Advance Child Tax Credit Payments Starting NOW! What everyone should know The American Rescue plan signed in March, 2021 requires the IRS to pay out ½ of enhanced Child Tax Credits (CTC) to eligible taxpayers beginning this month. A tall order, and one filled with land mines. If you have children or know of anyone… Read More

I don’t know how to say it differently. I don’t know how to scream it any louder. If I were to say, very nicely, over and over, “Please, 2020, the bar has turned the lights on, it’s time to leave,” do you think 2020 would settle up and go away? Just when I thought this… Read More

We look around our burning and confused world and ask 2020, “What’d we ever do to you?” There’s a golfer hiding in the White House basement, busily retweeting racist things (and claiming ignorant innocence later). Everyone’s killing each other. News sources are warning of a second wave when the first hasn’t even broken yet. In… Read More

I was filling in for Phil the other day here at Bourke Accounting. Bill asked me to turn on the high-def TV and put something unoffensive on – Phil usually chooses some sort of pastoral scene with gently swaying flowers. Technology scares me and I was looking at two remote controls (my TV at home… Read More

None who attacks them can escape, and none can catch them if they desire not to be found – Herodotus, on the Scythians – 5th Century BCE Over here at Bourke Accounting, Bill breezed by and, nonchalantly, asked what I was working on (sometimes he wonders what he’s paying me for). In a perfectly rambling… Read More

Forgive my intrusion, but fine as those sentiments sound / Little has changed for us peasants down here on the ground – “The Actress Hasn’t Learned the Lines” – Evita At Bourke Accounting, Bill is the leader – what he says goes. However, he’s not a megalomaniac; if he is presented with coherent evidence regarding… Read More

I just realized that I have never gotten an internal parasite from eating lunch at Bourke Accounting’s weekly staff meeting. As internal parasites are one of my greatest fears (2nd only to bedbugs), I am pleased by this streak of good luck. However, since some of you may be traveling this summer, I decided that… Read More

I am currently sitting in my little corner of Bourke Accounting. The air conditioner is humming its peaceful white noise from somewhere above me and I’ve just put my sweater on. It’s hot and muggy outside, off and on thunderstorms. My little corner is well-decorated. It smells clean and, sort of, like scented Kleenex. If… Read More

I was leaving my little corner of Bourke Accounting when a friend sent me a text about an NPR program that I just had to listen to. I said that I would, but I wasn’t planning on it (while I am notorious for “yessing” people, I am working hard on changing this behavior). Before signing… Read More

Since I began writing Bourke Accounting blogs, I’ve written about unscrupulous tax preparers pumping up fake deductions and I’ve written about illegal practices of stockbrokers. I’ve even written about people claiming kids who are in the sole custody of exes. The amount (and diversity) of shady and petty things we get up to is astounding.… Read More