Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

PS: Loved your 21 reasons why I will not vote for Obama in 2012 post.

I advocate Jeffersonian democracy and Adam Smith’s economic philosophy from his Wealth of Nations. Jefferson asserted that there could be no democracy with concentrations of power (i.e., wealth) in the hands of the few. He believed that democracy could only survive in a country of small farmers; today, it would be small businesses, who, incidentally, create 80% of the jobs in our country and do not export them to Taiwan, South Korea, China, and elsewhere.

Adam Smith warned of the collusion of business and government, too, and the disastrous effect it would have on a free enterprise, capitalistic system.

Perhaps you failed to read the Federalist Papers and Wealth of Nations, and obtain all of your information from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity, accounting for your misunderstanding of the economic reality currently in the United States.

The Barefoot Accountant

Aside from that about 99% of what you said either has nothing to do with governing people or simply could not be accomplished in reality

You make statements like “humane and workable set of values and principles.” but then outlines ways to underline the very morals and values of the people of the country you are proposing the change for.

I would not only not vote for you I would openly fight against you, I can see a lot of things wrong with most governments but it almost always has to do with scope and size.

Your idea of government would do away with any pretense of moral beliefs and would basically be a pointless control center taxing a populace that would not agree with its reason for being nor would they gain anything from the governing body.

Good luck selling that because not even in the most extreme socialist countries like Britian or Germany could you close that deal

Ps – “Why do nations like Taiwan, Japan and South Korea have better health care systems than the US?” They don’t their health care is a joke compared to the US, stop believing what the liberal media is selling you. Visit them first hand and see, same as Britian, Germany and just about any other country in the world that has some form of social medicine

“This would elevate voter participation to a level that would leave little time for football games and Friday nights at the local bowling alley or bar”

No actaully it would end voter particpation completely because if people wanted to run every aspect of the country they woudl do it not elect someone else

Thank you for your comment and support. But be assured: many are very disenchanted with Obama’s sell out of the working classes of America. And I suspect that he may very well lose the election, even though Willard Mitt Romney is his opponent, given that a recession and higher energy prices are expected soon.

You can piss down peoples’ backs and tell them it’s raining outside only so many times. Eventually, everyone gets pissed off.

Thanks, again,
The Barefoot Accountant

“I appreciate the Dept. of Consumer Protection being there for us consumers. However, I have to say that it is pretty bad that the Dept. extends Home Improvement licenses to businesses like Lysco Contracting AKA Energy Star without at least doing a cursory search. It took me all of two minutes to find out these are chimney sweep scammers AND YOUR DEPARTMENT LICENSED THEM!

We did not fall for the scam, but my mother almost did. I just think that a preliminary look online would have revealed to your Department that these people are scammers. I am blown away that you would extend them a license.”

I e-mailed this along with a formal complaint form to trade.practices@ct.gov. I guess that did a lot of good. I notice Lysco still has an active license.

However, Barack Obama has not changed the way Washington works. Over the past three years, the big banks, Wall Street, the multinational corporations, and corporate America have continued to regulate and control the American economy, further inhibiting competition in the marketplace and real capitalism as envisioned by Adam Smith. Wall Street controls Barack Obama, too: it is no coincidence that on his first day in office, he appointed Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers as well as reappointed Ben Bernanke and Peter Orszag to his top economic team. Recall that Goldman Sachs (also known as Government Sachs) was Obama’s largest single donor in his election in 2008.

It is a sad state of affairs when the American citizen has only the choice between a Wall Streeter with very conservative social views and a Wall Streeter with less conservative social views.

The American middle class is screwed either way with whoever is elected President in 2012.

The Barefoot Accountant

It isn’t rocket science; the GOP is a walking testimony of how oligarchy works. The lines are bright and lit for the public to choose which side of the line they are on, which team….the poor or the rich. Most people choose neither, and choose socialism for salvation. If the GOP can’t offer alternatives that work, why should Americans not reelect Obama?

Thats the point, something else would have been purchased somewhere else in the Town. More money equals more spending.

So the market is going up but everything else is still too high in price. If fuel is to high no one will visit the State we live in…I know this year like last year, We will not be going to any of the Fairs in the state because it just costs to much to do so.

$.50 cents, would that be to much to ask ???

