Monday, July 30, 2018

What’s Not Good Tax-Wise for Most Americans Is Just as Not Good for Small Businesses

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My criticism of the 2017 tax legislation as a sloppily-drafted, terrible-for-most-Americans giveaway to the oligarchs is no secret. I have w...
Friday, July 27, 2018

A Better Understanding of Sales and Use Taxes Can Enrich the Discussion

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When I last wrote about the collection of use taxes on internet sales, in Getting Past Nexus and Into Voluntary Use Tax Collection Compensat...
Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Taking the Simpler Path to Resolving a Tax Issue

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A recent case, Jusino v. Comr. , T.C. Memo 2018-112, provides an example of when a tax issue can be resolved by following the simpler path r...
Monday, July 23, 2018

What’s Next? A Tax on Exiting the Store? How Unwise Taxes Undermine Tax Policy

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For almost a decade I have been criticizing the so-called soda tax. It fails to get my support because it is both too narrow and too broad. ...
Friday, July 20, 2018

When Should Tax Revenue Subsidize the Private Sector?

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About a year and a half ago, in If You Want a Professional Sports Team, Pay For It Yourselves; Don’t Grab Tax Dollars , I explained that if ...
Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Could A Different Rental Arrangement Have Saved This Tax Deduction?

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After reading the opinion in a recent Tax Court case, Najafpir v. Comr. , T.C. Memo 2018-103, I asked myself what could the taxpayer have do...
Monday, July 16, 2018

Raising Tax Revenue By Encouraging Risky Behavior

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As I noted a week ago, in A Strange Tax Proposal With Little Promise of Being Effective , there are taxes “enacted to discourage particular ...
Friday, July 13, 2018

How Not to Be a Tax Return Preparer

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Last week, I happened upon another television court show that involved tax return preparers, tax procedure, and some unseemly behavior. I kn...
Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Property Tax Refund: Four Thoughts

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When I read the Philadelphia Inquirer article describing $68 property tax refund checks mailed by Middletown Township in Bucks County, Penn...
Monday, July 09, 2018

A Strange Tax Proposal With Little Promise of Being Effective

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There are all sorts of taxes, designed to do a variety of things. Most are designed to raise revenue, though some are enacted to discourage ...
Friday, July 06, 2018

When Will the Anti-Tax Folks Ever Learn?

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About a year ago, in Learning from the Tax Experiences of Others , I reacted favorably to reports that the Republican governor of Oklahoma i...
Wednesday, July 04, 2018

Rampant Ignorance About Taxes, and Everything Else, Becoming An Even Bigger Threat

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Readers of this blog know that I abhor ignorance. In theory, ignorance, unlike, say, bad weather, can be eliminated. In practice, putting an...
Monday, July 02, 2018

Tracking the Use of Tax Revenue

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Recently, in a letter to the editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, a letter than I cannot find on the paper’s web site, Paul Benedict reacted...
Friday, June 29, 2018

Is Holding On To Tax Cut Failures Admirable Perseverance or Foolish Stubbornness?

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Advocates of tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations not only continue to hold fast to their disproven theories, and not only crow...
Wednesday, June 27, 2018

When a Quid-Pro-Quo Gets In the Way of a Charitable Contribution Deduction

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It was the first part of the headline to this Philadelphia Inquirer article that caught my eye and caused me to think of tax. The headline ...
Monday, June 25, 2018

No “Redo” or “Reset” Button for Tax Fraud

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Though it’s a well-settled principle that taxpayers who file fraudulent returns cannot escape the resulting fraud penalties by filing amende...
Friday, June 22, 2018

Taxes and Voting

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According to this report , brought to my attention by reader Morris, bills have been introduced in both houses of the Michigan legislature t...
Wednesday, June 20, 2018

A Hidden Tax Question

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Reader Morris alerted me to something of which I was unaware. He began by directing my attention to this story written by the city manager ...
Monday, June 18, 2018

Should There Be Limits on Tax Credits?

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When I ask if there should be limits on tax credits, I am not referring to dollar or percentage caps that limit the amount of the credit. I ...
Friday, June 15, 2018

Trickle-Down Variation Is No Better Than Trickle-Down

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Reader Morris sent me a link to an article of a little more than a week ago . In the article, Joseph Lawler reports on comments made by JPMo...