Highlights of some of our favorite tax-related blogs from the past week.
Not the same-old, same-old
The Income Tax School : This coming tax year will be the first year that gay and lesbian couples can file jointly as married couples. The tax implications for the third leg of all marriages: you the preparer.The Tax Times : Don’t forget, kids: Regarding FATCA, the U.S. has begun reciprocal automaticexchange of tax information .IRS Problem Solver Blog : EITC filings hit a record high in 2013 and returned a record amount of $68 billion to filers. Is the well-intentioned credit still a balm to the burden of low-income working families or the cash entitlement that anti-poverty program that critics claim? What changes hinge on the answer?
Fall in
H&R Block blog : Kickoff Return Dept.: How fantasy football affects tax filings, via an infographic.Liberty Tax : If your clients are still panting from endless parent orientations and scrambling from Target to Target to find enough milk crates for their little one’s new dorm room, now might be good time to point out tax credits beat tax deductions for college costs.
Loom and gloom
Musings of a Burbank CPA : The fuse is getting mighty short for that tax extension that seemed so far off last spring.TurboTax Blog : Eight last-minute tips for clients for the big (looming) day.Taxjar : Scan your clients for product sellers; almost everyone has a sales tax filing due this month – an occasional task that can present absent-minded trip-ups. Here are the top seven goofs.
Ka-boom
Roth & Co. : When you blow down your own building – in this case, an old YMCA – do you get a tax break? Here’s the answer, and this week’s way-coolest video.Tax Analysts : Blogger Joseph J. Thorndike examines how the Cadillac Tax shows how Obamacare “was never built to last.” Good policy, bad politics and a third-best alternative.
Lose some, win some
Procedurally Taxing : The IRS took one on the chin from the District Court in a bid to exclude discretionary treaty benefits from judicial review, via last month’s Starr v US.Don’t Mess with Taxes : Fido wants a soak? Boots wants a massage? How the IRS said “No! Bad!” to a pet-care group offering big animal amenities and wanting tax-exempt status.Tax Policy : The California Supreme Court to hear oral arguments in Gillette Co. v. Franchise Tax Board. One man’s idea of a vacation.BNA blogs : “When it comes to sales tax sourcing, possession is at least nine-tenths of the law.”
Equal time
Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders : Take a moment to feel the pain of accounting firm marketing directors/coordinators. Consider: “They are not like accountants at all. That’s why firms hire them.” Everyone assumes good times are the norm; recognizing these professionals’ quality, often invisible work takes practice.Mauled Again : How a “quirk in global economics” may provide a key to linking tax evasion and income inequality, with a nod to Gabriel Zucman’s The Hidden Wealth of Nations. “According to Zucman, all of the financial liabilities in the world should equal all of the world’s financial assets.” That might take the kind of creative math that would wind a preparer in prison.