Please see the blog entry above: I emailed Warren Buffett’s office yesterday.

Thank you,
The Barefoot Accountant

So sorry to hear about your experience. All I can say is, wow.

Imagine not standing behind one’s product. Whatever happened to the phrase, the customer is always right?

If I were you, I would not keep silent about your experience.

Please keep me informed.

Kindest regards,
The Barefoot Accountant

I called that office and they were no help what so ever! The woman who I spoke to said too much time had gone by and they will not reduce the price or issue a refund at this point. I’m in so much trouble now I have purchased 2 tax software packages that I cannot afford. I’ll let you know if I make any headway.

Brenda

I am sorry to hear about your unfortunate experience with Lacerte; however, since it is a product of Intuit, I cannot say that I am not surprised.

You may wish to contact Brad Smith, the President of Intuit. Here is the address for the Office of the President.

Intuit, Inc.
OOP (Office of the President)
P.O. Box 28867
Tucson, AZ 85726-8857

520-901-3280

Good luck.
The Barefoot Accountant

I am having a terrible time with Lacerte and read your blog. Any advice on how to get my money back? I want to switch back right now. Please help if you have any advice. I want to go back to ProFx. They refused to cancel my contract and threatened to let it go to collections. I cannot afford to buy both programs this year.

Thanks,
Brenda

I spent many hours researching the Rev Procs for the 3115 form. It was daunting. I went out to TaxAlmanac.org and the IRS website. But, when I came across your article, all the pieces of the puzzle seemed to fall into place. I still have a few pieces of the puzzle to wrap up, but the task seems much more manageable after reading your article. I thank you very much for sharing. Words just can’t express…

–
Donna
Donna L. Loeffler, CPA
936 Church Avenue
St. Charles, MN 55972

Now do you understand why middle class Americans can no longer afford a home and a college education for their children?

When will you stand up and demand real change? President Obama has just proposed a 20% reduction in the corporate tax rate. He is as guilty as all those Republicans demanding decreases in corporate taxes.

Let’s realize that our politicians are representing corporate America and not the American citizens since money controls elections and their livelihood.

The Barefoot Accountant

The Barefoot Accountant

I have an interesting question – there might not be a Right or Wrong answer – but I was faced with this situation in one of my companies – If you can give your thought and advise what you think is more correct – appreciate your answer –

Academic question –

Valuation of WIP in Airline Maintenance & Repair & Overhaul organizations ( MROs’ ).

Facts:

Generally work is undertaken in the MRO’s after the repair work is identified and costs agreed to complete the job. Work starts only after the repair rates are agreed upon between the two parties – the owner and the service provider

Query:

For WIP valuation, should one use the costs or the selling rate.

As a conservative practice, we value the closing stock or the WIP at cost or realisable value , whichever is lower. The reason is simple – the sale has not taken place and these goods are to be sold at a later date – so the axiom of conservativeness applies –

However if, as in the MRO business, the sale of the service is already done, and the maintenance is in progress, should not the value be expressed at the selling price instead of at cost? The rationale being that the sale has already taken place and there are no more selling expenses needed to complete the sale. By this method there is fairness and also the profits are being recognized proportionately..

In my opinion, the conservative thinking of valueing at cost price was the right thing to do – but the Company had a Global Policy to value WIP at selling price – The Big 4 accepted this policy – may be because of the above reasoning – I did not question the policy – could not – but tried to reason out the thinking !! How would you look at this —-

Kind regards

Sridhar Vemuri

Chartered Accountant

When the representative of the company involved here said that its work was all in accordance with the building code, then how come there wasn’t clearance of 18″ from combustibles? Old wood could go up in flames from spontaneous combustion, killing the inhabitants in the house.

I would never go to an 80 year-old lady’s house on the pretext of cleaning her chimney, and then have her write me a check for $5,400 for major repair work without first giving her ample time to discuss it with a family member.

Basis is typically based on what you have invested and re-invested in any investment. So it appears that you have sufficient basis to deduct any losses, particularly in the first year. Your Certified Public Accountant normally computes and updates your basis each year, since the calculation is a function of a number of items, including contributions and distributions and income.

Your tax liability is based on the S Corporation’s income and other pass through items. Is the $20k/month distribution a salary?

My fee is typically one-third of my competitors in the area.

