PAUL’S TAX BLOG

  The new tax law has a lot of stuff in it, some of it very complex and yet to be fully fleshed out. One provision that has received much press and dialog is the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions for individuals at $10,000. This provisions has elicited much wailing and gnashing of teeth in California and New York, where extremely high state income taxes as well as property taxes are the norm.    To counter the perceived impact, the wise leaders in Sacramento have proposed a law (SB 227) that will allow CA residents the ability...

The tax revamping proposed by the Trump Administration certainly grabbed headlines. However, many who have been asking for meaningful tax simplification might now be sorry that they asked. These proposals will be a good example of “be careful what you ask for”, as many favorite deductions and exclusions are slated to disappear. Who knows how this will ultimately finish out, as the legislative process works through hammering out what ultimately will be a final version. However, a prudent taxpayer can do a couple things to help ease any anticipated pain. Example: If the mortgage interest deduction might be limited to...

Ok, so this isn't a tax topic, but it did occur in our CPA firm so I'm gonna say it qualifies. It seems that there is just no limit to what thieves will do in this new cyber age.    This episode happened to our office manager last week. She answered her cell phone and was greeted by a man who knew her name. He told her that he had her daughter and that he was going to kill her if she did not do exactly as he said. He said he was going to start by cutting off her ear. While he his...

  We are in the heat of tax season, and while I should be focusing on the Piles o’ Files on my desk and office floor, I’m done for the day and need a distraction. Enter Bill Gates.   Bill Gates (of Microsoft fame) recently sparked a discussion when he suggested that robots soon will be replacing many more workers, and as a result those unemployed workers would no longer be tax paying members of society. His suggestion is to tax robots to replace the revenue loss to the government.   Albert Einstein once quipped to his Accountant that the hardest...

  All the talking heads are now speculating what changes will be made to the tax code as a result of the Trump victory. Since NOTHING is certain at this point I can only list the things that others have said will likely happen.  Here’s a partial list:   All the taxes brought in with Obamacare will go away when that law is shot out of the saddle, which will happen sooner rather than later. The Net Investment Income Tax, Cadillac Plan Tax, and the penalties for having no insurance will evaporate.   The top corporate tax rates (which usually...

Hi All, I have not posted in quite some time, and in the spirit of the current election hysteria, I AM NOT going to prognosticate on the results of our election!. (You're welcome!) However, I did learn of a really interesting proposal that was important enough to recharge this blog. A study has been completed by a team of Oxford researchers on climate change, greenhouse gases and food production. the conclusion is that agriculture, forestry, and changes in land use are the second highest source of greenhouse gas emissions globally. The solution:  to levy a tax on food production emissions! The tax would be levied globally and...