This Tax Season: You have choices. Which way will you swing?

Dear Friend,


With every passing year the Tax Rules & Laws get more complex here in the US. Which in turn means more hours spent on figuring out matters that concern you, in order to get your taxes e-filed/filed. This is more so challenging if you are into doing it all yourself.

There are some pertinent questions you need to ask yourself as the Tax Payer.

Before I blog further on that specifically, let me share something from the heart, that concerns all of us including yours truly.

We live in a nation called United States, that is essentially Free, in every which way you look at it. Great! and I love it as much as we all do.

Along with that comes the sincere need to be aware of every nitty gritty choice we make based on sound bytes that influence us via ads etc. Infact it better be well informed choices otherwise we are called and challenged to reconsider every now and then. Be it, simple matters of decision making or complex decisions of life in general. We are forced to reckon with them all the time, with every passing year.

The pertinent question you need to ask your self concerning your tax filing is what I am attempting to narrow down the focus to, via this blog:

In my humble opinion and in my Practice of the Profession, I find US Individual Tax Payers fall under three buckets:

1. Those who like their independence and like to do it all themselves and do not mind long hours figuring out the language and explanations on their respective market tax soft ware. Be it on a CD or web based.

Of course, all this at the cost of precious quality family time or other more useful engaging pursuits and still not necessarily get it all right or risk getting a notice from the IRS for a wrong deduction, credit or exemption claimed!

Trust me, I have seen many such instances last year. Which is also one of the reasons I am blogging.

I also want to direct you to a Yelp Comment by one of my clients. This was a "do it your self die-hard individual for years" !

http://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=0E73ciiT020UtAvJtIg-OA#

or,

2. Those who prrefer to do it themselves and then have a Professional review their work on taxes before e-filing themselves!  These folks are wiser than category # 1 above.

or,
3. This category sincerely believe that they will, have a Licensed Tax Professional take care of the entire matter, who will ensure their interests foremost in mind, at reasonable fees. This option frees them up and trust me you will live a longer and better quality Life in every other way you choose to make it happen.

I have many confessions and instances to share of people experiencing that truth just because they have a reliable Licensed Tax Professional taking care of their taxes.

This Tax Season: If you find yourself in the 2nd or 3rd bucket of People's mindsets you are welcome to contact me or I would encourage you to see another Licensed Professional of your choice. I am not trying to wean you away from your favorite Tax Professional: who ever he or she may be. Perish that Thought! We live in a land of choices and I am the first to honor and respect that freedom, we all cherish.

My purpose is not to wean you away from your pet pursuit of doing your taxes your self, either: Manually or with Market Tax Software. If you know what you are doing, then sure why not?

However, if you find it an increasing pain with every passing year, then ponder on the matters I have attempted to share and tried, to reach out to you: my friend.

The same arguments I shared above hold good for those who run small business entities or run Non Profit Entities and like to do their taxes themselves. Please consider visiting a Licensed Tax Professional to get such work done, for your own good. I mean it with all my heart out of genuineness and sincerity.

The choice you make is yours and I respect that at all times!

Best wishes to you with your Taxes for 2009.   Paying taxes is an onerous task of every Citizen and Resident of the US or any other Democratic Nation in the World. Its part of Nation Building Activity to pay taxes to the Nation that helps us to live in Freedom and Liberty with progressive thinking.  However you owe it to yourself to ensure that you pay as much taxes as you necessarily need to pay to the Government and make use of valid savings, exemptions, credits & deductions made available to you by the Tax Rules, and  avail them rightfully every year!  The Government encourages people to save through such measures and does believe that more Money in your hands is good for you. 

Though every government has varying perceptions about who to tax etc, in general, the fact of the matter is Good Governments every where do encourage its Tax Paying citizens and residents to save money in their respective attempts to advance Society.

I hope this blog was useful to you. Thanks for taking time to read and ponder.

Your friendly CPA @
http://www.kpgcpa.net/

Koshy

With every new tweet from Shashi say: "All is well with Shashi Tharoor"

People in India need to grow up! They need to shed the namby pamby attitude they show at every tweet from Shashi.


Shashi is a world class statesman who takes on the role of a Politician in India and with his feet on the ground is ploughing away at age old withered ideas with a smile on his face, even through all the brick bats being hurled at him for many a silly reason.

I admire him for his tenacity and keeping at it and not letting 'it' get to him even if there is an occasional faux paus. 

Why is the Indian Government trying to curb his Rights to Freedom Of Speech and chastize him for a frivilous thing such as a tweet????  The right of speech is granted to him by the very constitution of India as a Birth Right and there is nothing unconstitutional about what he says on his tweets.  There have been famous non conformists in the past.....such as George Fernandes and others who were never censured for stirrign up a rukus in the past anals of Indian Politics.....then why this gentleman needs to be censured ......I pray can any one lend credence to this argument .....please......

He seems to have adopted the "All is well" mantra of the run away hit: 3 Idiots! Gr8!  Good for him.  He is indeed ahead of the times and with every passing day is getting to be more endearing with the young masses of India under 40.  Who do constitute the back bone of the future Indian Polity.

He is made of steel and he is demonstrating it well....I just hope he does not get fed up and decides to call it a day.

Shashi, please stay on and continue to battle the "Hum Nahin Sudherenge" attitude that is continuously being showered on you and they are trying to make you compliant.

Please continue to be a non-conformist. Your methods are Gandhian and Nehruvian, I should like to think.

Its a good ploy to defeat sycophancy that abounds in Indian Politics and a clinging on to the British Raj mentality. Hopefully it all works out well for you in the end....Jai Hind!