Welcome!

Follow our trials, tribulations, and triumphs
as we design and build our new energy
efficient office at:
http://www.SolarHomeOffice.com
Your expert or amateur comments
and suggestions are welcome.

Ask questions at Taxing Times:
 http://apps.tortolitatax.com/blog


As boring as the bean counting side of taxes are to most of you in the general public; the three branches of the federal government (Executive,Legislative and Judicial) and a plethora of state, county and local government entities manage to keep everyone guessing, confused, and/or frustrated. We endeavor to cut through the tangled web crafted by our elected officials.

Taxes determine which pocket YOUR money ends up in. While we have an academic background in both accounting and tax accounting, our extensive background in corporate management, real estate law,personnel, business administration, marketing and teaching help ensure that you pay the lowest legal piece of the pie while avoiding the all too familiar bureaucratic quagmire.

What is Going on With Social Security?

In a nutshell: It is the world's largest Ponzi Scheme. (Sorry Bernie)

The employer and employee each pay half of the payroll taxes (as of 01/01/2012,  6.2% each of the first $110,100.00 in earnings annually for a maximum of $13,652.40)

In addition each pays 1.45% on all earned income into the "Medicare Trust Fund." These funds are remitted to the Treasury, and the Government promptly spends these funds. Each wage earner is credited with their earnings via the W-2 Forms submitted to the Social Security Administration by their employers.

In fact Congress has consistently raided the "excess" funds that have been collected when there has been more people paying into the system that drawing out. (as currently)

The Government backs this with paper debt in the form of Treasury bills, notes and bonds. The interest paid on this debt is actually additional debt in the budget. Because there is no real "investment," the system relies on the current contributions of today's workers to fund the Social Security checks of retirees. The ratio of
workers to retirees is currently about 3.1:1. It is not hard to understand why there are going to be problems with all the baby boomers starting to retire. The ratio of "Generation X" and beyond workers to baby boomer retirees will sink below 2:1!

Strategy: Save now through 401's, 403's, 457's, IRA's, Simple's,and/or Roth's, while tax rates are relatively low. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or a Nobel Prize winning Economist to figure that taxes and interest rates will rise dramatically when the money coming in from wage
earners dips below the checks being printed by the Treasury.

Is your employer offering the NEW Roth 401(K) option?

Latest From Crafty Criminal Department

Police report that the latest twist on ATM thefts involve inserting a clear, rigid plastic sleeve into the ATM card slot. When customers insert their card, the machine is unable to read the PIN number. Repeated attempts at entering the code allows lurking criminals to obtain your PIN number.
Unsuspecting customers walk away thinking that the machine has "swallowed" their card. Returning after the customer has departed, the thief retrieves the card and empties the account. If the machine doesn't read your card, check to see that there is not a grooved plastic insert in the slot.

If it Quacks Like a Duck...

Are You a Sitting Duck?

We hope you haven't had your feathers "plucked." The Internal Revenue Service has completed audits and has evaluated results from approximately 49,000 "randomly" selected taxpayers' returns for the National Research Program. According to the Government this is the kinder, gentle version of the grueling TMCP audits from the late 1980's.

The IRS hopes to utilize the information gathered to more efficiently administer the tax collection process, and minimize the intrusion to the public... As a result, Audits conducted increased 20% in 2005 over 2004 levels.

The average collected per audit averaged approximately $20,000.00! Are you working with your tax professional to ensure you are keeping the records necessary to avoid this type of financial windfall for the government? While no tax Professional can prevent you from being audited, they sure can increase your audit potential by how they prepare your return.


We'd love to hear from you regarding your audit experience, good or bad. If you had representation, did they do a good job in preparing you for what to expect? Did the auditors treat you with respect? Did you sense frustration in the auditor with all the complexities and changes in the tax laws?