Monday, October 23, 2017

Putting Funding Burdens on Those Who Pay the Soda Tax

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Though its advocates continue to praise its existence, the soda tax fails to get my support because it is both too narrow and too broad. It ...
Friday, October 20, 2017

Another Word for Fake Tax Math

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On Monday, in Fool Us Once on Taxes, Shame on You, Fool Us Twice . . . , I criticized the unwillingness of those who advocate tax cuts for ...
Wednesday, October 18, 2017

From Ignorance to Absurdity

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Today is one of those occasional days when I turn away from tax issues. Today I focus on the First Amendment. Why today? Because several day...
Monday, October 16, 2017

Fool Us Once on Taxes, Shame on You, Fool Us Twice . . .

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Seven years ago, in Negotiating Tax Legislation: Lessons from Life , I opposed the attempts by those advocating tax cuts for the wealthy to ...
Friday, October 13, 2017

Does the Taxation of Social Security Benefits Constitute Double Taxation?

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A reader directed my attention to a Brenton Smith commentary addressing the taxation of social security benefits. Smith shared the thoughts...
Wednesday, October 11, 2017

When Claiming a Dependent Has Adverse Tax Consequences: A Follow-Up

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A little more than a week ago, in When Claiming a Dependent Has Adverse Tax Consequences , I described the reasoning and outcome in Gibson...
Monday, October 09, 2017

Making Tax-Connected Identity Theft Even Easier

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It’s bad enough the people in charge of cybersecurity at Equifax slipped up. The identifying information of almost every adult American, inc...
Friday, October 06, 2017

One-Time Revenue Grabs

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Legislators who try to balance budgets are increasingly resorting to a technique that has also found followers in the business world. I call...
Wednesday, October 04, 2017

The Tax Policy That Worked for the Few and Not for the Many Last Time, and It Will Be a Repeat This Time

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The constant cry by the wealthy for reduction, and eventually elimination, of taxes imposed on the wealthy has swelled to a deafening roar. ...
Monday, October 02, 2017

When Claiming a Dependent Has Adverse Tax Consequences

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Contrary to what intuition might indicate, being able to claim someone as a dependent on a federal income tax return doesn’t always offer ad...
Friday, September 29, 2017

Age Is Not “Just a Number,” But Sometimes It Is the Wrong Number

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About a month ago, in For Tax Purposes, Age Is Not “Just a Number” , I described the outcome in a case involving a taxpayer’s failure to pro...
Wednesday, September 27, 2017

The Tax Fake That Will Not Die

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Supply-side economics is a fake. Trickle-down economic theory demonstrates its untruth when it meets practical reality. Tax cuts for the wea...
Monday, September 25, 2017

Internal Revenue Code Sections and Subsections

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My eyebrows were raised by a recent post from the online magazine of the National Society of Accountants . What I read distressed me. The...
Friday, September 22, 2017

One of the Reasons Tax Law Is Complicated

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The supply of television court shows seems endless. So, too, is the stream of television court shows that touch on tax issues. There’s no qu...
Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Reverse Tax Logic

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According to this report , the chair of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity suggested that “when burdens like poll ta...
Monday, September 18, 2017

Is Anti-Tax Sentiment Weakening?

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For almost two decades, Americans have been told, time and again, that they oppose tax and fee increases. Enormous sums of money have been p...
Friday, September 15, 2017

A Tax Challenge: Simplicity Versus Fairness

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Taxpayers complain about the complexity of tax laws and tax forms, to say nothing of the inconvenience of keeping records and digging up inf...
Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Mileage-Based Road Fees: A Positive Trend?

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Unquestionably, I am a fan of mileage-based road fees. Those fees are a sensible and efficient method of funding highway repairs and mainten...
Monday, September 11, 2017

When Tax Scammers Sue Each Other

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Readers know that I watch television court shows in search of good tax stories. They know this because they’ve seen a long parade of comment...