TOP DRAWER INK NEWSLETTER

 

Here's the latest issue of Top Drawer Ink, the newsletter written by author HL Carpenter that's chock full of humor and common sense information.

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August 15, 2009
Volume 7, Number 16
ISSN 1554-6330

In this issue:

1. Carpenter Country Essay

2. Top Drawer Article

3. Top Drawer Tips

4. Top Drawer Satire

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CARPENTER COUNTRY

What's Happening in Our Neck of the Human Experience

Do you remember the song Where Have All the Flowers Gone? That tune kept running through the short one’s head the other day when she went shopping for a new living room set.

However, after she walked through several stores the words changed to - where have all the colors gone?

Almost every sofa and chair she looked at was a boring black or brown. Occasionally, she came across a lackluster burgundy, a lifeless navy blue or an uninspiring hunter green, but all the bright, floral colors had gone missing.

“I know times are bad,” she said to a salesperson, “but Carpenter Country is the land of sunshine and flowers. Where are your vivid, vibrant, multicolored furnishings?”

He glanced around the large showroom filled with dreary merchandise and replied, “Guess we don’t have any.”

Two hours and many more bland room displays later, the short one finally decided - neither did anyone else.

As she headed toward the exit, she saw a bunch of suggestion cards lying on a table. She picked one up, whipped out her pen and wrote - Furniture manufacturers wake up! Customers want happy furniture.

Before she could slip the card into the slotted container, the store manager, who had been hovering nearby, asked, “What’s happy furniture?”

“In my case,” the short one said, “a chair, couch or loveseat covered in a fabric patterned with blues, greens, yellows and pinks in a floral design. You don’t have any, but I’ll be back when you do.”

Until then, she’d go home and be content with her once colorful, now faded, but still flowery, living room set.

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TOP DRAWER ARTICLE

Appealing an IRS Decision

by
HL Carpenter

Yikes! You’ve received a notice from the Internal Revenue Service informing you of a decision you disagree with. What should you do?

Read the entire article here

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TOP DRAWER TIPS
Topics and Tidbits

Tip: In all interactions with the IRS, be aware of deadlines and filing dates. Missing specified dates for taking action can result in fewer available remedies. For instance, if you neglect to file for an appeals hearing within a 30-day time frame, the IRS is not required to stop collection activities, and you will no longer have the right to proceed to Tax Court if you disagree with the Appeals Office decision.

Glossary Term: Business filer notices. A type of IRS notice related to business tax forms such as Form 1120, US Corporation Income Tax Return. Business filer notices inform you of problems with your returns, such as math errors, missing federal tax deposits, underpayments and penalties. The notices are classified by CP (Collection Process) numbers. You can find definitions of the most common CP numbers on the IRS web site.

Financial Horoscope: However appealing it may be to splurge now that the government says the recession is over, check your personal situation first. Why take financial advice from an organization that can’t balance its own budget?

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TOP DRAWER SATIRE

The Promise Gap

by
HL Carpenter

The federal government reneged on more promises than it kept last month, according to a report issued by the US Department of Nobody Here Said That. Total promises retracted in July rose 6.7% to 962 billion, while promises kept declined 89%, to three.

Read the rest here