The Barefoot Accountant
Accountants CPA Hartford, Connecticut, LLC

I wonder if the American people are likely to feel more sympathetic to families losing their $100,000 or $200,000 homes than to those losing their $500,000 or $5,000,000 homes to banks.

Yes, Cenk, the devil is in the details. In my opinion more details on the Zapata’s story are needed.

And thank you for your suggestion regarding the crediting to the Note Payable account. I will check it out.

The Barefoot Accountant

Kudo’s for a great Help site.

I believe both vendors, QuickBooks and Peachtree, allow free trials or demos of their products. I suggest you try out both and determine which one feels most comfortable to you.

Of course, if you have a small business, I suggest that you obtain the services of a CPA to assist you. If you do not have one, my fees are about one-third of my competitors in the Connecticut area.

William Brighenti, CPA
Accountants CPA Hartford, Connecticut, LLC

I don’t own either product so I am in the market to purchase one. Again, my business is a very small finance company where I plan to buy inheritances at a discount; do factoring (i.e., buying invoices at a discount); and make limited small commercial/consumer loans.

Unfortunately QuickBooks nor Peachtree will automatically prepare financial statements and footnote disclosures in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Intuit has a Statement Writer; Peachtree has a Financial Statement Editor. Plus Crystal Reports is included with Peachtree Premium, allowing greater flexibility in creating financial reports.

But before preparing financial statements and footnotes you need to understand GAAP and the required disclosures. No program will provide that knowledge for you.

Whatever program in which you are most comfortable working perhaps might be your choice of software. And if you need official financial statements, unless you are a trained accountant, I humbly suggest you always engage a good CPA. I learned long ago that when it comes to doing something ordinarily requiring years of study, hire a professional and save headaches and money.

The Barefoot Accountant

Between QuickBooks and Peachtree, which product would (1) allow me to prepare financial statements and footnote disclosures in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, (2) be best suited for my type of business, and (3) allow me to prepare reports that would be accepted by banks and investors for getting financing?

Liberty Mutual saved me a bundle. And processed by claim without interrogating me and holding up payment like Allstate did for a mere $125!!!!

I would never trust Allstate again.

That’s an interesting question. Unfortunately, you cannot use Loan Manager in reverse per se since it is designed to process payments to lenders and not to receive payments from borrowers.

I do know, however, a way to use Loan Manager in conjunction with other features in QuickBooks to process receipts from borrowers; however, that is the subject of a future article, which will be published sometime this year.

Stay tuned.

The Barefoot Accountant

Our political system is broken and needs to be replaced.

The Barefoot Accountant

Stealing from the middle class and giving to the rich will perhaps get him in good graces with his Wall Street country club neighbors in Fairfield County.

Recall that Bill Clinton was worth around $250,000 in 1992. When Hillary declared her candidacy in 2008, the Clintons were worth $109 million.

Lobbying monies has been characterized by critics as legalized bribery. How many politicians have advanced legislation not in the interests of the majority of Americans simply for money? I suspect far too many. This is the problem of our political system: our politicians pandering for money.

The Barefoot Accountant

Please sign the petition to let Malloy know. Perhaps it will deter him from further increases in your Connecticut income taxes.

Thank you for you comment.

Kindest regards,
The Barefoot Accountant

If I were you, I would consider wire tapping her calls and calling a good divorce lawyer…LOL!

The Barefoot Accountant

The Barefoot Accountant

Under the percentage-of-completion method, losses in either case are immediately recognized.

However, under the completed contract method, losses are recognized immediately only when overall losses are indicated.

If you are referring to an expected overall loss on the entire contract, under the completed contract method, you would simply book the anticipated loss. Under the percentage-of-completion, you would not only have to book the total anticipated loss on the contract but also reverse out the gain previously recorded: that is, the total amount of the journal entry would be the sum of the absolute values of the anticipated loss plus the previously recognized gain.

The Barefoot Accountant

Accountants CPA Hartford, Connecticut, LLC

What if in year 2, our estimates of the cost goes up which results in a loss whereas in the first year we have already recognized a gain? How do we journalize those entries in the books under both the percentage of completion method and completed contract method?

