Rally the troops

Thanks to Robert Flach, the Wandering Tax Pro, for his informative comment in answer to my question of how to get involved in pushing for tax simplification.

He writes:

There is really no effective lobby for the individual taxpayer. Until there is, all the other lobbies for special interest groups, with their huge budgets, will continue to entice Congress to complicate the Tax Code in their favor.

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olsen is a good loud advocate for the taxpayer and for simplification, but Congress rarely acts on her recommendations.

It's unfortunate that my perception turns out to be fairly accurate -- that there is no effective lobby for the taxpayer in pushing for simplification. Instead, the problem just keeps getting worse with each new credit and deduction.

I was thrilled to read Mr. Flach's offer to join me in organizing Tax Professionals for Simplification in his weekly recap of what's going on in the tax world, What's the Buzz. I'm not sure precisely when I'll be able to delve into the idea (selling a house and all), and I won't be able to devote a lot of time to this (and am sure others can't devote a lot either), but I figure some time is better than none. And I really think it's high time for change!

We'll keep you posted.

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Where do I sign up?

I'm still new to this tax blogging world, but I've certainly read enough to know that I am not alone in thinking tax law is way too complicated.

Since recently reading that the Obama task force on tax simplification may not really get us anywhere, and also reading about how rarely Congress really listens to National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olsen, I can't help but be discouraged.

I want to get involved in pushing Congress for tax simplification.

I realize I can't do much all by myself, and I've got two little rugrats to take care of, but I'd like to contribute what little time and (questionable) talent I can to making real change happen.

What's the best way to push for tax simplification? Is there an AICPA group, a group in the National Association of Tax Preparers, or some other group? Is there a "Tax Professionals for Simplification" organization?

What's the best place to start, and where do I sign up?

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The Cool Crowd

I appreciated Roni Deutch's post (The Tax Lady Blog) with her list of tax professionals active on Twitter -- not because I'm on the list (which is nice of course) but because I always enjoy finding more people with whom to connect.

Long live Twitter!

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Banking Blunders

June Walker recently posted "You need only one checking account. Do not open a separate checking account for your business."

On this matter she and I respectfully disagree, and it seems most of the tax bloggers disagree with her as well.

Joe Kristan says it well in his usual no-nonsense way:

You will save yourself a lot of time at tax time, and a lot of grief in an IRS exam, if personal is personal, business is business, and that's that. Run your business like a business.

The Tax Lawyer provides some more good reasons for setting up a separate account. The Wandering Tax Pro wrote a good post arguing the case for a separate account.

I was disappointed with June's response, which was inflammatory and, in my humble opinion, uncalled for. As Robert Flach put it:

Just because someone respectfully disagrees with you on a subject does not make them a fool, or stupid, or uninformed.

The thing that bugged me most in her response was the accusation that Robert was being sexist when he referred to "One-man LLCs." To Robert's credit, he responded with an apology for not being perfectly PC, and indicated his efforts to use "he/she" in his writing.

Being female, I'm obviously aware of and sensitive to gender issues. I have tremendous admiration and gratitude for the generations of women that have come before and paved the way for younger gals like me. Because of this, I get really annoyed when people start looking for any excuse to accuse someone of being sexist. To me, June's comment was out of left field, and had no real basis in fact. If we always made sure to use the exact PC wording in everything we said, we'd never manage effective communication.

So in summary, I believe strongly in having a separate checking account for business, and even more strongly in keeping communication respectful and productive.

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Favorite Tax Blogs

The house is on the market, and I'm finally visiting my cherished Google Reader.

Here are the tax blogs I couldn't wait to catch up on...

My Top 5 (no particular order):

• Kay Bell's Don't Mess with Taxes
• Kelly Phillips Erb's Taxgirl
• Joe Kristan's Tax Update Blog
• Robert Flach's The Wandering Tax Pro
• Peter Pappas' Tax Lawyer Blog

In the Top 10 (no particular order):

• Paul Caron's TaxProf
• Russ Fox's Taxable Talk
  
• James Maule's Mauled Again
• Trish McIntire's Our Taxing Times
  
• Linda Beale's ataxingmatter

And I enjoyed Bruce the Taxguy, who has recently retired his blog for other pursuits, in which I wish him the best.

So that's what this tax blogosphere newcomer loves to read. Peter Pappas gives an annual Rick Moranis award to the 5 Best Tax Nerd Blogs. Invesp Consulting recently posted its Top 25 Tax Blogs.

Where do you go for your tax fix?

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Taxing the Rich

Taxprof directs us to a list of Seven Myths About Taxing the Rich published by Curtis S. Dubay of the Heritage Foundation.

The myth I often hear that bothers me most is listed as Myth 2: "The rich do not pay their fair share."

The rebuttal:

"The top 20 percent of income earners pay almost all federal taxes.

"The top 20 percent of all income earners pay a substantial majority of all federal taxes. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in 2006, the latest year of available data, the top 20 percent of income earners paid almost 70 percent of all federal taxes. This share was 4 percent higher than in 2000, before the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.

"When only looking at income taxes, the share of the top 20 percent increases even further. In 2006, the top 20 percent paid 86.3 percent of all income taxes. This was an increase of 6 percent from 2000."

I agree it is not accurate to say "the rich don't pay their fair share." Some wealthy people are dishonest and don't pay their fair share, just as are some poor people. The stereotyping of the wealthy as greedy, heartless beings is what I find to be unfair, and tiresome. I concede there are greedy, heartless wealthy people, just as there are greedy, selfish poor people.

As recently posted by the Taxprof, Tax Lawyer, and Tax Foundation, the share of the tax burden borne by the top 1 percent now exceeds the share paid by the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers combined.

Wealthy American citizens who obey the law pay a lot of tax.

Of course, when debating whether the wealthy pay their fair share, the true challenge is in defining what their fair share -- and anyone's - really is. I'd need to do a lot more studying of economics, tax policy, international tax rates, and a host of other topics before I could feel qualified to propose a definitive answer to the question of exactly what is a fair share.

What I would like to claim definitively is that "the rich" are not all bad people who exploit those less fortunate to make a buck. Many "rich people" are honest, hard-working, and generous.

Lest there be any confusion, I can declare without hesitation that I do not fall into the category of rich. But I do know and work with people who are "rich", and I am continually amazed at their success, which has come from hard work and strength of character.

A couple years ago, a smart man told me something very simple: "Successful people make and keep commitments."

Let's stop maligning successful people for being successful. Would we rather have a country full of people who never strive for excellence? I hope not.

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