November 2022
NOVEMBER 2022 NEWSLETTER
Finally, Winter weather is here, and we have had our second rainstorm. This place looks like Arizona after the drought. Last year I measured the rainfall during the winter, and it was twelve storms averaging one inch of water each--total of one foot for the season. This October we had our first storm of one inch but the last one, two weeks ago, was a wonderful four inches over three days. Let us hope we get more heavy rain to fill the dams and aquifers.
This has been a remarkably busy tax season with over 100 new clients. We have shut down our expensive successful Yelp ad which moved our position around from the back to the front with our five stars [same as Google]. At this time there are still returns on my desk to be completed and continuing education to be finalized before we start again. Most of our new clients are overly complex and range from Newport Beach to Beverly Hills. We always welcome new clients but need to smooth out the practice in the future so I will get to know everybody and have more time to complete the tasks. I also need some time to finish my TRUSTME bank fraud book which is completed and needs judicious editing.
Many thanks to those lifetime clients who have followed our trek from Riverside where we once completed 2,200 returns in our biggest year, to Temecula in five moves. We hope our new clients, who are from all over, but especially the Temecula-Murrieta-Fallbrook area, will settle in and become long-term clients as well.
We have an oversized 48-star American flag over the front of the house. I found it in an estate sale and replaced our torn thin Costco flag that had worn out. It is truly too big to be in front of our house, but I still love it.
Serious California Local News: Independent Contractors now have the ABC test to pass before they can be considered non-employees of their clients.
A] The person is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact.
B] The person performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.
C] The person is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature in the work performed.
But this does not exempt the person from a 1099 form at year-end.
California Unemployment Benefits: The EDD collects withholding and State Disability taxes while the Feds collect unemployment taxes [FUTA] from employers based on wages paid. When they have a recession or giveaway disaster from politicized pandemics, the UI trust fund runs short of funds and borrows from the Feds. The latest California UI Fund shortage from the Covid-19 exercise is now $19.3 Billion at the end of 2022. The fraud and normal Pandemic unemployment benefits have created our very own enviable State colossal debt to be proud of.
Good mortgage news for Californians: Jumbo mortgages which are typical mortgages for most of California have been raised from $970,800 to max out at $1,089,300 by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who buy these mortgages from mortgage brokers. The new 7% interest rates will create a pricy mortgage for those few qualified buyers or refinancers. And bigger returns for those Government bond portfolios the stockbrokers will be selling afterward.
The Hot Summer gave us Californians something to think about this year. Sacramento was at 114o on September fifth, and up to 116o the next day. The State got to practice various Energy Emergency alerts for rolling blackouts, imminent blackouts, and controlling electric usage in the crisis. The future is here. If your solar panels do not have a back-up battery it would be a good idea to get one, so your lights do not go out when the sun sets.
National Energy news item from the WSJ: Because of labor abuses in China [children and slaves are used to manufacture solar panels] about 4,000 containers of these things are stuck in U.S. ports from customs problems. Now, there is a solar panel shortage in the U.S. of A. This is bad timing because these panels are supposed to create the energy required to replace the carbon fuels that are becoming outlawed by the current administration. At this time, it is becoming socially illegal to own stocks in oil companies while new gas stations [which also are becoming electric car charging stations] cannot get permits to open, and natural gas hookups for new homes are not allowed. One day soon, due to Central Planning Green dictates from our leaders, we will flick on the light switch and the place will remain dark.
Santa Claus, AKA President Biden, appears to have lost his election payoff to cancel student loans. To counter the threat to his generosity, the Administration is now considering changing the Bankruptcy Code to allow students to file BK and shed their student loans. They were specifically excluded because it would be a disaster for kids to graduate college, declare insolvency, and wash out the cost of the education. So, the wheels are turning to declare students experiencing economic stress BK before they get employed. This way they could get a clean start without the loans they signed for. Not a bad deal in the Santa Clause irresponsible economy.
Misuse of the EA name endangers people, like me, who are Enrolled Agents of the U.S. Treasury. I hope the people dedicated to Effective Altruism for charitable purposes have learned that making a quick buck on FTX trading is a quick economic death. Giving money away is even hard for Biden, not just speculators.
World News is in the air with the Ukrainians bombing three Russian airports hundreds of miles inside the Russian border. Uniquely, the Tu-141 jet drones used for the one-way mission were designed by the Russians, first manufactured in Ukraine way back in the 1970s. Now the innovative Ukrainians have responded as necessary for the drone and missile attacks on their country and infrastructure.
Biden Loves to Manipulate Oil in The Remaining Free World Economy: Chevron Oil Company is receiving a license to pump oil from Venezuelan neglected oil fields. Friends of Biden have arranged to release three billion of frozen dollars as a good will measure which ignores the cost of expropriating the oil fields in the first place. The thawed assets would be released for “Humanitarian programs” there instead of paying off the stack of debts from the nationalization of foreign assets. Again, in the face of shutting down American oil drilling and transportation, this is a new rescue plan for a Communist enemy. Now, who is the real enemy?
Last, but not least is the grain problem: The Russians have been shipping Ukrainian grain through the back door by feeder vessels and mixed in world trade to provide money for the war with the people they stole the grain from. They have been trucking and railing the Ukrainian harvest and grain stored in silos through Russia to ships in the Black Sea and transshipped all over the world with impunity to any sanctions. Ukraine is the breadbasket of the world and Russia is profiting directly from the bold theft from their occupied territory.
Finally, the Russians have seized over 400,000 acres of Ukrainian farmland and turned them over to their business and political elite as “spoils of war”. The land has been expropriated by Russian fiat, not by any law.
They destroy everything they touch and leave desolation behind. That is the real Communism which we are now embracing innocently here in the U.S. of A.
The above information comes on top of a loss of the mid-term elections by the Republicans. Trump is out, and it is time to find more successful political types to carry the Party forward in 2024.
There are lots of prayers being made this Christmas. I hope Santa Clause is one of them and Peace on Earth with Christ is another.
Best wishes, and great Holidays heralding in another New Year full of hope and passion.
PHILLIP B CHUTE, EA & STAFF