Generally you would allocate the remaining basis of the worthless intangible to the other remaining intangibles. But your client’s situation raises a question. Did the covenant not to compete have anything to do with the loss of the customer base of your client? For instance, did the former owner compete and steal those customers from your client? If not, then the loss of customers may have little to do with that intangible. It might have been the result of poor management, the state of the economy, or a number of factors.

The Barefoot Accountant

My client bought a business about three years ago for $ 1.3M which except for a small amount allocated to equipment and covenant not to compete, has been allocated to goodwill ( customer lists). We have been amortizing the goodwill and covenant not to compete over 15 years.

Now, after a recent review of the customer lists, we have found about 25% of the customers have been loss.

According to the tax code, you have to allocate any decrease in value to another intangible asset. In my case, the unamortized portion of the loss customers equals about $ 240K. The original amount of covenant not to compete was $ 100,000. I think that the amount allocated to covenant not to compete is fixed and cannot be increased.

Therefore, I think my only real choice is to expense the portion allocated to loss customers.

I would appreciate any advise from other tax professionals on my position.

Thank you for your comment,
The Barefoot Accountant

Thank you, again,
The Barefoot Accountant

He started it, and he can finish it; besides, he now owns his own propaganda machine in his newspaper, and he can leave his billions in trust to the US Government to fund social security and medicare since he has already disclaimed taxable ownership of his billions. What is the different in leaving funds to the government and land to the government – just a difference in substance that all robber barons of the 1930′s came to appreciate. Isn’t that where the Grand Canyon and most of the public parks came from?

If you ran for political office, I would not only vote for you, but stand alongside in the trenches and fight for those reforms.

Thank you.

The Barefoot Accountant

(It may be that some of these ideas are poorly conceived or could have negative consequences. The point is not that it is right or wrong, good or bad, the real point is that all of these things need to be discussed and resolved or we are all going to be “S.O.L”). The idea that we will have another election in 2012 and we will be faced with all this time-worn outdated trivia that seems to attract such a mob of losers and crooks. We need someone to make hard decisions who can come up with a semi workable solution or should we all just brush up on our Chinese?

Background: At this juncture it is clear that the problem is not only with the President or with Congress or the Supreme Court. Each of these three pillars of the so called “checks and balances” government has failed to keep faith with the aspirations and hopes of the people. There are no checks and balances. Each of the three are working to support the rich at the expense of the poor. Instead they have become the spokesmen, spies and enforcers for the privileged class. The privileged class has thru the military industrial complex infiltrated and subverted the national level intelligence and security apparatus and has quietly taken over. Laws are not passed to ensure the “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” of the common people, the 99.9%. Instead the entire government structure acts to protect and enlarge the fortunes of the .1% at the expense of the 99.9%. It is not a matter of left or right, conservative or liberal, free market or fair market, well to do or poor it is a matter of how we as the 99.9% want to live. The question has become are the 99.9% going to sit idly by while the .1% make life on this planet a living hell. So it is not a matter of a fix to the present system that has a proven track record of abject failure running along a right of way (some would say the wrong way) littered with wars of aggression and conquest spreading economic enslavement and divisive waste and pollution, threatening not only human life but life itself. Why has government become the protector of scam artists and ponzi schemes? Why have our news outlets and intelligence services been transformed into corporate propaganda mills?

Principles:
What should we set out to do? It is perhaps time to ask “what is the proper function of a Government”?

Protect Citizen Rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

Ensure the sustainability of resources, national defense and the commons (air, forests, parks, water, energy).

We don’t need to fix the present system of government. We need a new system built from the ground up on a sustainable, humane and workable set of values and principles.

No provision is made for the protection of or favoring of any religion or belief system, no tax breaks for religion and no special status for religious law or custom. Complete separation of religion and government.

No human weather citizen or not should face discrimination because of race, religion, sexual orientation or disability including mental capacity.

Ensure competition and safe delivery of health and human services. Every human has the same basic human rights. Low cost quality health care is a fundamental responsibility of society and government. (Why do nations like Taiwan, Japan and South Korea have better health care systems than the US? Each of these countries had to rebuild itself after the devastation of World War II, yet their system provides more equitable health care than ours. The governments of each of these countries after WWII were not democratic by any stretch of the imagination. How did this happen?)

No patents on living things. No release of GMO organisms into the wild. Genetic research and development must be done in a controlled environment with adequate safeguards. No trans-genetic material is safe until proven safe.

