Buddy and his wife went to the state fair every year,
And every year Buddy would say,
'Edna, I'd like to reide in that helicopter'
Edna always replied,
'I know Buddy, but that helicopter ride is fifty bucks,
And fifty bucks is fifty bucks'
One year Buddy and Edna went to the fair, and Buddy said,
'Edna, I'm 85 years old.
If I don't ride that helicopter, I might never get another chance'
To this, Edna replied,
'Buddy that helicopter ride is fifty bucks, and fifty bucks is fifty bucks'
The pilot overheard the couple and said,
'Folks I'll make you a deal. I'll take both of you for a ride. If you can stay quiet for the entire ride and don't say a word I won't charge you a penny!
But if you say one word it's fifty dollars.'
Buddy and Edna agreed and up they went.
The pilot did all kinds of fancy maneuvers, but not a word was heard.
He did his daredevil tricks over and over again,
But still not a word...
When they landed, the pilot turned to Buddy and said,
'By golly, I did everything I could to get you to yell out, but you didn't.
I'm impressed!'
Buddy replied,
'Well, to tell you the truth,
I almost said something when Edna fell out,
But you know,
Fifty bucks is fifty bucks'
Tax Savers,
Tax Error? Can't Blame the Software
The "Tim Geithner Defense" gets rejected by the Tax Court.
Software programs may make doing your taxes easier, but they don't offer legal protection. If you make a mistake while using one of the increasingly popular tax software packages to prepare your return, the Tax Court won't let you off the hook for a penalty.
One taxpayer found that out the hard way when she tried to blame errors on the TurboTax software program that she had used to prepare her returns over the years. Unfortunately for her, the IRS audited her returns for two of the years and found a number of mistakes.
The IRS sent her a bill for unpaid taxes -- and assessed penalties on top of that. She argued before the Tax Court that use of a tax software program insulated her from any penalty. She pointed out that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also used TurboTax and made some very well-publicized errors on his tax returns that almost derailed his nomination. (After first appearing to blame the program for his misreporting of his income, he later took full responsibility for the mistakes.)
The Tax Court gave her argument short shrift, finding that the additional taxes she owed were caused by her own input errors, not by a flaw in the TurboTax program. It upheld the IRS' imposition of penalties against her. Had Geithner made the same argument in the Tax Court, he would have lost, too.
Wishing you many happy returns,
