TAX TIPS (and other stuff)

By Kelly J. Bullis, CPA

2025 – September 20th

Last week was a difficult week for me. I grew up loving this country and the principles it was founded on. Enshrined in our 1^st Amendment is the Freedom of Speech. The whole idea of being able to say what you believe, without the fear of being physically assaulted, imprisoned, or even killed for those stated beliefs.

Can you imagine living in a country where, if you publicly said, “I hate the IRS!” you would be arrested and thrown in prison? In many other countries today, that is exactly what would happen.

Can you imagine publicly saying, “I support gay marriage.” In Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc. They would kill you or at least allow mobs to beat you to a pulp.

The fact that a good man was assassinated last week because he lovingly stated his beliefs and attempted to have friendly conversations with anybody who held different beliefs is absolutely abhorrent to me!

What else is equally abhorrent to me? When people celebrate the death of somebody who had different beliefs than theirs. Really!?! How evil is that?

I wonder what has happened in our country that we have descended to such a low and despicable level as to think it’s right to hurt somebody, even to kill them, because they believe something different. Or that we celebrate somebody’s death because they held different beliefs than us.

John Adams once said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other”. I am concerned that we may have arrived at a sad reality. That being that there are too many in our society today who are not moral and religious.

The question that comes up is “How do we get back to that equilibrium of our society being made up of moral and religious people?” Charlie Kirk believed the answer was to engage folks in friendly discussions. To stop being silent. To get out there into the public square of thought and ideas and talk to each other. Does his assassination cause us to prevent that in the future, either by fear, or by government intervention (in the name of being safe)? I hope not! Instead, his death ought to wake all of us up to the need to do what he was doing. To have conversations. To exercise our 1^st Amendment rights and speak up rather than being silent and avoiding being confronted for our beliefs.

If I don’t think something in our current tax law is fair or right and I want to see it changed, I’m going to speak up. If I think there is wrong in our culture or society, I’m going to speak up. How about you?

Have you heard? Exodus 7:2 says, “You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land.”

Kelly Bullis is a Certified Public Accountant in Carson City. Contact him at 882-4459. On the web at BullisAndCo.com Also on Facebook.