Protect and maintain the common elements of society and the environment. These are the things that belong to all the people of the world.

Roads, schools, parks, communications and information systems, banking, food supply and air and water.

No special categories of humans (“illegal alien”, “Illegal combatant”, “enemy combatant”) may be used to deny a basic human right. No extra-constitutional or secret renditions, prisons or interrogations.

All communications infrastructure belongs to the commons. No corporation or cabal of individuals should have control over the means of communications. Communications and free speech are essential individual, human rights and must not be owned or dominated by government or private organizations. The role of media is to inform in a timely manner so that citizens can make informed judgments and cast votes to shape and implement public policy. The content of all media must be viewed not only on the basis of its intellectual, historical, or entertainment value but must also be evaluated on the basis of its propaganda value. As someone once said, “propaganda is not everything, but everything is propaganda.”

Government must solicit input from the citizenry not only on who works in government but the very priorities, goals and method of execution of laws. To do so requires citizen input. Government is a collective cooperative tool formed of the people, by the people and for the people (not just the rich individuals and cooperation’s).

Encourage a healthy economy by facilitating efficiency and competition thereby ensuring employment, safe working conditions, just wages and freedom of the people from the tyranny of big government and big corporations. All infrastructure should be the property of the people. All transmission bandwidth, roads, cable, wireless, water, sewer and waterways, air ports and routes and all other means of information transmission, transportation and regulation thereof become public property to be administered by the people through their vote. New infrastructure will be developed by the government on a service basis not a profit basis. A modern nation needs information flow to enable an informed electorate to vote for the common good.

The economy must serve the national interests and must be responsible for a clean environment, sustainable future and prosperous and informed citizenry. The economy is a vital segment of our national strength and steps should be taken to ensure that it is secure and free from manipulation. (Close down wall street gambling with other peoples money, naked short selling, bear raids, dark pools, credit default swaps, ponzi schemes or any artifice that does not involve a product (physical thing). A business that needs to borrow money to make a payrole should not exist.

Banks should be community operated cooperatives baised on community values not wall street greed. All transactions must be traceable and open.

Insurance should be community sponsored and closely monitored by citizen appointed regulators.

Items not suitable for sale in the United States shall not be exported to other countries.

Function over fashion. All manufacturers must offer generic products. (E.G., car maker x can offer fassion car a, b and c, but it must offer a generic no frills car that has standard, tires, headlights, engine, transmission etc. ) Not just medications, cars, televisions, computers, rugs, beds, foods. The role of government is to standardize the essential elements of things used by citizens. Headlights should all fit all vehicles, etc. Citizen / consumers should have the right to efficient low cost products that meet practical needs.

Education should emphasize creativity and cooperation among citizens. Public funds, student loans may not be used to prop up diploma mills and create a class of economic slaves.

All product advertisements presented to the public become public property and are to be archived by the FCC. These ads will be made available online to all citizens, free of charge. Citizens have a right to know what is in these advertisements and a duty to hold the companies and products accountable for quality, reliability and safety.

Copyrights for music, video, motion pictures, poetry and literature shall be granted for 3 years after which they are public property. An archive copy of all works will be made publicly available to allow the public free of cost to assess the content for analysis of advertising or propaganda. No organization or individual may hide behind patent or copyright law to exercise influence over society in general or members or evade responsibility for misrepresentations, or hide psychological coercion of members or society at large.

Any organization that solicits or collects goods, money or services from its members shall be classed as a business and taxed accordingly. Tax schedules shall be graduated by a sliding scale based on the perceived public good performed by that business. Thus a large holding company that contributed no value added to the aggregate of its sub components could be taxed at a proportion inverse to its value to the common good, while a larger corporation that filled a valid social need, the same inverse proportion rate.

All media outlets must provide free time for rebuttal to any advertisement, movie, poem, song or other public display or presentation of any material. Art is essential to a full life but all art has a component of propaganda that must be examined for its utility to society.

Financial transactions that do not involve the production of goods yet involve risk will be taxed as gambling. (The intent here is to severely restrict and regulate Wall Street.) Insurance may be provided for tangible, physical assets but not for intangibles or pure “investment”. Insurance may not be used to back up gambling. Insurance can only be issued to someone with ownership of the item being insured and only once.

