Friday, April 25, 2008

NEW YORK CITY CONFERENCE

I am honored to have been asked to speak at an industry conference in New York City. I will be at this conference through next week presenting programs on taxes and finances, and also meeting with clients.

I will be back from New York for one day, and then I head out of town again for our Staff Retreat. Due to my travel schedule, there will be no further postings until I return. Keep sending me your questions and comments and I will be happy to respond on our blog when I return.

Larry Kopsa CPA

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

HAPPY TAX FREEDOM DAY - APRIL 23, 2008

America Will Work Three Days Less to Pay Taxes in 2008 than in 2007; Stimulus Rebates Push Date of Celebration Up

Tax Freedom Day will arrive on April 23 this year, the 113th day of 2008 (ignoring Leap Day). That means if you are an average American you will work nearly four months of the year, from January 1 to April 23, before you have earned enough money to pay this year's tax obligations at the federal, state and local levels.



Per the Tax Foundations report, Americans, as a whole, work a significant number of days each year to pay for things other than government, but nothing else is so expensive. Americans will work longer to pay for government (113 days) than they will for food, clothing and housing combined (108 days). In fact, Americans will work longer to afford federal taxes alone (74 days) than they will to afford housing (60 days). As a group, Americans will also work longer to pay state and local taxes than they will to pay for food.


Tax Freedom Day had arrived later for the four previous years, but due to an expected slowdown in the nation's economy and a massive one-time fiscal stimulus tax cut passed earlier this year, Tax Freedom Day is projected to arrive three days earlier this year compared to last year.

(Click here to read the full study). Tax Freedom Day is three days earlier than in 2007. Stimulus rebates and a projection of slow growth in 2008 are the principal reasons for the earlier celebration.

The study is Tax Foundation Special Report No. 160, “America Celebrates Tax Freedom Day®,” by Tax Foundation senior economist Gerald Prante and Tax Foundation president Scott Hodge.

In addition to announcing the nation’s Tax Freedom Day®, the new study compares tax payments to other major consumer expenditures, traces the course of America’s tax burden since 1900, examines the composition of today’s tax burden by type of tax, and calculates a Tax Freedom Day for each state.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

LAUGH A LITTLE

Just want to thank all of you for your educational E-mails over the past year.

Thanks to you, I no longer open a public bathroom door without using a paper towel.

I can't use the remote in a hotel room because I don't know what the last person was doing while flipping through the adult movie channels.

I can't sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed.

I can't enjoy lemon slices in my tea or on my seafood anymore because lemon peels have been found to contain all kinds of nasty germs including feces.

I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one pass-time while driving alone is picking your nose (Although cell phone usage may be taking the number one spot)

Eating a Little Debbie sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of trans fats I have consumed over the years.

I can't touch any woman's purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom. Yuck!

I must send my special thanks to whoever sent me the one about poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing.

Also, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.

I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa's novena has granted my every wish.

I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer can buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm pumping gas.

I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put 'Under God' on their cans.

I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.

And thanks for letting me know I can't boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face...disfiguring me for life.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.

I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don't support our American troops or the Salvation Army.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for or which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore and Uzbekistan .

I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have their recipe.

Thanks to you, I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt.

And thanks to your great advice, I can't ever pick up $5.00 dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.

I can no longer drive my car because I can't buy gas from certain gas companies!

If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician...

Have a wonderful day...

Oh, by the way.....

A German scientist from Argentina , after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain activity read their e-mail with their hand on the mouse.

Don't bother taking it off now, it's too late.

Monday, April 21, 2008

FUEL FOR THOUGHT
















Friday, April 18, 2008

WILL THIS FARM BILL FIGHTING EVER END?

