Why Is Multi-State Tax Compliance So Hard?
Now I know some real sharp SALT consultants with boutique practices like Inez and Sylvia Dion, whom I featured in women in accounting series, but there are only so many favors you want to ask, so I have developed my own easy rule of thumb. If you ask if you should be filing in a particular state, the answer is probably yes.
And here’s the killer. Most preparers don’t have that much trouble working another state income tax return in, but when it comes to your sales and use tax requirements. Forget about it. You are lucky if they have a clue about their home state.
I had somebody ask me the question last week out of the blue. I’m going to make up a fact pattern that illustrates their problem but is entirely fabricated. As far as I know there is no business like the imaginary one I am about to describe.
The Juror Who Freed Kent Hovind Steps Forward
Jonathan is the journalist and I’m the tax blogger which sometimes has us bickering a bit about when enough is enough. One of my take-aways from all the material that Jonathan has provided is that Kent Hovind was clearly his own man, subject only to God. His penchant for conspiracy theories has him touched by many movements, but he is not really a part of any of them. So the whole story of what happened with Kent Hovind in Pensacola prior to his imprisonment will probably never be told, much as Jonathan would like to uncover it.
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Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.