Just a 46-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). I think this sums it up pretty good:
Why the Tax Compromise is a Mistake
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My head is spinning at work.
It's hard to remember all the "one-time" absurd tax laws for the state to generate revenue. My boss about gave me a heart attack when he said NO SAFE HARBOR for Cali income tax this year. Turns out he was wrong. (I thought he knew something I didn't and freaked me out a bit - that is only true if your income tops $1 million).
I've got clients calling me about this health care credit (For small employers with low-wage employees, who provide health insurance). It's so convuluted, no one qualifies. But I have to stare at it a couple of hours to tell them they don't qualify.
I am reading about the IRS lack of guidance on carryover basis for Estates in 2010. No Estate Tax in 2010. Sounds great, right? No. No stepped-up basis for inherited assets. I just read that this form (to allocate basis) is due April 15th, for people who passed in 2010 with larger estates, though the IRS has not issued any guidance on a number of issues, and has not even provided the form.
It's December 10 and AMT is not patched though it has been promised to be (for 2010).
The government wants to pass a social security tax holiday that is too late to implement for January.
People all the time tell me that accountants must support all this crap because it means job security. I think the line from "job security" to "it's practically impossible to do my job" was crossed when Bush took office. But, it's just gotten worse since Obama took office. I actually contribute to my profession's political action committee because I know they support SIMPLIFYING all this mess. It's honestly the main reason I contribute.
California is a mess because they can't justify to match all the tax breaks at the Federal level. I have to give California that. Though it is a huge PITA for tax payers and tax professionals, at least they don't blindly play along with tax legislature they can't afford. For me, there are 3 tax systems. Fed, AMT, and California. That's 3 times the work compared to a decade ago (when AMT was more rare and California mostly conformed to Federal law).
2011 will be a fun year, indeed!
December 11th, 2010 at 12:55 am 1292028943
December 15th, 2010 at 08:59 pm 1292446785
December 18th, 2010 at 03:30 pm 1292686222