Ohioans may revolt against higher taxes and spending. - More on the efforts in Ohio to slap down the governor's recent tax hike.


Tax Troubles: How Did We Get In This Fix? - There are a number of tax reform options on the table for the voters in Maine. There is a lot of coverage of the various issues at the Portland Press Herald's website.



Senate to ponder permanent Net access tax ban - This debate seems to be going on forever. Obviously the states hate the idea of the Feds telling them what they can and can't tax.


QuickBooks 2004
I find it amusing every year when people, including professional accountants, wonder if there will be a new version of QuickBooks each year. The answer is "duh." Does General Motors ever skip a year when remodeling their cars? Neither does Intuit for Quicken or QuickBooks A new version is released every year.

The changes from year to year aren't usually that dramatic; so not everyone needs to buy the new version each year. However, it is a wise move to upgrade every two or three years. That's when you will notice the big improvements over the version you had been using. Intuit has its own way of encouraging users to upgrade their software. They orphan any version more than three years old, not providing any more support for them.

The variety of different versions of QuickBooks available with the 2004 upgrade gets even more confusing than ever. However, for at least 95% of the people we have been working with, the least expensive Basic version is just fine. Very few people need the functions available in the more expensive versions. I haven't ever used many of them, and I spend a lot of time doing a lot of things with QuickBooks. Anyone considering upgrading from an older version of QuickBooks or buying it for the first time should hold off for a few more weeks. It doesn't make much sense to buy the 2003 version now, when the 2004 version will be available on November 10.
- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 10/27/2003 11:22:00 AM Send this post: