Ed Icionsub

Seriously wish one of the candidates for President would promise to get rid of the IRS. I would vote for that man regardless of his position on other subjects. I absolutely hate doing taxes and yet I firmly believe that every citizen should be able to complete their forms on there own and file them without fear of an audit or questioning by the IRS because they could not understand the complicated tax forms and tax law.

Thankfully, we citizens do have the ability to get help with our taxes. There are people who are trained and licensed to help us prepare taxes, and they have to stand behind their work. If someone other than the taxpayer prepares the tax forms, that person has to sign the form along with the taxpayer. If you were smart and hired an enrolled agent to help you prepare your taxes, the enrolled agent can appear before the IRS if you get audited, and they can even negotiate with the IRS on your behalf.

Becoming an enrolled agent requires formal training, which is available online now. You have a variety of courses that you have to take, such as the enrolled agent ethics course and about 50 hours of study on a list of required courses.

A lot of people like to file their taxes as soon as they receive their W-2s in the mail, around the end of January. These are usually the people who are expecting a refund. However, a lot of other people wait until the first or second week of April to even look at a tax form and try to figure out whether they will get a refund or have to pay in. I know that I need to get busy organizing my home filing system and get the receipts sorted so that when my W-2 comes in the mail I can do a rough estimate and find out if I need to start saving up to pay in, or if I can expect some money back for a change.

Tags: agent, estimate, mail, negotiate, trained

My last trip to the recycling center put me over in Hermitage and I decided to drive a little further up the road to check on a few things. The next town up has a few stores that I don’t usually patronize, but I’ve been searching for a few specific items and thought I’d have a go with the stores in Lakewood. To my surprise, the new nursing home that has been under construction since March looks like it is about finished and should be opening soon.

There is a sign out front advertising a hiring fair. Evidently there will be a need for several CNAs, housekeepers and maintenance workers. My step daughter has been looking into the CNA programs here and was even recently checking http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/categories/Scrubs/Scrubs-for-Women/ to get an idea of how much she will need to spend on nursing uniforms.

Most of the nursing homes here will sponsor interested applicants while they attend school for their CNA certificate. The classes are widely available through technical schools and community college campuses. They have schedules for mornings, afternoons and evenings, so it is possible to work a job and also take classes. Once she has earned her CNA certificate, the nursing home will give her a full time position and all she needs is a week’s worth of uniforms to get started in her new job.

All the news channels are spreading the news about the scandal at Penn State. There are a lot of people coming forward to testify against the accused coach and there are many serious questions about how many top officials knew what was going on and how they all covered it up for over 10 years.

Although these circumstances are very disturbing, the underlying culture of winning college football games at any cost is what disturbs me. I have never been a fan of college football and now I am even less inclined to be a fan of any college and their corrupt sports programs.

Doctors and nurses always have my greatest respect. I had considered becoming a doctor when I was in high school. My parents were no very supportive of that idea. My dad wanted me to take business courses and join the family business. But I have always had a yearning for working in a hospital or clinic, and as it turns out the closest I may ever get to that dream would be to attend a medical management course for doctors and then find some way to work with a hospital as a consultant.

My good friend, Nick, just returned from the U.K. where he had attended a two day medical teaching course, in hopes of easing away from his medical practice and doing something a little different, like mentoring younger doctors. He already works with some interns at the medical school here. I think it is great that he wants to give something back to his industry.

The best doctors do find a way to give back. They teach and mentor through a teaching hospital or they give seminars and write for medical journals. For a doctor who has never actually taught a class or seminar, there are classes designed for doctors who want to teach. Someone like Nick who is serious can sign up for a teach the teacher course
and learn about the teaching craft before they jump into a classroom setting without the proper preparation.

Tonight we have the chance to see an asteroid pass by very close to Earth. The Asteroid 2005 YU55, won’t be visible to just our naked eye, so you will need a telescope to see this phenomenon. The telescope should have at least a six-inch mirror.

The asteroid will be moving fast, but you should be able to see it from an East Coast viewing spot around 6:28 pm. It is expected to pass Earth, at only 201,700 miles from us. According to NASA, that is the closest any asteroid has passed Earth since 1976.