A very interesting week has past, featuring PTIN madness, a new California budget that is yet another bad budget, and what not to do if you’re unhappy with your tax refund.
First, Joe Kristan linked to the Bad Lawyer Blog. No, there really are good lawyers (my lawyer and my relatives who are mostly attorneys). But the Bad Lawyer was sentenced to five months at ClubFed for attempted tax evasion. (Although the lawyer first wrote that he was sentenced to home confinement, he received jail time.) Very interesting reading.
Joe also posted on the fallacy of the “less than 98% of small businesses will be impacted by the upcoming tax increases.” In quantity, that’s true; but in economic impact, it’s false.
Today, the TaxProfBlog noted that former Kansas City Chief Joe Bruner received one year in prison for assault. He thought he should have gotten a larger tax refund, so he took it out on his accountant.
Lots of tax bloggers have written about their fun with the PTIN. Besides my two posts (here and here), here are some of the other posts:
Robert Flach’s What a Mucking Fess;
Kerry Kerstetter’s Own PTIN Application and a report from a CPA whose application didn’t go smoothly.
Let’s just say there are bugs in the system, and it’s likely going to be awhile before they’re worked out.
Finally, as I noted California has a budget…maybe. The Orange County Register noted that according to legislators and others who refused to go on the record, the budget contains lots of borrowing, very rosy projections, and gimmicks. While there aren’t any new taxes, there’s no real solution with this budget. Yes, I can make a budget balance if I just say that revenues will be a couple billion higher than everyone knows they’ll be and then borrow the rest. Expect a $20 – $30 billion budget shortfall in 2011 in California.