Ensure that our laws do not encourage the creation of predatory groups. Behaviors that encourage only the accumulation of wealth and resources at the expense of others should be officially discouraged. Government should intelligently address victimless crimes and actively monitor and discourage the formation of predatory cabals and corporate entities that work to despoil the environment and enslave the people. Reign in Wall Street.

Legalize Drugs and prostitution. Prohibition was a smoke screen to create the income tax. The rich mobilized one segment of the underclass (largely females) and enticed them into believing that prohibition was the “cure” for their plight. At the same time revenues lost on the sale of alcohol necessitated an income tax which was “enacted” without ratification. Additionally prohibition encouraged the creation and proliferation of a criminal industry which in turn subverted our national police and intelligence apparatus.

Re open investigations into JFK assassination, Robert Kennedy Assassination, MLK assassination, 911, Iraq War, and roles of Saudi Arabia, Israeli and Pakistan in 911. Investigate election tampering by the supreme court. Dig deep and fix the problems discovered. Completely re work all Intelligence and Security organizations to re-structure, re-direct and re-envigorate them to work against not for the enemies of humanity.

Each and every word, phrase, sentence, paragraph of the constitution and all amendments should be publicly discussed and voted up or down by the population at large. Moreover the ratification process for all amendments should be examined to determine if amendments were properly ratified if not they are null and void. (This would put income tax and the Federal Reserve System out of business restoring the governments’ role in tax matters and in the management of the creation of money.) If this is too cumbersome a constitutional crisis committee should be formed, vetted and begin the process of developing a new constitution.

Original intent must be spelled out clearly in any new laws enacted, and for each sentence, phrase and paragraph of the existing / new constitution. Why force the supreme court guess when we can nail it down. Without stating intent we enable greed and corruption.

U.S. Human rights and laws apply to all people, not just US Citizens. (No torture, no invasions, no “errand boys for the rich”, (remember Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940).)

All aspects of the US Government and the functions of media, intelligence, information, military and police must be periodically audited by the people. No more secret government. All government employees of military, police, executive, legislative judiciary, and intelligence are prohibited from any kind of direct or indirect investment or sharing of any insider information. Transparency in government is necessary if citizens are to make informed decisions.

The functions of government to regulate, inspect, enforce, defend, police and punish may not be contracted out.

The right of the people to bear arms collect facts, and monitor the performance of elected officials and public employees shall not be infringed. Clarify the language so that this is absolutely clear. Information, cameras, recordings are also weapons in the hands of an informed citizenry, perhaps more important that weapons of violence as access to information can prevent the abuse that makes violence necessary. (A vigilant, and aggressive news gathering system in which all aspects of governance, commerce, culture and religion are open to public inspection comment and censure is essential to a real value based society.) All aspects of government, police, military, intelligence are open to public review. Government employees who feel that they are being asked to perform illegal or immoral tasks must report such actions or face criminal penalties commensurate for the damage or costs of those illegal or immoral tasks.

No infiltration or use of job or religion or voluntary or professional organization may be used as cover for government agencies, private propaganda or intelligence collection. Explicitly spell out the rights and duties of citizens to monitor, record, film, videotape public officials in the performance of their duties.

All police interrogations of suspects must be video taped and witnessed by independent observers. Omissions of even the slightest time or questions will invalidate the investigation and perjure the prosecution.

All investigative files must be made public within 10 days of their creation. All accusations of improper acts by public officials must be made public within 15 days of their reporting. Public officials at all levels must report misconduct committed by public officials or face similar charges.

Whistleblowers must be given protection and must be adequately compensated for their prompt reporting of criminal or foolish activities. This should extend to lifetime full taxed exempt pay should they find themselves unable to continue working in their established profession. The pay and benefits they receive should be taken from others in their working environment who did not report but were aware of the reported action.

Wikileaks should be institutionalized and made part of a world body of knowledge about misdeeds of all corporate and government activities that violate basic human rights.

Public employees who misuse their office will be terminated. (not fired, I’m talking capital punishment for taking a bribe over a parking ticket.) Abuse by police, fire, medical, health and safety, building inspectors or welfare officials will be investigated in public by the public. Violators will be dealt with without mercy.

The voting system must be fair and accountable. Each voter in each election must be able to track his or her vote from the time it is cast to the final count. No voter may be denied the right to vote. All votes must be published along with their identifying Voter election ID (known only to voters). No private corporations may count or manage any aspect of the election process.

Legislative, Judicial and Executive Office employees may not vote themselves special privilege, tax cuts or pay raises without ballot approval.

All jurors must be informed of their duty to judge not only the facts of a case but the law and its application. Once empanelled jurors may recuse the judge if it is agreed that he is biased. Jurors have the duty to seek clarification of facts and ask questions of witnesses and the accused thru written questions passed to the judge thru the jury foreman. The Judge must read the questions out loud in court and they become part of the trial record. Similarly before summation of arguments anyone present may present questions to the by passing them thru the bailiff to the Jury Foreman. No one is allowed to view the question before the Jury Foreman. All questions asked must be read aloud and be entered into the trial record by the jury Foreman.

Any comments by a judge prejudicial to the image of the court, its proceedings, the litigants, attorneys warrant the removal and fine of the judge. (Snide comments and personal prejudice of individual judges will not be tolerated.)

Solutions not Personalities:

So our current system of government in which two of the current three pillars of a checks and balances system depend on voting in a personality contest with the executive nominating the “wise men” of the third pillar. Is this effective does it produce solutions that work? The votes that are given are weak and often meaningless after the election as the personality contest winners do not honor their campaign pledges. The elected judges do not stand on any principle except protecting the system that put them in power.

Perhaps the people should vote on the issues and solutions and the personality contest can be a thing of the past. What if instead of a presidential or legislative election we had an election that decided on the issues that need to be resolved, then another election on how those issues would be fixed and another election to decide if the proposed solution was effective enough to pay the individuals or corporations that carried out the fix.

If instead of a once every four year thing elections were held every four days or every week after stirring debate over which of the issues had to be fixed in what priority and how.

Would such a system focus voter energies on problems that are more important than those generated by the present personality driven contest. Would the priorities shift and nothing get done? Would voter apathy kill off any chance for meaningful reform and due diligence over public safety, law and order, sanitation, utilities, hospitals and other public facilities? Surely there would be a need for an executive branch to ride herd over the execution and completion of the contracts to fix or build what needed to be built. This would elevate voter participation to a level that would leave little time for football games and Friday nights at the local bowling alley or bar. Perhaps the average person would just as well leave all this hard work and hard choices to a mob of professional crooks, liars and scumbags.

If this sounds like class warfare then I will not be the one to fire the first shot but I will not sit on the sidelines with my arms folded across my chest. Its either the soap box, the ballot box or (the sky god forbid) the ammunition box.

Utilities are not supposed to be more interested in profitability than in serving the residents of Connecticut. There is no free market in utilities, allowing consumers to obtain their electricity elsewhere.

If Governor Dannel Malloy were a true representative of the people, he would propose legislation leving steep penalties on utilities for failing to meet prescribed standards in their restoration of services efforts.

Barefoot Accountant

I truly believe that the cause of our economic problems stem from several causes:

1. Jobs have been going overseas because there is no level playing field. Require an international minimum wage if trade is to be internationalized. You can’t have an average wage of 90 cents per hour in China and expect manufacturing jobs to exist here in the United States as well as to have an American manufacturing base, which I believe is vital to our economy and national security. It’s why we won World War II.

2. The average CEO earned $9 million per year in 2009. Why is our GDP suffering? The lower income people who would not horde their earnings or invest it overseas are getting a smaller piece of the pie from our national economy. We need to spread the wealth, which would not only benefit those who are not CEOs but also the top 1%, because our gross domestic product would increase from the greater consumer demand. Also small businesses would be relieved from regressive property taxes since the funding of education and other social programs has been pushed down to the local governments, burdening the small guys and benefitting the multinational corporations, who have been taking their record profits and paying out bigger CEO salaries, dividends to the elite 1%, and investing overseas.

Thanks for your great comment.

