Friday, November 18, 2011

The Tax Consequences of Exorcism

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A reader wrote to me recently, asking an interesting question and demonstrating how taxes can pop up anywhere, anytime. After watching what ...
Wednesday, November 16, 2011

More Tax Ignorance, With a Gift

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Usually when there is a manifestation of tax ignorance, it leads to bad tax policy, ill-advised votes, or some other sort of economic proble...
Monday, November 14, 2011

What Sort of Tax Increase?

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Headlines, like sound bites, can be so misleading because they are so short. Sometimes succinctness is not a virtue. Consider this headline:...
Friday, November 11, 2011

The Fallacy of Taxes and Job Creation

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Jobs are created when there is a need for work to be done. If every owner of property with a lawn did the lawn mowing, there would be no law...
Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Flat Tax Plans Should Fall Flat on Their Faces

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In an article in Monday’s Philadelphia Inquirer, Small Matters: Don't Make the Mistake of Overtaxing Wealth , Bill Dunkelberg tries to m...
Monday, November 07, 2011

The Tax and Spending Stalemate: Can It Destroy the Nation?

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The nation’s bridges and highways are falling apart. I’ve not seen or read anything to the contrary, certainly no one claiming that the tran...
Friday, November 04, 2011

Undressing the Sales Taxation of Costumes and Accessories

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In response to my recent Halloween post, The Scary Part of Halloween Costume Sales Taxation , Thomas A. Haines, CPA, of Tax Matrix , offers ...
Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Taxes by Any Other Name

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About a year and a half ago, in Don’t Like This Tax? How About That Tax? , I criticized a proposal to revamp Philadelphia’s business privile...
Monday, October 31, 2011

The Scary Part of Halloween Costume Sales Taxation

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Two years ago, in Unmasking the Deductibility of Halloween Costumes (2009), I examined the deductibility, for federal income tax purposes, ...
Friday, October 28, 2011

A Tax Complexity Contest?

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One of my readers, noting that I had disclosed having read the Internal Revenue Code, asked if I agreed that all of the Code, and even the r...
Wednesday, October 26, 2011

When Tax Revenues Are Insufficient: Affordability, Resistance, and Diversion

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Though it sounds good at a theoretical level, the practical problem with cutting taxes in order to force a cut in government spending is tha...
Monday, October 24, 2011

Taxing Capital to Help Capital

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A few readers have suggested to me that I dislike, or worse, hate the wealthy. That’s not true. I dislike what many, not all, wealthy do in ...
Friday, October 21, 2011

A Tax Book for Writers (and Others)

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Almost five years ago, in A Tax Advice Book for People Who Write and Illustrate Books , I reviewed Julian Block’s “TAX TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINE...
Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Collecting the Use Tax: An Ever-Present Issue

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On Monday morning, while listening to KYW news radio, I heard a report that caught my attention because the reporter mentioned the word tax...
Monday, October 17, 2011

Taxes and Due Diligence

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Anyone looking closely at the “Links to Other Tax Blogs” on the left side of this page will notice that I’ve added a link to Due Diligence ....
Friday, October 14, 2011

From Fat Tax to Accountability: The Failure of Choice

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In last Friday’s post about The Fat Tax , I commented on a Danish citizen’s concern that taxes designed to influence behavior raise the spec...
Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Revenue: It’s Not Just the Name, It’s Also the Place

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Ever since the Marcellus Shale natural gas boom got rolling, I argued that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as representative of its citize...