Thursday, August 31, 2006

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

And the winner is.......the IRS

Ok, I'm not going to lie I'm not a big fan of the big hoopla with all the award shows. To tell you the truth I'd rather watch MSNBC than hear analysis concerning Kiefer Sutherland's outfit while he walks down the red carpet, but I digress. Apparently I am in the minority on this matter as even the IRS has become interested in the Emmy's. As I read more and more about what is and what can't be taxed I am becoming exponentially more confused. Apparently a gift is only taxed if a gift is actually meant to be a gift and not a gift for motives ungiftlike. Or something like that. Many of the Emmy atendee's were advised to not take the gifts because the tax consequences were too high. Darn, welcome to the real world and what we all have to deal with because of the complexity of our tax code.

From: USA TODAY

Stephen Collins (7th Heaven) chose not to take the gift bag this year
because of the tax consequences. "Just my luck. I'm finally able to
get one and this happens," he said.

As for SNL's Tina Fey: "No, I am not going to take it. My accountants
told me the taxes were too high, and I live in New York, so they have
to send the stuff — and a lot of stuff you don't get anyway."


One actor felt that the IRS was singling Hollywood out because of their high profile. Ummm... excuse me are you kidding me?

Several stars said they wouldn't accept, including 24's Gregory Itzin
"I refused. I wanted to shortcut that whole problem. It's foolish. It's
focused on us because we're so high-profile."

Yeah, that's it Greg it has nothing to do with the gift basket being worth more than most people make a year. Who is Gregory Itzen anyways?

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Federal Appeals Court ruling may push tax reform

Interesting read from Bruce Bartlett's column:

"Last week, a federal appeals court in Washington handed down an important decision relating to the definition of income for tax purposes. What is important about the decision is that it is the first one in decades saying that the Constitution itself limits what the government may tax. If upheld by the Supreme Court, it could significantly alter tax policy and possibly open the door to radical reform. "

His column goes on to explain how tax scholars around the country predict this will open the flood gates for challenges to what can be deemed taxable income. This should be interesting to watch as more rulings get handed down concerning the income tax. This is going to get ugly, but might be just the ruling to help the FairTax become an even more timely issue.

Letter to the Editor of the Month Award

I am going to be posting the best published letter to the editor each month in hopes of showing everyone effective examples of letters to the editor and to give props to the individual writers for a job well done. This month’s winner is Mr. Jay Herrell of Las Vegas who had this published on August 15th by the Las Vegas Review. It points out perfectly a very fundamental crux of the FairTax and why it is works. Good job Jay, for his achievement we will be sending Jay the Ronco Set-it-and-forget-it Rotisserie. Keep up the good work!

Consumers always pay

To the editor:

John Brummett's Sunday column says the federal Fair Tax proposal "would do away with corporate income taxes and replace them with a sales tax that only consumers, but not businesses, would pay. That's an irresponsible, even immoral, shift of tax burden from corporations to consumers."Mr. Brummett must have graduated from Berkley with a degree in literature, because he obviously never took Economics 101. When a corporation pays a tax, there is only one source for that revenue stream: the consumer who walks in and plunks his money down for the product or service the corporation provides. Corporations never pay income taxes, only the consumers and the owners of the corporation pay income taxes! In fact, if a "corporation" pays any form of income tax to anyone, the owners of the corporation pay income taxes twice (once on the business they own and again on their personal income) but the consumer ends up paying the whole bill.Wouldn't it be better if the consumer knew exactly what the tax bill really was?

Nothing talks like money

I saw this during my morning search of various FairTax and all things Income Tax search this morning. I'm not advocating this but if you want to let your money talk here's where you can go.

Dirty underwear no longer tax deductible!

Upsetting I know! No longer can we pawn off piles of dirty unmentionables to charity and claim them as tax write offs. Inside the recent pension bill signed by President Bush there was a provision added that will makes our broken and dirty junk non-tax deductible. Me thinks such laws won’t be needed once the FairTax is passed what about you? In the Joint Commission on Taxation’s technical explanation of the “PENSION PROTECTION ACT OF 2006” it is explained that,

“The provision provides that no deduction is allowed for a charitable contribution of clothing or household items unless the clothing or household item is in good used condition or better. The Secretary is authorized to deny by regulation a deduction for any contribution of clothing or a household item that has minimal monetary value, such as used socks and used undergarments.”

Does government really need to be bogged down writing provisions to eliminate dirty underwear from being a tax write off? If I would have known I would have been writing my underwear off for years just like Bill Clinton did when he claimed his underwear was worth $2 a piece USED. That was when he was Governor too so I can’t even imagine how much they’re worth after being President! Just goes to show yet another example of one of the thousands of ridiculous loopholes that enables people to pay less in taxes. If the FairTax was in place currently this would not have been an issue along with itemizing our dirty laundry. I wonder what other ridiculous things you can write off on your taxes are. If anyone has any interesting exemptions please let me know.

Monday, August 28, 2006

A FairTax Blog Welcome!

Welcome!! I want to thank everyone for visiting and for everyones support. Also I especially want to welcome those of you not on board the FairTax train yet for your curiousity in learning more about the FairTax. I am very excited to start this blog as we have received an enormous outpouring of emails and calls calling for one. As we have heard your outcry, with your continued help congress will also feel that same pressure and pass the FairTax. I hope to make this blog both entertaining and informative for ya'll. As “youngin'” here in the office I was unofficially selected as “Supreme Commander of the Blog” a couple weeks ago. So during the past few weeks I have been researching numerous popular blogs (fairtax and non-fairtax related) for some ideas. Two particular FairTax blogs of inspiration have been The Fairtax Blog and FairTax at UF and I want to thank them for their ambition and support of the FairTax. From my search I have come to two conclusions concerning the developement of a good blog. Firstly, that succesful blogs need a very active audience (Ya’ll) and secondly that the blogger (Me) contribute posts frequently that are informative, entertaining, and engaging to the audience. With that being said I encourage everyone to email me any suggestions, comments, or concerns ya'll have. The aim is that this blog help shake some branches and stir up even more excitement and support for the FairTax. Keep up the good work!! Hotty Toddy!