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My CPE is required, but I often get way more than my 80 hours every two years. I think my last cycle had 120 or more hours. I pick up additional classes if I need something specific, like the FATCA stuff, and will do a webinar on amending SSMC returns just to make sure I have covered all the bases. This year a week long seminar I'm attending has a two day class on biz tax & update that I'm looking forward to since most of my updates in the last few years have not had much of an entity focus and I'm starting to do more partnerships & S-corps. Continuing education is a requirement in our chosen field and I can't believe the backlash I saw against 15 hours required.

I have already registered to continue on with the one I have been attending for the past twelve years or so. CE is a MUST in my book; required or not.

I get CPE credits as a perk to the training and what I learn. The idea of "purchasing" CPE credits discredits the whole purpose. I have been tallying up 3X the "minimum" for RTRP for the past 10 years. Whether I "need" the CPE credits for some "accreditation" or not, I will still take the classes and seminars.

Consider the sad case of Joyce Linzy. She ran a little tax prep business out of her house. We all know how frustrating this line of work is, and how important it is to get away for a few days. But IRS has no mercy, and insisted the vacation was not a business expense. They wouldn't even let her deduct her losses, even though she gave them the casino statement! In fact they disallowed everything including her home office, citing some obscure tax code about substantiation or some such nonsense. Then they looked at the rest of the return. Actually they probably started here; anyway, they dinged her for Social Security Disability benefits which was totally unfair because she had to pay back three years of otherwise tax-free Met Life payments. They insulted her, too--said she was "negligent" and stacked on penalties. Naturally she appealed. She argued the case herself, and the judge was impressed that she "credibly testified." But he was just stuck on that tax code thing. [TC Memo 2013-219]

"Probably" is too soft a term. The IRS WILL look at all of her personal assets, including compensation for recovery of the trust fund taxes. After all is said and done, getting an OIC for the other penalties & interest is a possibility.

There seems to be some confusion on the trust fund penalty and the actual trust fund taxes. The trust fund tax, that she withheld from employee's paychecks and didn't pay, should be negotiated to be paid first. The TCP is just another penalty. The TAXES need to be paid. Then the employer portion of the taxes. The easiest part to OIC will be the penalties & interest. The trust fund taxes will attach to any responsible party, including ANYONE that had control over whether the taxes were paid or not.

My daughter sent me this one -- a REAL voicemail from a Jack In The Box employee, calling in to his boss because he was held up in traffic. What happens next is priceless. For those skeptical of clicking on links, I clicked on it and all there is there is the voicemail -- and it's not auto-run; you have to click on it to start it. http://95rockfm.com/best-voicemail-giving-play-by-play-of-car-accident/

The once again viral video of a guy giving play-by-play commentary of a car accident is under scrutiny by naysayers and we have the truth! Do you think it’s real? Yer darn tootin’ it’s real! The guy who left the voicemail was an operation manager at Jack in the Box. He in fact was running late for work and phoned his boss just before the bible-beating fenderbender happened. The voicemail was shared among Jack in the Box employees, where it was accidentally leaked to the Interwebs.

This reminds me of the man who betted his attorney he would pee on the IRS agent papers. 87 year old Grandpa is summoned to the IRS office for an audit. The IRS auditor was not surprised when Grandpa showed up with his tax adviser. The auditor said, ‘Well, sir, you have an extravagant lifestyle and no full time employment, which you explain by saying that you win money gambling. I’m not sure that I find that believable.’ I’m a great gambler, and I can prove it,’ says Grandpa. ‘How about a demonstration?’ The auditor thinks for a moment and said, ‘Okay. Go ahead.’ Grandpa says, ‘I’ll bet you a thousand dollars that I can bite my own eye.’ The auditor thinks a moment and says, ‘It’s a bet.’ Grandpa removes his glass eye and bites it. The auditor’s jaw drops. Grandpa says, ‘Now, I’ll bet you two thousand dolars that I can bite my other eye.’ Now the auditor can tell Grandpa isn’t blind, so he takes the bet. Grandpa removes his dentures and bites his good eye. The stunned auditor now realizes he has wagered and lost three grand, with Grandpa’s tax adviser as a witness. He starts to get nervous. ‘Want to go double or nothing?’ Grandpa asks ‘I’ll bet you six thousand dollars that I can stand on one side of your desk, and pee into that wastebasket on the other side, and never get a drop anywhere in between.’ The auditor, twice burned, is cautious now, but he looks carefully and decides there’s no way this old guy could possibly manage that stunt, so he agrees again after checking a couple of details about the bet. Grandpa stands beside the desk and unzips his trousers, but although he strains mightily, he can’t make the stream reach the wastebasket on the other side, so he pretty much urinates all over the auditor’s desk. The auditor leaps with joy, realizing that he has just turned a major loss into a huge win. But Grandpa’s tax adviser moans and puts his head in his hands. ‘Are you okay?’ the auditor asks. ‘Not really,’ says the tax adviser. ‘This morning, when Grandpa told me he’d been summoned for an audit, he bet me twenty five thousand dollars that he could come in here and pee all over your desk and that you’d be happy about it!’

The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray: "Take only ONE. God is watching." Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. A child had written a note, "Take all you want. God is watching the apples." Q: What cookie makes you rich? A: A fortune cookie! Q: Why did the cookie cry? A: Because his mother was a wafer so long! Q: When should you take a cookie to the doctor? A: When it feels crummy. Q: What do the cookie and the computer have in common? A: They both have chips. Q: How can you tell that a blondes been baking chocolate chip cookies? A: There's M&M shells all over the floor Q: What is green and brown and crawls through the grass? A: A Girl Scout who has lost her cookie. Q: What kind of keys do kids like to carry? A: Cookies! Q: Why do basketball players love cookies? A: Because they can dunk them! Q. What did the Gingerbread Man put on his bed? A. A cookie sheet! Q: What is a monster's favorite food? A: Ghoul scout cookies. Q: How do you make Ohio State University cookies? A: Put them in a big Bowl and beat for 3 hours. source: http://www.jokes4us.com/miscellaneousjokes/foodjokes/cookiejokes.html

I love half-baked humor!! (oops, someone may consider my joke insensitive.... TOO BAD!!)