Friday, April 29, 2011

Some Tax Issues Raised by Information Hacking

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The recent news, reported by dozens of sources, including this CNN report , that a hacker managed to infiltrate Sony’s Playstation servers a...
Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Music and The Tax Brain

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Monday’s Philadelphia Inquirer brought a small item that described the results of research exploring the connection between childhood music...
Monday, April 25, 2011

Taxes, Spending, Deficits, and Irrationality

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About a year and a half ago, in Poll on Tax and Spending Illustrates Voter Inconsistency , I reacted to the results of a Quinnipiac Universi...
Friday, April 22, 2011

An Amazing Tax Double-Dip Attempt

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It’s likely that even people who are not tax professionals can answer the following question: “If taxpayer T writes a $100 check to Charity ...
Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Tax Rates or Tax Uncertainty?

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Last August, in Tax Politics and Economic Uncertainty , I agreed with the comment of Martin Regalia, chief economist of the U.S. Chamber of ...
Monday, April 18, 2011

The Tax Brain?

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It’s tax day, because a holiday in the District of Columbia required the “postponement,” at least for federal income tax returns, of that ve...
Friday, April 15, 2011

What Sort of War is the “Real Budget War”?

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Three months ago, in Cutting Taxes + Failing to Identify and Enact Spending Cuts = Default? , I shared my prediction that “the collision bet...
Wednesday, April 13, 2011

How Easily is This Tax Plan Trumped?

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Kudos to Paul Caron, whose post headline the other day, Trump's Tax Plan: One-Time 14.25% Net Worth Tax on Those With Over $10m , caught...
Monday, April 11, 2011

Taxing Symptoms Rather Than Problems

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One of the flaws in trying to use the tax law to influence behavior is that legislators too often target symptoms rather than problems. That...
Friday, April 08, 2011

Americans Still Don’t Grasp Federal Budget Realities

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About five months ago, in The Grand Delusion: Balancing the Federal Budget Without Tax Increases , I explained why it is not possible to bal...
Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Why Are Simple Tax Rules So Difficult to Understand?

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The headline caught my eye. The words, Former TV Anchor Glad She Challenged IRS , caused me to think that perhaps a ground-breaking tax case...
Monday, April 04, 2011

Some More Tax Back-Peddling?

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A week ago, in Some Tax Back-Peddling? , I asked whether the Pennsylvania governor’s expressed willingness to permit municipalities to impos...
Friday, April 01, 2011

Revised Edition of Book on Taxation of Residence Sales: Still Risky to Leave Home Without It

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Almost five years ago, in A New Book on Taxation of Residence Sales: Don't Leave Home Without It , I reviewed Julian Block’s “HOME SELLE...
Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Mileage-Based Road Fee Lives On

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The mileage-based road fee, also known as the vehicle-miles traveled user fee, continues to get attention. The latest entry in the discussio...