The tax-and-spend 10 - Jack Kemp's more descriptive name for the DemonRat wannabes than the more widely used "ten dwarves." Whatever we call them, there isn't a snowball's chance in Hades that any of them can be elected President.


Another P for Your Pod - I had always understood James Glassman to be rather intelligent in matters of finance. You wouldn't know it from this article, where he claims that a company's sales figures are more important than its net profit. He mentions how easy it is for corporate accountants to manipulate numbers, yet fails to realize that inflating sales is a whole lot easier to do than inflating the bottom line. What investors really need to see when evaluating a company's profitability is what is reported to IRS.


Accountants, Regulators Knock Heads Over Audit Workpaper Rules


What is poor? - As with practically all government statistics, the definition of poverty is extremely subjective, depending on the objectives of the users of those stats. It reminds me of the debate over what constitutes a millionaire. Is it someone who earns a million dollars in a year? If so, is it based on gross income, or net after expenses and taxes? Is a millionaire someone with a net worth over a million dollars? Since most people, especially in the PRC, have a huge chunk of their net worth tied up in their homes (a relatively illiquid asset), shouldn't a true millionaire be someone who can lay his/her hands on a million bucks with a moment's notice?


Tax cuts are good for you! - Well, duh!


Property sales out of this world - P.T. Barnum's legacy lives on. Suckers have paid this guy over six million dollars for worthless deeds to acreage on the moon. It's like the Pet Rock fad all over again.


The Cost of California’s Health Insurance Act of 2003 - Forcing employers to spend more than $11 billion more each year is just going to give them more incentive to move to more tax friendly states. As I was saying last week in the discussion of which states have the highest taxes, just looking at the direct taxes doesn't tell the whole story. The costs of regulations and government mandates can increase the effective total expense due to government to much higher levels than any nominal tax rate.





Postings are sparse this week due to computer & network meltdowns here at the ranch. Many of our crucial programs are refusing to work until we do a complete reformat and reinstall of Windows. A new computer is on order and I'm hoping to have it by this weekend. Needless to say, these problems have put me even further behind on the tax returns I am trying to finish by October 15. There will have to be more extensions filed (to December 15) than I had planned on.
- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 10/02/2003 05:09:00 PM Send this post: