WHAT’S THE BUZZ, TELL ME WHAT’S A HAPPENNIN’

The BUZZ is a day early – due to Friday being the 4^th of July.

* TAX GUY Bill Bischoff explains “Why Tax Planning is So Important” at MARKETWATCH.COM.

His bottom line advice is excellent –

 “ . . . plan transactions with taxes in mind and avoid making impulsive moves. Seeking professional tax advice before pulling the trigger on significant transactions is usually money well spent”.

* In Part II of his new series at MAULED AGAIN Professor Jim Maule debunks the tax myth that “The IRS Enacted the Internal Revenue Code”.

The professor reminds us –

“The IRS DOES NOT ENACT INTERNAL REVENUE CODE SECTIONS. It is the {idiots in – rdf} CONGRESS that enacts Internal Revenue Code sections. That’s very basic stuff. Extremely basic stuff. Understandably, many of the propaganda ministries have a not-so-hidden agenda of trying to persuade people that it’s the IRS that generates the tax laws, as part of the effort to discredit the IRS and taxes generally.”  

* Regulation of tax preparers will not stop tax fraud.  Nor will required annual CPE in ethics preaching.  Some more examples:

“San Diego CPA Convicted in Elaborate Tax Evasion Scheme” (highlight is mine) -

“A San Diego tax attorney and certified public accountant was convicted Monday in a complex tax-evasion scheme involving the creation of bank accounts in the names of dead children and fake churches.”

A tip of the hat to Joe Kristan’s daily Tax Round-Up for bringing this case to my attention.

And “CPA Pleads Guilty in Madoff Fraud Scheme” (again, highlight is mine) –

“Peter Konigsberg, an accountant and lawyer who provided services to numerous clients of Bernard Madoff’s investment firm, and who was a personal tax and business adviser to Madoff, pleaded guilty Tuesday in a Manhattan federal court to various charges and faces up to 30 years in prison.

Konigbserg pleaded guilty to a three-count superseding information charging him with one count of conspiracy to falsify the books and records of Madoff Securities and to obstruct the administration of the tax laws, as well as two substantive books and records counts.”

* Joe Cicchinelli and Jared Trexler of THE SLOTT REPORT identify the “Exceptions to the Once-Per-Year IRA Rollover Rule”.

* The Summer 2014 issue of NJ TAXING TIMES, the newsletter of the NJ chapter of NATP, is now available.  Click here to download.

Tax pros – you have got to read “Did My Client Really Say That???” from Sandy LaPenta.  After over 40 years of dealing with the public (who my mentor used to refer to as “the great unwashed”) this story does not surprise me.   

TTFN