In the Blogs: What Not to Fake

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

Dubious answers

  • Tax Policy: You can turn to a lot of potential answers for a fiscal mess, Puerto Rico, but the EITC is probably not one of them.
  • Tax Analysts: Has Mexico found a similar non-answer to money woes in the soda tax?
  • John R. Dundon EA blog: A rundown, so to speak, on this year’s depreciation deduction limits for passenger vehicles. BTW, notes Dundon, “It never ceases to amaze me how many bush league practitioners and DIY-ers get this wrong.”
  • Mauled Again: For most of our adult lives, we’ve heard the cry that tax cuts for the wealthy create jobs, stimulate the economy and in general advance the cause of freedom. Occasionally almost everyone doubts the argument, but here’s a theory that the idea is “intentionally deceptive.”

Biggest challenges

  • Don’t Mess with Taxes: Catching fraud and making the tax code big enough to anchor a Long Island Sound ferry are important, sure, but “a big believer in lists” sees securing taxpayer data as the biggest challenge for the IRS.
  • Procedurally Taxing: Summary opinions for from Sept. 21 through Oct. 2. “Some very good FOIA, whistleblower and private collections content,” plus fantasy football tax cheats, business on boats and lots of banks getting sued. Sounds fun.
  • Roth & Co.: Was the DOJ mindful, when it said it would not prosecute Lois Lerner or anybody else in IRS as a result of the Tea Party Scandal, that the news broke on a Friday, the traditional Bermuda Triangle of headlines?
  • BNA blogs: The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Comptroller of Treasury of Md. v. Wynne may have an impact far beyond personal income tax, as evidenced by the recently granted certiorari petition in First Marblehead Corp. v. Mass. Comm'r of Revenue.

What not to fake

  • Taxes at About.com: Best practices for documenting your professional expertise.
  • The Income Tax School: Making It Look Easy Dept.: 10 basic keys to leadership, from integrity, trust and respect to the hard stuff to do.
  • Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders: Take time from answering calls and sorting client papers and writing your aunt and doing the floors to check this entry on multitasking.
  • TurboTax Blog: What to tell clients about open health-care enrollment for 2016, via a handy timeline.
  • Taxjar: Guest blogger Deborah Sweeney, CEO of MyCorporation.com, looks at the benefits of clients’ incorporating a business, including tax savings and safeguarding personal benefits. The big consideration: What comes after the I, N and C?
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