An unprecedented tax season BUZZ! Some good stuff that needs to be spread
around now – and could not wait until April.
The bill is the Tax Code Termination Act, “which would repeal the current tax code by
December 31, 2019. It would require a two-thirds majority vote in Congress to
change the termination date, and force Congress to approve a new federal tax
system by July 4, 2019.”
The bill declares that the new US federal
tax system should be "a simple and
fair system that applies a low rate to all Americans; provides tax relief for
working Americans; protects the rights of taxpayers and reduces tax collection
abuses; eliminates the bias against savings and investment; promotes economic
growth and job creation; and does not penalize marriage or families."
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert
Goodlatte tells it like it is when talking about this bill –
“. .
. it's clear that there is mounting support to scrap the tax code and start
work on a new tax system. It has become
all too clear that the current code is broken beyond repair and cannot be fixed
– we must start over. "While I have
yet to hear an argument for maintaining our current tax code, I hear argument
after argument for why we need a new one.”
To be honest, I don’t think we should wait
until 2019 to rewrite the Tax Code.
This post points up several items –
First of all – avoid fast food tax
preparation chains. Use an independent
tax professional.
And -
“This
story does show two things. First, requiring every tax professional to obtain a
license won’t stop tax fraud. The alleged fraud here was started by an
individual with a PTIN, someone who assuredly could obtain the former RTRP designation
or the current AFSP ‘seal of approval’. Second, the Department of Justice news
release notes, “In the past decade, the Tax Division has obtained injunctions
against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers.” This is absolutely true, and
the DOJ should be commended for their work. It also shows that licensing every
tax professional isn’t needed to get rid of unscrupulous ones.”
Kay told us
“Tax
filing season is tax crime season, with yet another tax software company
reporting that some of its customers' data apparently has been compromised.”
Jason tells of an email he received from a
CPA who had subscribed to his blog post feed, but unsubscribed upon learning
that he was “just an Enrolled Agent” and not a CPA.
The AICPA believes that CPAs own the 1040
preparation “brand”, which is nonsense, and aggressively fights against any
currently or potentially legitimate program that truly identified competent and
current 1040 preparers.
The initials CPA have absolutely nothing
whatsoever to do with knowledge, experience, competence, or currency in 1040
preparation. The initials EA most
definitely do.
Since I prepare all my federal returns
manually, and my clients mail the paper returns to the IRS via the Post Office,
this does not problem does not affect any of my clients.
Understand that the items discussed in this
piece are not pending tax
legislation, but just BO’s final “wish list”, none of which will be enacted by
Congress anytime soon.
There are some items worth discussing on
the wish list –
·
Increasing
the Child and Dependent Care Credit.
This is perhaps the only credit I believe actually belongs on the tax
return.
·
Extending
the American Opportunity Credit to 5 years.
While I believe this does not belong in the Tax Code, as long as it is
there it really should cover 5 calendar years.
·
Increasing
the “portability” of employee pension plans.
Of course there are also many tax components
that are bad ideas and should not be acted upon.
OK, back to the 1040s!
TTFN