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Highlights of some of our favorite tax-related blogs from the past week.

Hailing the chiefs

• Roth Co.: On Presidents’ Day just passed, blogger Joe Kristan didn’t “care to honor presidents, as a class. They range from remarkable to vile, and they are in the end, just men with a job and great responsibility, often exercised badly.” Thus we come to “a well-buried scandal of the current presidency” under which the IRS singled out Tea Party groups.
• Tax Girl: Maybe he couldn’t tell a lie, but even George Washington himself had to grapple with spending shortfalls and tax policies that uncannily resemble the fodder of this election’s debates.
• Don’t Mess With Taxes: February presidential birthdays, from the Father of Our Country to Honest Abe to Ronald Reagan. Oh, and William Henry Harrison. Also, JFK becoming the first president to actually visit the IRS building.
• Musings of a Burbank CPA: Three “East Coast” holidays that push filing back a few days this year: Emancipation Day, celebrating Lincoln’s 1862 signing of the act that freed more than 3,000 slaves in the District of Columbia and which is a day off in D.C. (hence an IRS holiday, too). “Normally this doesn’t affect income tax filing, except when April 16 falls on a Saturday. Then the Friday before (April 15) is the holiday, meaning taxes are not due until the following Monday on April 18.” Residents of Massachusetts or Maine also benefit from Patriot’s Day, commemorating the first battles of the American Revolution. Nothing is really whimsical, unless you count the whims of history.

Hold me, thrill me

• Tax Vox: Our favorite opening of the week: “What better way to spend Valentine’s Day weekend than with presidential contenders?”
• TurboTax: For the Valentine’s Day just passed, a look at new filing options for same-sex couples.

Can’t beat the house

• The Tax Times: A look at the recent IRS 8971 on reporting final estate tax value of a property transferred to beneficiaries.
• Tax, Society Culture: Are the tax interests of the individual being abandoned in the populist rush to protect the state against multinational tax dodging? A look at a recent discussion on the topic by Sergio André Rocha.
• Taxable Talk: Stacked Deck Dept.: How North Carolina recently became a bad bet for amateur gamblers. For example, “an amateur gambler residing in North Carolina who has $100,000 of wins and $100,000 of losses owes tax on the $100,000 of wins.”

Prove it

• The Wandering Tax Pro: “2 down – 9 to go” may sound like a football call, but in fact sets the scene for a different kind of contact sport: tax prep by Robert Flach, as the season ignites.
• ClientWhys: Now more than ever, clients’ friends and families use technology to spread the word about your good – and maybe not so good – services. Now more than ever, the social proof is in the pudding regarding your referrals.
• The Income Tax School: “Chances are, if you are reading this blog you are either a tax preparer who has taken continuing education courses, a tax preparer who has just completed tax education, or a tax student.” Is your tax education is deductible?

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