Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Death as a Price for Taxes and User Fees

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Readers of this blog are familiar with my claim that it is cheaper, in the long run, to increase taxes and user fees dedicated to highway, b...
Monday, May 29, 2017

Is Tax and Spend Acceptable When It’s “Tax the Poor and Spend on the Wealthy”?

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It is no secret that I object to the use of public funds to support private enterprises that are not in need of financial assistance. For so...
Friday, May 26, 2017

“Creative” Attempt to Boost Tax Revenue Fails Court Test

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In Pennsylvania, state law prohibits localities and school districts from subjecting billboards, wind turbines, amusement park rides, and si...
Wednesday, May 24, 2017

A New Tax, Proposed But Rejected . . . Until?

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Last week, a reader asked me if I was aware of a tax proposal in Oregon. I was not. The tax, proposed in Oregon House Bill 2877 would have ...
Monday, May 22, 2017

Running Out of Sin Taxes

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A few months ago, in If You Want a Professional Sports Team, Pay For It Yourselves; Don’t Grab Tax Dollars , I criticized a major league soc...
Friday, May 19, 2017

No Tax Benefit for Being Nice

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Sometimes people decide to do something nice, in a monetary way, and then discover that there is no tax benefit for doing so. If there is a ...
Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Me, My Big Mouth (or Is It Irrepressible Keyboard?), and Taxes

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If my blog post from last Friday, Taxes, Strip Clubs, and Creativity had been a podcast, I’d now be saying, “I had to go and open my big mo...
Monday, May 15, 2017

Taking Responsibility for Funding Highways

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The nation’s highways, bridges, and tunnels are in need of major repairs and reconstruction. The sticking point, as is the case with just ab...
Friday, May 12, 2017

Taxes, Strip Clubs, and Creativity

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If asked which industries are most likely to get caught up in tax disputes, it would be a safe guess that the folks operating strip clubs wo...
Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Raising Revenue While Opposing Taxes

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It can boggle one’s mind. A member of Congress has proposed legislation, the “Lifetime GI Bill Act,” which, among other things, would requir...
Monday, May 08, 2017

Judge Judy Tells Litigant to Contact the IRS

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Though I’m not into reality television shows, I do enjoy watching television court shows. They are, in many ways, a form of reality televisi...
Friday, May 05, 2017

The Value and Cost of Taxes

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In a recent commentary , A. Barton Hinkle claims that “Tax cuts won't cost you anything, unless you're Uncle Sam.” He argues that “t...
Wednesday, May 03, 2017

How Not to Claim A Residential Energy Credit

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A recent Tax Court case, Wainwright v. Comr. . T.C. Memo 2017-70, provides a lesson in how not to claim a residential energy credit. The ta...
Monday, May 01, 2017

Road Taxes and User Fees as a Form of Pothole Insurance

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From time to time, I share my thoughts about the relationship between, on the one hand, road taxes and user fees, and on the other hand, the...
Friday, April 28, 2017

St. Louis Voters Say “No” to Proposed Tax Increase to Fund Private-Sector Proposal

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A few months ago, in If You Want a Professional Sports Team, Pay For It Yourselves; Don’t Grab Tax Dollars , I criticized a major league soc...
Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Pretending a Tax Payment Is For Something Else

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There’s a man in Montana who is unhappy that the county treasurer has not cashed the check he wrote in November to pay his property tax bill...
Monday, April 24, 2017

Tax Dollars to Finance the Wealthy? Not Necessary and Not Appropriate

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Seventeen months ago, in Taking and Giving Back , I wrote: It’s a familiar story. A private sector business asks for special tax breaks and ...
Friday, April 21, 2017

A Well-Intentioned But Pragmatically Unwise Tax Filing Suggestion

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When a reader sent me an email directing my attention to this commentary I knew immediately that it was a foolish proposition that begged f...
Wednesday, April 19, 2017

What Is It With Minnesota Professors and Taxes?

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Six years ago, in Why Teaching Isn’t Just a Matter of What One Knows or Understands , and in a follow-up post four years later, Still Puzzle...
Monday, April 17, 2017

Proving Some Tax Evidence Is Not The Same as Proving All

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Sometimes it’s not enough to produce some evidence to support a taxpayer’s claim for an exclusion, deduction, or credit. Sometimes it’s not ...
Friday, April 14, 2017

Why Are Users So Reluctant to Pay Taxes for What They Use?

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At the beginning of the month, in And Now It’s California Facing the Road Funding Tax Issues , I described the California proposal to raise ...
Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Who Is It That Is Making You Do This?

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Last week, CNN reprinted a report from Motley Fool with the attention grabbing headline, “4 things the IRS doesn't want you to know....
Monday, April 10, 2017

If Users Don’t Pay, Who Should?

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As readers of this blog know, I am a strong supporter of mileage-based road fees. I have written about the mileage-based road fee many times...
Friday, April 07, 2017

So Would YOU Do Any of These Things to Avoid Paying Taxes?

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Last month, in So What Would YOU Do to Avoid Taxes? , I shared and commented on a new Survey from Wallet Hub , which revealed what people wo...
Wednesday, April 05, 2017

The Tax Value of a Name

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Names matter. We encounter names everywhere. Though occasionally a name strikes us as unusual, or noteworthy, usually we take names for gran...
Monday, April 03, 2017

And Now It’s California Facing the Road Funding Tax Issues

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It’s the time of the year when states examine highways and bridges, evaluate the damage caused by winter weather, usage, and deterioration c...