Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Death and Taxes – IRS Close Up

Immediately before my latest trip to New Mexico to visit my Father I had the pleasure of an IRS Audit. The IRS does not call these "Audits" any more; they prefer "Examination" instead. The "Revenuers" were interested in my Business Deductions for tax years 2007 and 2008. It was brutal, lots of hair splitting and reading between the lines of the Tax Code.

While winning here and there I lost more often and had to give up many deductions. More importantly the IRS is considering disallowing all my business deductions en-total. They can do that because they have only two tests to determine a viable business from a hobby and the business owner has nine (9) tests to prove it is viable. We will have to see.

This episode simply illustrates how complex the tax code is and to what lengths the Fed will go for revenue. Despite having paid enough taxes in both years to buy a nice 4-door automobile they wanted even more. They use the convoluted tax code to pull this additional revenue to their advantage and if you are not intimately familiar with it you are toast.

This is the same agency that will administer the bulk of Obamacare. Yep, I can't wait to be called in for an Audit and leave bleeding in reality from both the wallet and from the proctologic Examination given at the same time.

Ain't progress fun.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

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