'Farm Bill Negotiators Regroup After Latest Setback And Ethanol Subsidy Cut Plan'

(CQ Today) -- After a contentious meeting with House farm bill conferees, Senate negotiators huddled Friday morning to discuss how they’ll craft a new offer before a week-long extension of current law expires. In an effort to win over their House counterparts, the Senate conferees will offer to scale back $2.5 billion in new tax credits they have been seeking for conservation and alternative energy to $1.8 billion, a Democratic aide close to the negotiations said. The financing package for the new five-year farm bill (HR 2419), with its mix of tax breaks and offsets, has been the major sticking point in House-Senate negotiations that have dragged on for months. House conferees have balked at going more than $10 billion above the bill’s budget baseline, which is $560 billion over 10 years. After swapping proposals on how to pay for extra spending in the farm bill, House and Senate lawmakers said Thursday that they were not much closer to a deal. “Let’s just say it didn’t go well,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. The top House-Senate conferees were meeting again Friday, and they were under intense pressure to show more progress. The existing extension of the 2002 farm law expires at midnight. The Senate on Thursday sent President Bush a new one-week extension (HR 5813), but both the administration and leading Senate Republicans have made clear they will not agree to any additional short-term extensions beyond that one. Thursday’s session broke down after House conferees rejected senators’ proposals to pay for their plan by trimming the ethanol tax credit from 54 cents per gallon to 46 cents per gallon and limiting the amount farmers can claim as losses on their taxes, among other options. House negotiators objected that the tax credits would expire in a few years, meaning Congress would have to find another way to pay for them eventually — no easy task in an era of tight federal budgets.

JUST FOR LAUGHS

















Thursday, April 17, 2008

FARM BILL DEADLINE EXTENDED AGAIN

(Grand Island Independent) -- Not even Pope Benedict XVI being in Washington, D.C., will be enough of a miracle for Congress to pass a new Farm Bill by its Friday deadline, said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., Wednesday. "It's pretty clear we won't make the April 18 deadline," Nelson said. "We still have a number of challenges to overcome on priorities on issues, such as energy funding and funding for emergency disaster relief." Both the House and Senate Wednesday passed a one-week extension of the current Farm Bill to April 25. Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., a member of the House Agriculture Committee, said he is frustrated about the additional extension of the Farm Bill deadline. "Just a little over a month ago, Congress had to pass the second extension of the Farm Bill to avoid its expiration," he said. Smith said it has been more than eight months since the House first passed the Farm Bill and nearly four months since the Senate passed its version. But the House and Senate have yet to reach an agreement on a final bill.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

A P R I L 1 5 TH

Tax Day Facts: Who Pays What? -
And these are just the federal taxes

According to Dr. Martin Regalia with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the federal government in 2007 collected $2.57 trillion in taxes. In five years, federal tax receipts are expected to be as high as $3.43 trillion. Where is the revenue coming from? And who is paying most it? The Office of Management and Budget says for 2007, federal revenue came from the following taxes:

• Individual income taxes – 45.3%
• Social insurance and retirement programs – 33.9%
• Corporate income taxes – 14.4%
• Other taxes (including estate and gift taxes) – 3.9%
• Excise taxes – 2.5%

For 2005, the most recent year of information available, taxpayers with an adjusted gross income (AGI) in the top 1% of the population paid 39% of all federal income taxes. Those in the bottom 50% paid only 3% of the income tax burden. Here’s the breakdown of who paid what in income taxes:

• Taxpayers in top 1% of AGI – 39% of all taxes paid
• Taxpayers in top 5% of AGI – 60% of all taxes paid
• Taxpayers in top 10% of AGI – 70% of all taxes paid
• Taxpayers in top 25% of AGI – 86% of all taxes paid
• Taxpayers in the top 50% of AGI – 97% of all taxes paid.

FARM BILL DEADLINE DRAWS NEAR

(CQ Today) -- Slowly but surely, negotiators are inching closer to a final deal on a new farm bill. They’ll use the final days of the conference hammering out differences between a House plan released last week that would spend only about $6 billion over the bill’s $280 billion baseline by eliminating a $4 billion disaster trust fund, and a Senate counteroffer made Friday to authorize $10 billion in new spending and about $2.5 billion worth of farm tax credits. Lawmakers say the end is in sight — they have until April 18, when an extension of current law expires, to finish the bill (HR 2419) — but there are still a few hurdles the conferees must navigate before their work is finished. For instance, the Senate is proposing that Congress extend customs and user fees to help offset about $4.1 billion in new farm spending. Such offsets are relatively scarce this Congress, but they are needed to comply with pay-as-you-go rules that mandate all new spending be balanced with spending cuts, taxes or other revenue. There’s a chance Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., will object because he wants to use the revenue to help pay for an overhaul of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, which gives benefits beyond traditional unemployment payments to certain workers hurt by trade.

ETHANOL GETS A BUM RAP

(Midlands News Service) -- Ethanol contributes to increased food prices, but it is a minor factor, a Nebraska economist said last week. During a five-year period ending in February, ethanol was responsible for food prices rising by no more than 2% while total U.S. food prices went up about 16%, University of Nebraska-Lincoln economist Richard Perrin said at the monthly meeting of the Nebraska Ethanol Board. “Obviously, ethanol is a contributor,” Perrin said, “but it’s obvious that it’s not a very big contributor.” Perrin said his research and analysis were not funded by the ethanol industry. About 40% of the increase in corn prices, Perrin said, can be attributed to the demand for ethanol. Adding to the corn demand are increased world population, income growth around the world and speculators bidding on commodities.

Monday, April 14, 2008

WHERE'S MY REFUND?

Larry, I filed my tax return quite some time ago and still haven't received my refund. Do you know how I can find out when I'll get it?

Finding the status of your tax refund is very simple. Just go to www.irs.gov and click on "where's my refund" on the right hand side of the page. It's quick, easy and secure. Be prepared with the following information: Social Security Number; Filing Status; and Refund amount shown on your return. Let me know if you have any questions.

Larry Kopsa CPA

Friday, April 11, 2008

TAX BILL SIGNING CEREMONY


Above is a picture of the governor, Dave Heineman (on the right), and my wife Maggie and me at the signing of a tax bill passed by the Nebraska legislature. Because I had been asked to testify before the legislature on the merits of this bill, I was honored to be asked to attend the signing ceremony. Besides being a CPA, I am on the board of directors of the Nebraska State Chamber of Commerce and serve as chairperson of the Small Business Committee.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

FARM BILL DEBATE BEGINS FORMAL CONFERENCE

(CQ Today) -- After months of stalemate, lawmakers will begin a formal farm bill conference Thursday, with House leaders backing a new bipartisan deal that sets a price tag for the bill and the offsets to pay for it. Under the agreement, new spending on agriculture programs would be limited to $6 billion above the $280 billion budgetary baseline for the bill (HR 2419), according to Jerry Moran, R-Kan., a conferee. The House on Wednesday voted, 400-11, to instruct conferees to oppose higher taxes to fund new farm bill spending. Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, the Agriculture Committee’s ranking Republican, said the additional $6 billion under the deal would not be offset by taxes. An aide indicated the savings could come from a proposal to require credit card issuers to report to the IRS payments they make to merchants, a way to help determine whether businesses are reporting all their income. House conferees may still have a difficult time in negotiations with their Senate colleagues. An aide to Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who will chair the conference, said senators were not familiar with the House proposal. Bush has said he will seek a one-year extension of the 2002 farm law if lawmakers cannot negotiate a final bill by the April 18 deadline. The conference committee is scheduled to meet today.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

NEBRASKA TAX RATE DECREASE FOR CORPORATIONS

I am proud that the bill that I testified on before the Nebraska State Revenue Committee was passed into law and was signed by Gov. Heineman. I was honored to be asked to be in attendance at the signing ceremony. Here are the press releases from the State Chamber Office and the Governors Office.

State Chamber Release April 9, 2008
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman signed into law a bill to provide corporate tax relief to Nebraska businesses. State Chamber President Barry Kennedy participated in today’s signing ceremony at the State Capitol. Also attending were State Chamber Treasurer John Cederberg of Lincoln and Small Business Council Chairman Larry Kopsa of York.

Approved by state senators two days earlier, LB888 adjusts the state’s corporate tax brackets for the first time in 26 years. Nebraska’s corporate tax is comprised of two brackets: 5.58 percent and 7.81 percent. Under the new law, businesses would have to earn $100,000 before they could be taxed at the higher corporate rate, instead of the current threshold of $50,000 – making the new adjustment especially beneficial for small businesses. Small corporations comprise about 95 percent of all the state’s businesses. LB888 was one of this year’s priority bills for the State Chamber. The bill was introduced by Senators Carroll Burling of Kenesaw, Tim Gay of Papillion and Pete Pirsch of Omaha, and prioritized by Senator Scott Lautenbaugh of Omaha. The law is operative for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2008.

Governors Office April 9, 2008

'Gov. Heineman Signs Tax Relief for Nebraska Businesses into Law'

(Governor's release) -- Gov. Dave Heineman today signed LB888 into law. The bill lowers taxes for Nebraska businesses and is the first adjustment to the state’s corporate tax brackets since 1982. The bill provides tax relief that is aimed at small businesses by extending the lower tax bracket for corporate income tax filers. “This law will have a positive impact on our ability to attract new businesses to our state and keep our existing businesses growing,” Gov. Heineman said. LB888 was introduced by Sens. Carroll Burling of Kenesaw, Tim Gay of Papillion, Pete Pirsch of Omaha, and was prioritized by Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh of Omaha. Nebraska Tax Commissioner Doug Ewald said, “While all businesses that file as corporations will benefit from this law, our 1,200 small businesses will experience the greatest positive impact.” The Tax Foundation reports that of the surrounding states with a corporate income tax, only Iowa had a higher corporate tax than Nebraska. Nebraska had the second highest rate and the 17th highest rate nationally. Barry Kennedy, president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry, said, “LB888 is a sensible and fiscally-sound fix. With the enactment of this important legislation, state senators and the Governor have significantly improved Nebraska’s tax policy and business climate. LB888 provides Nebraska’s small businesses their own economic stimulus package –- one which will boost business investment, create new jobs and keep the state’s economy on track for long-term growth.” The Legislature passed LB888 on Monday 48 to 0.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

NOT EVERY BIG LANDOWNER IS A CORPORATION

(Lincoln Journal Star) -- During a discussion of the bill that would have banned most non-family corporate farming (LB1174), Sen. Tom Hansen of North Platte described two big landowners that wouldn’t fall under any corporate ban: Ted Turner and the Mormon church, who each own around 400,000 acres in Nebraska. Hansen said Turner uses his land to raise buffalo. Some people may view buffalo as livestock, Hansen said. “To me they are a wild animal.” Sen. John Wightman of Lexington, who often uses numbers to provide perspective, determined 800,000 acres is about 1,250 square miles — or about 1.6% of the total land in Nebraska (77,000 square miles). Later he added the Board of Educational Lands and Funds, owns 1.3 million acres or 2.5% of land in the state, to his calculations. Together, the three own more than 4% of Nebraska, he noted. The corporate farming bill did not make it through first-round debate and is dead for the year.

Friday, April 4, 2008

HOUSE AND SENATE AT ODDS OVER FARM BILL FINANCING PACKAGE

(CQ Today) -- With a little more than two weeks to finish the farm bill, lawmakers were still at odds Thursday over a financing package for the measure. House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., is looking for some reassurance that nutrition funding isn’t used for other provisions in the farm bill. The House version of the farm bill (HR 2419), which passed in July, included about $11.5 billion for nutrition funding, some of which came from a $4 billion tax revenue package that Rangel helped craft. Currently, the Senate is batting around a number of $9.5 billion for nutrition, which Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, says was hard to come by. Rangel says he’s worried he’ll have a hard time selling the latest iteration of the farm bill in his chamber without more substantial reform — especially if it includes tax increases to pay for the extra $10 billion in funding that farm committee members want to spend over the $280 billion baseline. Part of the problem is $4 billion in funding for farmers to which Great Plains state senators such as Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., are wedded. Farmers in those states have taken a big hit recently because of flooding and drought. Rangel says he’s seen no specific funding plan from Baucus, and that could mean quick death for the bill.