Monday, December 30, 2013

Contracting a Tax Outcome

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When a taxpayer signs a contract, the terms of that contract quite often dictate the tax consequence. This point was highlighted in a recent...
Friday, December 27, 2013

How to Lose a Charitable Contribution Deduction

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According to this story , an anonymous individual put a $3,500 diamond ring into a Salvation Army red kettle. This generosity follows a dona...
Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Fixing a Tax Law Problem, For Once and For All

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When a snag in the tax law generates results for taxpayers that are undesirable in terms of policy, fairness, or computation, ought not any ...
Monday, December 23, 2013

Picking on Just One Tax Deduction

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The Reason Foundation has released a report, Unmasking the Mortgage Interest Deduction: Who Benefits and by How Much? in which the authors ...
Friday, December 20, 2013

Tax Re-Visits Judge Judy

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Almost two years ago, In Judge Judy and Tax Law , I reacted to how a tax question entered into the discussion on the Judge Judy television s...
Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Tax Breaks and Tax Promises

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Last month, in Why This Tax Break? , I described legislation pending in Philadelphia City Council that gives a multi-million-dollar tax brea...
Monday, December 16, 2013

Let’s Not Extend The Practice of Tax Extenders

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Though I don’t always agree with the folks at the Institute for Policy Innovation , occasionally I do. A recent essay by Bartlett D. Clelan...
Friday, December 13, 2013

Can Tax Law Save Capitalism from Itself?

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Advocates of minimizing or reducing taxation and government regulation claim that the economy prospers when the marketplace is left alone to...
Wednesday, December 11, 2013

The Tax Angle to Having Lots of Children

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An article in Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer asked whether the premise of the movie Delivery Man , that a man could father 533 children, “c...
Monday, December 09, 2013

In the Tax World, Forms Matter, and So Does Timeliness

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A recent Tax Court decision, Katz v. Comr. , T.C. Summ. Op. 2013-98, demonstrates the importance of filing forms in a timely manner. In this...
Friday, December 06, 2013

Tax Policy Converts

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Two separate experiences have caused me to think that the tide may be turning. Both experiences involve attitude changes by those who advoca...
Wednesday, December 04, 2013

Noticing a Tax

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Two weeks ago, in If They Use It, Should They Pay? , and its follow-up, The See-Saw World of Legislating Infrastructure Funding , I describe...
Monday, December 02, 2013

One Word – “May” – May Make a Tax Difference

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A recent Tax Court case, Tucker v. Comr. , demonstrates how one word, in this instance, the word “may,” may make a tax difference. The taxpa...
Friday, November 29, 2013

When Cousins Fail to Be Dependents

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A recent Tax Court case, Jibril v. Comr. , demonstrates that identifying a taxpayer’s dependents isn’t as obvious as one might expect. The t...
Wednesday, November 27, 2013

“Don’t Forget to Say Thank-You”

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Though I don’t remember the first time one of my parents said to me, “Don’t forget to say thank-you,” I do remember that during my childhood...
Monday, November 25, 2013

Ways Not to Lower Taxes and User Fees

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In last Friday’s post , I described the see-saw history of the Pennsylvania legislation that will provide funding for transportation infrast...
Friday, November 22, 2013

The See-Saw World of Legislating Infrastructure Funding

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Earlier this week, in If They Use It, Should They Pay? I described the controversy over proposed legislation in Pennsylvania that would gen...
Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Is the Mileage-Based Road Fee a Threat to Privacy?

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In a Washington Times editorial , Adam Brandon objects to raising funds for the nation’s crumbling highway infrastructure through the use of...
Monday, November 18, 2013

If They Use It, Should They Pay?

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Pennsylvania, not unlike other states, faces a transportation infrastructure crisis, though some reports indicate the situation is worse in ...
Friday, November 15, 2013

So Who Are the Takers of Taxpayer Dollars?

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Advocates of cutting taxes claim, among other questionable assertions, that taxes can be cut because too many tax dollars are shifted from t...
Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Unraveling a Tax Filing Mess

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There are two lessons to be learned from the Tax Court’s decision in Herring v. Comr. , T. C. Summary Op. 2013-84. Both may be obvious to ta...
Monday, November 11, 2013

Why This Tax Break?

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According to this Philadelphia Inquirer story , the City of Philadelphia, strapped for cash because of tax revenue declines, and home to a S...
Friday, November 08, 2013

Tax Evasion Investigations Can Yield More Than Unpaid Taxes

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Earlier this week, numerous reports, such as this one , revealed that an investigation for suspected tax evasion turned up more than unpaid ...