Steve Marr.org

Ms. Lois Lerner, director of the IRS division that was alleged to signal out groups for intense review based on ideology, has refused to answer questions from a congressional committee. This is her constitutional right. 

However, do we have the same right with the IRS? We can refuse to answer questions from an IRS examiner, but the result will be imputed taxes, the examiner will make assumptions, that may or may not be correct and then issue a tax notice. At that point, you can pay the amount, or contest the action. Silence will not work.

In the past I received a very detailed request for supporting documentation from my tax return. I had been traveling and when I received the notice I only had two weeks left to furnish the information.  I called the IRS examiner requesting a short extension of time to pull the documentation together. I was refused. Instead I received a notice of assessment I then needed to contest.  My CPA work the issue through with the IRS, and no tax was due.

The tax code from the IRS encourages debt rather than equity. When a corporation earns money, they pay an income tax on the earnings. If earnings are distributed to shareholders, those dividends are taxed again as personal income. This represents double taxation and discourages dividends to investors.

CNBC recently ran a piece about how workers are becoming increasingly stressed in the workplace.  You can read the story here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100624671.

Today’s workers are stressed from multiple demands. I experience this stress from many clients who feel pressured.  This is why we need to learn to rely upon the Lord every day. We need to ask for guidance about what tasks to undertake, how to plan our week, how to serve customers, and how to meet our employers’ needs.

Recently Walmart and Sears have closed their in store photography centers. In past generations, parents would dress up the family for the annual portrait. Today, few use a professional photographer.

When I was younger, I fancied myself a pretty good amateur photographer. I bought a Nikon 35 millimeter with several lenses. The camera cost around $5,000 in today’s dollars. I took a lot of shots using slide film and printed the best. In the past, taking pictures was costly and required skill to fully utilize the equipment.

Now cameras are cheap, easy to use, and digital. The expense of printing wasted shots is gone; you just delete them. Most of us can take enough pictures to get a few that turn out well. We don’t need to pay $50-$100 for a set of professional pictures.

However, good photography is a skill.  You need to get the lighting right, the people in the right place, and catch the best expressions. Not many people have this skill, and fewer people make a living doing photography. We need to be alert and understand these changes in our industry.

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah and said, “But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” (Jeremiah 18:4, NIV) When the industry we work in is out of shape, we need to be willing to be molded into a different profession or job.

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Sometimes we consider a sanction to be a penalty for breaking a rule; thus, something negative. However, a sanction may also be positive.  It can also mean that you receive approval to do something. Most people respond better to positive sanctions than to a penalty.