The Barefoot Accountant

As far as a national sales tax, that is one of the worst ideas ever. 9 percent is a draconian sales tax on top of the already high state sales taxes. So you are supposedly a conservative who wants less taxes, but you propose a third tax!! And they are naive to think that it will never be raised. Only a neocon does that. Essentially a VAT! Yes lets model ourselves after Europe, the only people that are in a bigger financial mess then we are, because of their policies. The easiest way to expand the size of government is with a VAT or national sales tax. Once in place IT WILL NEVER GO AWAY. Neocons (not traditional conservatives) love it because it funds the military industrial complex at the expense of the middle class and poor.

I do like Cain’s idea of lowering personal income taxes and more importantly lowering corporate tax rates. The big boys don’t pay the taxes anyways, because they make most of their profits overseas and they don’t pay tax currently on those earnings, thus Tony’s hardware pays more corporate income tax then GE! The solution is to lower the corporate tax rate to make it more attractive to keep operations in the US. Then tax corporations like people are taxed in the US. I mean if Corporations are supposedly people with first amendment rights like the US supreme court thinks, then they should be treated the same as individuals for purposes of taxing their worldwide income. That is they report their worldwide income and pay taxes on that and not just the US net income. They can take a deduction for the foreign income taxes they pay. Lowering the rate to 15% seems to be the popular consensus. Then lower the individual rates and eliminate all the tax favored deductions.

PROS:
1. User friendly interface
2. Relatively easy to use (DON’T use the Interview sheets; use the Return feature to enter the information!)
3. Decent tech support

CONS:
1. Price for software is Increasing esp. the Prof. edition where it includes everything!
- Sad part is that NOT many forms are included which makes the price unreasonable!

2. The company REFUSES to add in the Foreign reporting forms such as Forms 5471, 5472, 8868 and 926.

3. It also REFUSES to correct Form 990 with the “linking” of accounts from external sources into the program. Ctrl + L “links” items to some accounting software or spreadsheets. It NO LONGER links the expenses into Form 990 as of the 2009 + 2010 Form 990 which makes entering the information time consuming and frustrating! Even the linkage to the Revenue side has problems as some revenue items are shown as “Negative” (this is obvious as Revenue items in accounting software are coded as “credits”). It worked well up to the 2008 return but then it all changed in 2009!

4. It does NOT support Consolidated returns nor does it support Form 1040NR entry for “Estate/Trust” option/calculations. Ok… the latter is probably rare (but does happen like it did for me!) but why does Proseries NOT support CONSOLIDATED RETURNS?!
- Some small companies DO file consolidated returns!!

5. It does Not offer the ability to truncate client’s personal information when printing a return by paper/pdf copy.

6. Print to pdf feature is nearly useless. No features included to encrypt the return or to truncate certain information like the taxpayer’s SS#. Can’t even link it to an email program to include as an attachment!

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If I had relatively “simple” returns, I would consider buying Proseries again but NOT if I have to prepare:
1) Consolidated corp. returns
2) Non-profit returns
3) clients with foreign accounts due to the foreign reporting forms requirements.
- The IRS has started to go after and/or audit taxpayers for the FBAR/foreign reporting form requirements!!
- It would be nice to have those forms available in the 1040 or 1120/S or 1065 sections.

ProSeries is meant for the “smaller”, if not “simpler”, tax practitioners who has “simple” clients as it can’t handle the complex clients! ProSeries KILLED itself by NOT including a more comprehensive library of tax forms as the tax world is getting more and more complex every year due to the ever changing tax laws. The company will find itself catering to the “simpleton” tax practitioners and will be left behind as their competitors’ tax software can handle those complex issues that ProSeries can not!

Take a look at the ProSeries Tech Support Forum and you’ll discover a lot of issues that people have with ProSeries

It’s too bad because the software WAS pretty good but my clientele got complicated and I needed tax software that’s able to deal with the more complex tax filing requirements which ProSeries can NOT handle!

The company REFUSED to listen for MANY years in adding those forms. It sold itself on its “user friendly interface” and “simple to use” features. Too bad the company does NOT listen to its customers (read their tech forum!) and grow it’s software library and features!

It was time to say “Good Bye!”

In general, if the temporary assignment is contracted for one year or less, then it constitutes temporary work; consequently, your travel expenses would be deductible as such. However, if your assignment or job is indefinite, the location of the assignment or job becomes your new tax home and you cannot deduct your travel expenses while there. An assignment or job in a single location is considered indefinite if it is realistically expected to last for more than one year, whether or not it actually lasts for more than one year.