Thompson & McCarty, P.C. CPA

You can hear the commercials on most any syndicated talk radio show in America. The pitch goes something like "Settle Your Debt With The IRS For Pennies on The Dollar". Is it possible? Yes it is. It happens all the time. But there are many factors that determine when an IRS debt can be settled.

The method used to settle debt for pennies on the dollar with the IRS is called The Offers in Compromise Program. It is a program offered by the IRS so that honest taxpayers can settle debts that they can not afford to pay. Let me reiterate. The program that can be use to settle debt with the IRS for "Pennies on the Dollar" is called the Offers in Compromise Program. It is designed for honest taxpayers to settle debt that they can not afford to pay.You have to be able to prove that you lack the ability to pay in order to qualify for this program.

This is a reprint from an email I received. It is supposedly advice from an attorney and whether true or not I can see the wisdom in the advice so I am sharing with all that will take the time read.

ATTORNEY's ADVICE - NO CHARGE

Not A Joke!! If you dislike attorneys..... You will love them for these tips.

Read this and make a copy for your files in case you need to refer to it someday. Maybe we should all take some of his advice! A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company.

1. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put 'PHOTO ID REQUIRED.'

The tax rebates for 2008 will happen and the IRS has stated that they will begin sending checks in early May. That is sooner than first projections of late May or early June so give the IRS credit on this.

Rebates will be keyed to tax liability. Married Couples will get a maximum rebate of $1200, single people will get get a maximum of $600. Filers with dependent children under the age of 17 will get an additional $300 per child. Married Couples with at least $3000 in income will get $600 and singles with at least $8750 will get $300. Dependents of another will not receive a check.

I have clients that call and ask me about employee poster requirements in Alabama. It seems that every so often someone that is LESS THAN HONEST sends out a mailing that SCARES the crap out of Employers because the letters look official and they are intentionally trying to make you think that you need the posters to comply with the Alabama tax laws. Well crap, Who could blame you? With all the stuff that employers have to do to comply with Governmental interference, no wonder they get scared that they have possibly missed something. Well I have good news....I just saved 15% on my car insurance. ;-) JUST KIDDING!

What Do The Presidential Candidates Have In Mind On Taxation

Regardless of who we elect for President there is no question that the President elect will have a significant impact on taxes. The tax cuts that President Bush signed into law will lapse in 2011. That includes the income tax rate reductions (we are all paying less tax than we were), estate tax relief (my personal pet peeve of a bad tax – it's double taxation at its worst) and the lower rate on long term capital gains and dividends (a provision that encourages investment and wealth accumulation). I think that we need to make these permanent but the issue is what the candidates think.

Tax rebates are now the law of the land. They come as a welcome boost for some and create a sore spot for others. It seems that Congress wanted to include those on Social Security and Disbled Veterans in the rebate program but they didn't take into account the administration of the rebates. In short, people that have had no reason to file for years will now need to file a tax return in order to receive the rebate check they are entitled. Be sure and tell your grandmother that she will need to file this year if she wants the rebate. I have included the entire story from WebCPA below and here is a link to the story on their web site CLICK HERE

A client's web browser was set up such that it did not have a navigation bar available in Internet Explorer (IE), the web browser. The navigation bar is the bar where you type the address of the web site you wish to visit. Many people just use search engines and seldom type an actual web address, known as a URL.

I am shocked that anyone thinks this is a good idea. Don't misunderstand me, I love using Google to search for various and broad subject matter. But, to set my browser up so the only way I can surf the web is to type a keyword at Google's website [when I know the address] is a tremendous waste of time. For example, if I want to go to Google's site I type in google.com and almost instantly I'm there. This is a bad example because the tool that took away the navigation bar (I'm certain it is a setting that can be changed) was Google Tool Bar. To give you a good example my web site is tmicpa.com. The way this client's browser was set up we had to search through Google then scroll through the results to get to my website... instead of just typing in tmicpa.com.

Well it is 2008 and time to update the standard mileage rates again. Gas keeps going up and so does the standard mileage rates. The 2008 rates are:

• 50.5 cents for business miles
• 19 cents for medical and moving miles
• 14 cents for miles driven for charitable purposes

You should keep a mileage log if you want to deduct mileage and if you do a good job keeping up with your miles the deduction can be substantial.

Well I am a little late getting this information posted but better late than never. The following rates are the standard mileage rates for 2007.

• 48.5 cents for business mileage
• .20 cents for medical and moving mileage
• .14 cent for charitable miles.

In case you need the official release of code reference you can fin it here.

I have spent a great deal of time writing two reports titled "How To Choose A Tax Preparer" and "How To Choose A CPA". I have never published either of these reports in whole but pieces of these documents have been published in various parts of our site and in a few ads that we have run over the years. I will publish these and make them available to my web visitors and email subscribers some day. However, I ran across a site that says most of the things that I think are important to you in selecting a trusted tax advisor. It is published by a CPA named Kerry M.