. Specifically, Politico (of all the news companies in all the election-year world) looks to expand operations with 41 new employees in Sacramento – if the company receives $205,000 in tax credits.
  • Procedurally Taxing: A look at the site’s recently revised comment policy – including the wise step of requiring commenters’ names and e-mails.
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