Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Counting Tax Chickens Before They Hatch

›
What can a state legislature do when it needs money to fix its transportation infrastructure? There are all sorts of taxation choices, but V...
Monday, December 29, 2014

A Tax Policy Turn-Around?

›
Readers of MauledAgain know that I do not subscribe to the theory that tax cuts for the wealthy will trickle down and improve the economic c...
Friday, December 26, 2014

Enact Tax Laws But Break Them?

›
However this story turns out, it seems absurd that a member of Congress who pleads guilty to tax evasion would not immediately resign. Even...
Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Tossing Up Tax Issues

›
I’m torn between being pleased and being disgusted. The confusion was sparked by a report I heard several mornings ago on the local news sta...
Monday, December 22, 2014

Do Taxes Kill Jobs?

›
The governor-elect of Pennsylvania included in his campaign platform a promise to seek imposition of a severance tax on the energy companies...
Friday, December 19, 2014

Code Size Claim Shrinks But Not Enough

›
One of my favorite examples of tax misinformation is the persistent claim that the Internal Revenue Code is a gargantuan multi-million word ...
Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Tax Question: What Is “It” in “We don’t need it”?

›
Last weekend a news story revealed the results of a poll of New Jersey residents. Asked for a reaction to increased fuel taxes to pay for ...
Monday, December 15, 2014

It’s Not Just Tax Ignorance, Is It?

›
For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be an educator, and for many years, I have been one. People ask me why. My answer is simple. Some...
Friday, December 12, 2014

Why Do Those Who Dislike Government Spending Continue to Support Government Spenders?

›
There’s something not quite right in the collective psyche of the anti-government-spending crowd. Enraged by high taxes, they manage to put ...
Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Do-It-Yourself Tax Preparation? Better?

›
In recent years, in part because of economic conditions, an increasing number of people have turned to do-it-yourself projects. If the do-it...
Monday, December 08, 2014

How Best to Describe the Use Tax Collection Issue?

›
Readers of this blog know that I am not a fan of permitting states to impose on out-of-state retailers the burden of collecting use taxes th...
Friday, December 05, 2014

Being Nice to a Sibling Can Be Tax Costly

›
A recent Tax Court decision illustrates how tax law intrudes on what otherwise would appear to be the simplest of things. Imagine owning a r...
Wednesday, December 03, 2014

Apparently, It’s Rather Difficult to Understand Use Taxes

›
A little more than a week ago, in How Difficult Is It to Understand Use Taxes? , I reflected on recent Philadelphia Inquirer commentary sup...
Monday, December 01, 2014

The Making of Tax Law Too Often Stinks

›
If, as John Godfrey Saxe said in a quote often misattributed to Otto von Bismarck, “Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proport...
Friday, November 28, 2014

An Unanswered Tax Question for the Letter Writer

›
Over the past few years I have pointed to the existence of bad roads as a lesson in the foolishness of alleged short-term tax cut benefits b...
Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Giving Thanks: “No, Thank YOU!”

›
A few years ago, in a sermon, the then pastor of my church, a former English teacher, pointed out that he was bothered by the increasing use...
Monday, November 24, 2014

More Tax Ignorance

›
Circulating on facebook, and probably on other social media, is a photograph with this legend: Up until 1913 Americans kept all of their ea...
Friday, November 21, 2014

How Difficult Is It to Understand Use Taxes?

›
A recent commentary in the Philadelphia Inquirer advocates extension of the moratorium on collection of sales taxes by out-of-state retaile...
Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Satire, Tax or Otherwise, Lost on Americans

›
Few people understand satire. It’s such a dangerous practice that one wonders whether in the long run it does more harm than good. Recently,...
Monday, November 17, 2014

Soda Sales Shifting?

›
In last Wednesday’s post, Escaping Tax and User Fee Revenue Diversion , my analysis of a Philadelphia cigarette tax included an exploration ...
Friday, November 14, 2014

Foolish Tax Filing Decisions Disclosed to Judge Judy

›
From time to time, tax issues pop up on television court shows. I have described these episodes on five previous occasions, starting with Ju...
Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Escaping Tax and User Fee Revenue Diversion

›
Several months ago, in Delaying a Questionable Tax , I explained one of my objections to the then pending, and subsequently approved, new Ph...
Monday, November 10, 2014

Letter from the Tax Advisor? Read It

›
A recent Tax Court case, Singhal v. Comr. , T.C. Summ. Op. 2014-102, presents an important lesson for taxpayers. The taxpayers were married,...
Friday, November 07, 2014

If You Don’t Own the House, You Don’t Get the Interest Deduction

›
A recent case, Puentes v. Comr. , T.C. Memo 2014-224, illustrates the principle that a taxpayer who is neither legal nor equitable owner of ...
Wednesday, November 05, 2014

Mortgage Loan Modification Can Imperil Interest Deduction

›
With mortgage loan modifications rather commonplace, particularly during times of economic downturns, taxpayers need to be careful when re-a...
Monday, November 03, 2014

The Tax and Traffic Squeeze

›
Last week, on my 10-hour round-trip drive to meet my first grandchild, a thought crossed my mind. It was triggered by the experience of need...
Friday, October 31, 2014

The Inequality of Halloween?

›
From the outset, I have made it a point to work Halloween into MauledAgain, usually looking for the silly or goofy but occasionally taking a...
Wednesday, October 29, 2014

How Not to File a Tax Court Petition

›
A recent case, Sanchez v. Comr. , T.C. Memo 2014-223, demonstrates how a taxpayer should not file a Tax Court petition. The taxpayer receive...
Monday, October 27, 2014

The True Cost of Stopping a Tax Increase

›
From this story , I learned that there is a ballot question in Massachusetts asking voters to decide whether the inflation-adjustment indexi...