Friday, February 27, 2015

Testing Tax Knowledge

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According to a report on a recent NerdWallet survey , “[m]ost American adults get an ‘F’ in understanding income tax basics.” The survey pos...
Wednesday, February 25, 2015

So Who Should Pay for Roads?

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According to a recent report , the decision by the Michigan legislature to come up with road repair funds by asking voters to approve an inc...
Monday, February 23, 2015

Using the Tax Law to Administer Health Care: An Unwise Idea Again Proves Itself Unwise

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Almost five years ago, in a series of posts including IRS Ought Not Be the Health Care Enforcement Administrator , Health Care: Enlarging th...
Friday, February 20, 2015

The Parade of Tax Horribles Never Ends

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The depreciation deduction is not one of my favorites. Too often, it permits taxpayers to report, and pay tax on, a taxable income amount th...
Wednesday, February 18, 2015

You Can’t Save What You Don’t Have

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Last week, in a CNN Money commentary , Jordan Wathen compared what he described as getting rich the easy way with getting rich the hard way....
Monday, February 16, 2015

Are the Cuts in Education Funding Part of a Plan?

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Last week, in Priorities, Priorities: What to Do With Tax Revenues , I explained how Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker plans to cut educatio...
Friday, February 13, 2015

Self-Employment Income Not Offset by NOL Carryforward

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Sometimes a principle of tax law is uncomplicated, easy to understand, and easy to apply. This can be the case even if taxpayers don’t like ...
Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Priorities, Priorities: What to Do With Tax Revenues

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The anti-tax crowd claims to dislike taxes because, among other reasons, they enable government spending. To these folks, government spendin...
Monday, February 09, 2015

So Who Gets Taxed on the Super Bowl Truck?

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The facts are easy. Tom Brady, by being named MVP of the Super Bowl, becomes the winner of a truck given by Chevrolet as a prize to the play...
Friday, February 06, 2015

So Does Anyone Pay Taxes?

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It’s time to ponder the tax issues in another Judge Judy episode. Readers of MauledAgain know that television court shows are among the vari...
Wednesday, February 04, 2015

So Why Would a Senator Dish Out Misinformation?

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When I first read the claim by Senator Rand Paul that the earned income tax credit is afflicted by a 25 percent fraud rate and deprives the ...
Monday, February 02, 2015

When Is A Building Placed in Service?

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After the Katrina disaster, Congress enacted section 1400N(d), a provision permitting taxpayers to claim more generous depreciation deductio...
Friday, January 30, 2015

Voting for Tax Refund Delays

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The IRS Commissioner has disclosed that because “It takes longer to process paper returns and in light of IRS budget cuts resulting in a sm...
Wednesday, January 28, 2015

The Taxation of Egg Donations

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Almost two years ago, in Getting Smart About Tax Questions , I expressed agreement with the advice given to an individual who donated eggs t...
Monday, January 26, 2015

No Agreement? No Alimony Deduction

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A recent Tax Court case, Milbourn v. Comr. , T. C. Memo 2015-13, teaches an important lesson to spouses working their way through divorce pr...
Friday, January 23, 2015

Halfway There?

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Social media is all aflutter, or should I say, atwitter, reacting to news that by 2016 the top one percent will own nearly half the world’s...
Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Getting the Tax Facts

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When I finished reading this recent story , my first thought was, “Well, what REALLY happened?” According to the story a person identified...
Monday, January 19, 2015

Still Puzzled Four Years After Conviction to File Income Tax Returns

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Almost four years ago, in Why Teaching Isn’t Just a Matter of What One Knows or Understands , I commented on the conviction of a then Hamlin...
Friday, January 16, 2015

Does Rejection Block a Deduction?

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It’s a simple tax question with a complicated response. The facts that raise the question aren’t difficult to understand, though they do rai...
Wednesday, January 14, 2015

A New Play in the Make-the-Rich-Richer Game Plan

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A few weeks ago, in A Tax Policy Turn-Around? , I wrote about how the income tax cuts for the wealthy backfired, causing the rich to get ric...
Monday, January 12, 2015

What’s Better Than a Tax Break?

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In his latest column for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Joseph DiStefano reports that Mark Vitner, of Wells Fargo Securities L.L.C., tries to e...
Friday, January 09, 2015

The Federal Gas Tax: Getting It Right

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According to a recent report , several Republican senators are considering an increase in the federal gas tax. Tempted by reductions in the ...
Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Another Tax for the List

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More than seven years ago, in Deconstructing Tax Myths , I shared a list of different types of taxes. In addition to the usual income taxes,...
Monday, January 05, 2015

Time to Amend the Pennsylvania Constitution’s Anti-Graduated Tax Rate Provision?

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Back in March, I reacted to a proposal by then gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf to change the Pennsylvania income tax so that high-income in...
Friday, January 02, 2015

Pay Now, Pay Later

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Readers of MauledAgain know that I prefer paying now for necessary transportation infrastructure repairs rather than paying later. Though it...
Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Counting Tax Chickens Before They Hatch

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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?

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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?

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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

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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?

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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

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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”?

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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?

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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...