JohnH

I like how the chief puppetmaster Cheney lets this stuff slide away like water off a duck's back, as it should. I recently heard him say that he asked Lynn if it bothered her that some people call him "Darth Vader". He said that she replied "No, I think it humanizes you." Gotta love a sense of humor like that.

And nobody in Germany had anything whatsoever to do with Pearl Harbor. Maybe people back in the 1940's just weren't so limited in their understanding of what constitued a palpable threat to our national security, or perhaps they knew how to pull their heads out of the sand at the appropriate time.

I don't even see anything particulary misguided. Not perfect, but certainly effective. After all, I can count the number of follow-up attacks on US soil on less than one hand. After 6-1/2 years, that's a commendable result, especially since one would have to be incredibly naive to think the rabid fundamentalists don't have the desire and capability to do more harm. The 9/11 attack was a tactical victory, but so far it has been a strategic failure for them. For the sake of my grandkids I'd like for that perfect track record to continue, but common sense tells me the odds are against it. In wartime mistakes will happen. One only has to research "Exercise Tiger" at Slapton Sands in April 1944 to get a firsthand lesson in how wrong things can go, even when you're just PRACTICING how you're going to to break things & kill people. There are always competing opinions about how both the enemy and allies should be engaged in wartime, and the naysayers always turn out in large numbers when their cousel was ignored, but they mostly show up after the fact. Since one can't prove a negative, it can't be known if their advice would have produced a better result, only a different one. (And very possibly a much worse one)

Think of the indignity your poem is going to suffer when the PC thought police get hold of you and force you to change the words to "Hangperson".

Can you provide a cite for that?

Lucho: Maybe they discovered there was a typo which only affected one book. Owing to how efficient & customer-oriented they have become following the buyout, they were able to identify that particular book as being the one sent to you. I'm sure they couldn't stand the thought of having a dissatisfied customer out there, hence the replacement. It's possible...

Any possibility you may need to amend any prior years' returns for the same issue, or does this only affect 2007?

That's what I do, except this year I didn't even place my order until January.

I used to like soup du jour, but I got tired of it - seems like the restaurant served it every day.

I think you made a wise decision. It appears that they wanted you to be at risk for a major part of their business without giving you any upside profit potential. And if things didn't work out, can you imagine the negative publicity if you were trying to evict the residents of an Adult Family Home? I know there are exceptions to what I'm about to say, but your original comment that "they did not qualify to buy this particular house" initially caused me some concern. If the bank won't lend them to money to provide a hard asset to start up their business, there's a good reason. . After all, this isn't a working capital loan - presumably a house would be a fairly secure asset and about all the borrower would need to demonstrate is the abiity to repay the loan and a track record of having paid their bills on time in the past, plus a sufficient down payment to somewhat mitigate the lender's risk. I'm not sure you'd want to assume a liability that professional lenders have turned down

One major consideration would be potential liability issues. I'm thinkng you would want to consider owning the property through an LLC owned by you, your mother, or both of you.

Anyone who acts Pro Se needs to be careful not to make the mistake made by the accused convenience store robber who was representing himself in a Virginia court a few years ago. He was cross-examining the investigating officer, who repeatedly referred to the store clerk as "the witness" during his testimony Finally, the exaperated defendant/lawyer genius said to the officer "What's this you keep saying about a WITNESS. There wasn't anybody there but the cashier and me!"

At the risk of soundig like a broken record, I'd suggest you give your email address as a part of your answering machine message. Tell them to email you their question and you'll send info back to them concerning their rebate. You can then email them the link to the "Where's my stimulus payment" page on the IRS website. This will serve to steer them toward sending you emails rather than calling on the phone in the future, thus lessening the burden on your phone system regarding stimulus payment questions or any other type of question. If only half of them take you up on it, you've greatly reduced the hassle from phone calls of all types, plus you've streamlined your services considerably.

Back when this string was going, Kerry emailed some of us the pdf factory software. I somehow managed to delete mine and now I want to install it on antoher computer. Does anyone have a copy they can email to me? Thanks

I want to be buried in Cook County when I die. That will enable me to continue to vote after I'm gone.

I've had a few clients complain about getting 1099's for interest on tax overpayments from time to time. I always tell them the same thing - I can work it out so they don't have to pay any tax on it. Just give me the interest and I'll pay the tax on it . Nobody has ever taken me up on the offer.

We should have already bought the wide screen TV's with the tax money that was diverted in the first place. Sort of like getting the stimulus payment before anybody else. The penalties & interest are just the cost of getting the stimulus payment in advance.

Interesting...

Speaking of legal matters & lawyering, did you hear about the guy who barged into the lawyer's office to seek legal advice. He asked, "What are your rates?" As the lawyer began writing on something on his desk he replied "I charge $500 for 3 questions." The guy responded, "That's pretty high, isn't it?" The lawyer replied "Yes" while he continued to write. He then handed the guy a $500 invoice and said, "Now what's your third question?"

Now that I think about it, the IRS reducing stimulus payments for things like unpaid past liabilities and est tax penalties offers an opportunity. This is a chance to tell clients "This is a conversation we should have been having last year. Nothing can be done about it now." I use that line quite often anyhow, but the adjustment to the stimulus payment gets right in their face and ties a real number to the discussion.

One of my favorite lines from "The Life & Times of Judge Roy Bean" - when the judge (Paul Newman) is getting ready to set up court in the saloon. A couple of cowboys have been brought in on suspicion of cattle rustling and Judge Bean has poured them a drink. While they're finishing it up he says, "Well, you boys got anything to say for yourselves before we give ya a fair trial & hang ya?"

"How to Make a Small Fortune Investing" 1) Start with a large fortune 2) Sign up for classes on investing at $24K each 3) Stop taking classes when your fortune has shrunk enough to be called "small". Easy & simple.

All is not lost, however. Hopefully the client got a pretty good education on wise investing vs unwise investing the minute they wrote the $24K check.

Good strategy.

Booger: I waited until the last possible minute to buy the 2007 software - didn't actually purchase until Jan 10, 2008. At that point I had 30 days to test it under real circumstances and reject it if I wasn't happy. I found that it seemed to be OK so I stayed with it, but had TaxSlayer Pro already loaded & ready to go, plus I could have converted back to UltraTax by just rolling over a couple of years if I had decided that was the best thing to do. I don't efile, don't do any RAL's, and really don't get under way until early Feb so the delay was no big deal for me. I realize not everyone can work that way, especially when they get a lot of business in January. Why did I stay with ATX? I like the interface, it passed the last-minute test, and it saved me $. Purely a business decision. This year I'll evaluate Drake and take another peek at TaxSlayer Pro. For me, Ultra Tax is always an excellent option if the others disappoint me. I know how it works, I like it, and I trust it. The only problem is the price compared to what else is available. As for the 2008 season, I haven't made any decision yet and don't plan to do so until Jan 2009. I'll do the same thing I did last year - put off the decision until the last possible minute. If ATX passes again in the areas of functionality and price, I'll continue to stay with it. Otherwise I have a Plan B & Plan C. And if Mel gets going on his project & will allow me be to a part of it, I'll invest some $ into it just to have a plan D in future tax seasons. One never knows what the future holds. If I hadn't kept all my options open and my ear to the ground in the past, I'd find myself still using Ultra Tax and paying $3K - $5K more than I'm paying for ATX. IMO it's risky to make long-term decisions in the short term, especially when it only amounts to a couple of hundred dollars savings (at the most) against thousand of dollars in tax season revenue. Sometimes it works out, sometimes not, but long term it always pays to keep your powder dry. (Especially true as a company grows larger - trust is always the first thing to go out in the garbage)