Monday, December 30, 2019

Plan to Pay Property Taxes with Rolls of Nickels Thwarted Before It Happens

›
Roughly four and a half years ago, in Does It Make Tax Cents? , I commented on a story about a Pennsylvania taxpayer who paid a tax by dumpi...
Friday, December 27, 2019

When It Comes to Taxation, Details Matter

›
Readers of MauledAgain know that I am a stickler for details. Details matter. They matter in taxation, just as they matter in engineering, h...
Wednesday, December 25, 2019

A Christmas Tax Gift Tease

›
Today is Christmas, which for many people is an important religious feast, and for even more, a day of giving and receiving. Sometimes, thou...
Monday, December 23, 2019

Can IRS Audits Be Avoided?

›
The headline caught my eye. It simply stated, ”How to Avoid a Tax Audit in 2020.” Curious, I took a look at the Lifehacker article . It expl...
Friday, December 20, 2019

Double Trouble, Tax Advice Style

›
Reader Morris pointed me to an June Investopedia article and asked, “Are they miscalculating the amount of the deduction by using the effec...
Wednesday, December 18, 2019

How Not to Handle a Tax Refund

›
Once again, a television court show slipped past me but reader Morris came to the rescue. There’s now a Judge Jerry court show, and so a few...
Monday, December 16, 2019

Court of Appeals for the First Circuit: Tolls Are Fees, Not Taxes

›
Whether a charge is a tax or a fee, and the misuse of those terms, has been the subject of more than a few MauledAgain commentaries. I have ...
Friday, December 13, 2019

A Difficult Tax to Defend

›
Reader Morris directed my attention to a BCRNews article describing the unhappiness of a restaurant-owning couple caused by the enactment o...
Wednesday, December 11, 2019

It’s Not Necessarily a “Tax” Just Because It’s an Economic Charge You Don’t Like

›
Reader Morris directed my attention to an opinion piece by Curt Schroder, and asked, “Is this another misuse of the word ‘tax’?” Clearly re...
Monday, December 09, 2019

The Tax Laws Don’t Work That Way

›
Reader Morris directed my attention to a story about a life coach who took an unwise approach to dealing with her desire to help others. Ac...
Friday, December 06, 2019

Sometimes It Doesn’t Matter If It Is a Fee or a Tax

›
The difference between a “fee” and a “tax” matters for different reasons. One, of course, are the prohibitions against raising taxes that do...
Wednesday, December 04, 2019

Playing With Taxes? Taxes in Play? Taxes in a Play?

›
Three years ago, in Deferring Death as a Tax Planning Tool , I explored the questions that popped into my head when I read Phil DeMuth’s sug...
Monday, December 02, 2019

So Are They Taxes? Fees? Both?

›
Too often, the words “tax” and “fee” are misused. Sometimes a tax is called a fee even though it is a tax. Much more frequently, a fee is ta...
Friday, November 29, 2019

The Price for Anti-Tax Success Can Be Catastrophic

›
Readers of MauledAgain know that I am not one of those people who object to taxation as a matter of principle and who oppose every attempt t...
Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Quest'anno รจ il Ringraziamento

›
For as long as I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve been sharing a Thanksgiving post to express my gratitude for a variety of people, events, a...
Monday, November 25, 2019

When the Tax Software Goes Awry

›
One never knows when, if at all, a tax issue will pop up in a television court show, and if one does pop up, what it will involve. Usually, ...
Friday, November 22, 2019

When Use of the Word “Tax” Gets Even More Confusing

›
On several occasions I have written about the misuse of the word “tax.” My explanation of the difference between a tax and some other charge...
Wednesday, November 20, 2019

The Scope of a Mileage-Based Road Fee

›
Reader Morris, like many other readers of MauledAgain, knows that I am an advocate of the mileage-based road fee. For years, he has been rea...
Monday, November 18, 2019

Fun With Moving Expense Deductions, Canadian Style

›
Though the United States federal income tax moving deduction was suspended by the 2017 tax legislation, there continues to be a moving expen...
Friday, November 15, 2019

When is a “Tax” Not a Tax?

›
Reader Morris directed my attention to this story , asking me, “Can a fee that is not a tax be considered double taxation?” The answer is no...
Wednesday, November 13, 2019

How Not to Raise Money to Fix Roads

›
According to this report , voters in the city of Lowell, Michigan rejected by an almost 2-to-1 margin a proposal to enact a 1 percent (0.5 p...