Thompson & McCarty, P.C. CPA

This is a pretty good Q&A in plain English of some of the provisions in the stimulus package. I am getting a lot of questions about the bill and this is the best information I have about the details at this time.

The State of Alabama, in a sound business strategy, has an investing model for money that is going to be used for tax refunds.  Basically what they do is invest the monies in serial CD's so that they CD's mature at 4 week intervals.  If you happen to have your return processed on the edge of the current maturity exhausting it will take longer for your refund to process.  It can be as many as 8 weeks if you file during a heavy processing time due to funds running out quickly. Their only answer during this time will be "Your return has been processed and your refund will be sent in the

I want to share my story of a server gone bad.  I recently ordered a server from Dell and had my MIS provider take it to make it what I needed it to be.  He discovered that the server would not load the operating system (OS) from the Windows install disk.  After much work (see "Who Says Window Is Easy" vid middle of the page) he discovered that the problem was that the drivers needed to make the system work were not provided by Dell.  Further, they had no intention of providing the drivers to make it work and zero method for delivery of said drivers.

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation.. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."                                                            

Sent to me by a client

Catching Wild Pigs

A chemistry professor in a large college had some exchange students in the
class. One day while the class was in the lab the professor noticed one
young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if
his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him
he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting
communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's
government and install a new communist government. In the midst of his story
he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you
know how to catch wild pigs?'

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young
man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place
in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to
come every day to eat the free corn.

The 2009 Standard mileage rates are:

Business Miles - 55 cent per mile

Medical Miles and Moving - 27 cents per mile

Charity - 14 cents per mile.

Keep in mind that to make your mileage deduction bullet proof in an audit you need a good mileage log.