Amy Currioman

Sometimes I get tired of my friends and relatives asking me for tax advice.  Just because I’ve been filing my own taxes for years, they seem to think I am an expert on taxes!  I keep telling them that I don’t have all the answers, that they really should consult with some Tax Attorneys for the answer to their questions!  I was reading an article on the yahoo news website about how some victims of identity fraud are finding themselves in a mess with the IRS!

That was REALLY news to me!  From what I understand, in some cases identities are stolen so that illegals can get a job, using the stolen social security number.  And then they don’t pay the income taxes on the income, so the victim of the theft is then liable to pay the taxes!  Wow – what a dilemma!  Of course, that particular issue wouldn’t happen if the employers took the taxes out themselves instead of hiring people as independent contractors and sending out 1099s at the end of the year!  Personally, I think that particular process should be revised completely!  But that’s another subject for another post down the road.

Apparently, the victim only finds out about this when they get a letter from the IRS that they will be conducting a tax audit!  As if that isn’t enough to strike fear in every American heart!  When someone has problems with the IRS, getting a tax attorney is a really good idea.  Better than an accountant because with a tax attorney, you have attorney-client privilege which you don’t get with an accountant!

I’d love to buy some new hummingbird feedersfor our yard to attract hummingbirds to our yard. I really love the ruby throated hummingbird – it is so beautiful and sparkly. It is dismaying, however, to observe how territorial and vicious they are towards each other! How anything can be so pretty and so mean at the same time is certainly a head-scratcher! I don’t understand the photographs that I see in catalogs where several hummers are feeding at the same time at a feeder – in my experience they chase each other away so that only one can feed at a time! I’ve had to space my feeders far apart so that more than one can feed – if they are close together there is a bully that “guards” them and keeps chasing away all the other hummers!

I’ve spent several hours this morning looking on the Internet to see if I can find out any information about that third platter.  I’ve been looking at the replacements.com website because they have a LOT of patterns, but I can’t seem to find out which pattern it is.  So I’ve taken photos of the platter, front and back and emailed them to their research department to see what they can tell me about them.  Their website says to give them several weeks to reply, so I guess now I just have to be patient!

Let’s face it.  Americans are drowning in debt!  Many of my family members have been telling me that they are considering looking into some kind of Debt Settlement. Some of them are looking for Credit Card Debt Solutions; some of them are looking for help getting Free Credit Card Debt Relief.

There are a lot of services and offerings out on the Internet about how to solve our debt problems.  I’ve been very annoyed at how many of these services are trying to get the consumer to pay them for services that could be performed for free by the consumer – if they only knew how!  There is often a big cloak of mystery surrounding how to solve these issues, but the truth of the matter is that it does not have to be that complicated.  A little bit of education goes a long way!

One website that I’ve found that gives free advice, and constructive links to free advice is the getoutofdebtfastguide.com website.  I’ve been looking around on the site and so far it seems to be on the up-and-up.  I haven’t found anyplace yet that asks for money!  The only drawback that I’ve seen so far is that some of the links don’t seem to lead to active sites anymore.  But that is the exception, and not the norm.  If you are looking for some free advice about handling your debt, try their site.

I just received the reply email from the expert on the china platters – it seems that the platters that I only paid $5 for (each) are worth a total of $60!  What a surprise!  Now I don’t know if I dare use them for what I was going to use them for!  And now I have to take the time to see if I can find out the value of the third platter that I bought at the flea market!  What a hoot!  It would really be something if that was valuable too!