Guidance Imminent on Hardship Distributions From Deferred Comp Plans for Katrina Victims – If there’s ever a time when tapping into retirement accounts makes sense - and shouldn’t be penalized – it’s this.

U.S. Treasury Urges Waiver of ATM Surcharges for Katrina Evacuees – It will be interesting to see how many banks honor this humanitarian request.

IRS, Treasury Announce Measures to Aid Hurricane Relief – Interesting way to donate pay for vacation days to charity.  Taking this off of W-2 pay is actually a much better tax savings than the normal Schedule A cash contributions.  Anything that reduces adjusted gross income (AGI) generates much more tax savings than itemized deductions do because there are so many tax penalties based on the level of AGI.  Official IRS announcement.

The Feds have busted some more phony trust tax scams.

Survival of the Stupidest
Cheating on your taxes is stupid enough.  Forgetting to declare over a million dollars that everyone in the country (especially the IRS) knows you won takes a level of stupidity very few people possess.  Richard Hatch must be hoping to follow Martha Stewart’s path and land his own reality show during or after his stay in the Federal gray bar hotel to be such an idiot.   I don’t have a much higher regard for the accountant who prepared that tax return for hatch, even if he did mark it as “informational.”  If he signed it in the paid preparer section, he is probably looking at some severe sanctions as well.

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 9/09/2005 10:29:00 AM Send this post: