Thursday, August 31, 2023

Is a “Tax Expenditure” Necessarily Bad Policy?

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David Henderson has written for the Institute"> for Policy Innovation an interesting commentary addressing “The Bizarre Economics ...
Sunday, August 20, 2023

How to Pay for Street Reconstruction

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Apparently, streets in St. Paul, Minnesota, are crumbling. According to this report , the amount of funding available for street maintenance...
Monday, August 07, 2023

Complaining About Taxes When Not Understanding Arithmetic and the Time Value of Money

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The recent excitement about a lottery prize topping one billion dollars has generated a blizzard of posts, such as this one , claiming that ...
Wednesday, August 02, 2023

I'm Still Here

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Reader Morris asked me if my July 11 post was my final post. I assured him, no, it was not. Nor is this post intended to be a final post. My...
Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Is It Good Or Bad When Tax Breaks Flow Into Private Hands? Depends on Whose Hands Are Getting the Money

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It is no secret that I oppose public funding of, and tax breaks for, businesses owned by multimillionaires and billionaires. Some of my comm...
Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Some Updates on the Mileage-Based Road Fee

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As an advocate of mileage-based road fees, I keep an eye out for legislative developments and commentaries dealing with the proposal. I’ve b...
Monday, June 26, 2023

Finding Tax Questions in the Trash

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Reader Morris directed me to a question posted on a Rockford, Illinois, Eyewitness News web site . The question, found here , is simply stat...
Wednesday, June 21, 2023

In Tax, Eleven Seconds Can Make a Difference

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Yesterday the United States Tax Court issued an opinion in Sanders v. Comr., 160 T.C. No. 16 , in which it held that it lacked jurisdiction ...
Friday, June 16, 2023

The Mileage-Based Road Fee: Simpler, Fairer, and More Efficient Than the Alternatives

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Reader Morris has directed my attention to a recent story describing a proposed North Carolina bill that attempts to deal with that state’s...
Wednesday, June 07, 2023

Do Tax Breaks Overcome the “I Wouldn’t Do That for a Million Dollars” Barrier?

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Readers of this blog know that I am not a fan of using the tax law to encourage or discourage behavior that is better regulated through othe...
Monday, May 29, 2023

Indeed, Freedom Is Not Free

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Sometimes when I reread what I wrote in the past, I think that perhaps I could have done a better job with the message, the vocabulary, the ...
Friday, May 26, 2023

Supreme Court Puts An End to a Bad Tax Practice

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Almost three years ago, in Who Gets Surplus Proceeds From a Tax Sale? , I explained that I had learned a about a dozen states that seize pro...
Wednesday, May 24, 2023

A Different Sort of Tax Fraud Scheme

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The Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts has issued a press release announcing the sentencing of a father and son ...
Thursday, May 11, 2023

Another Instance Illustrating Why Using the Tax Law to Influence Behavior is Unwise and Inefficient

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Yesterday I commented on the revocation of tax breaks by the city of Mishawka, Indiana, after the taxpayer given the tax breaks failed to c...
Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Corporation’s Compliance with Tax Break Conditions Stinks

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Reader Morris contacted me today, asking this question, “Is this the first tax break revoked due to stinky odor?” He pointed me to this stor...
Wednesday, May 03, 2023

These Problems Won’t Be Solved By Tax Breaks

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Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer featured a Spotlight article examining the reception given by the Pennsylvania legislature to Governor Sha...
Thursday, April 27, 2023

A New Tax Game?

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Reader Morris alerted me to proposed legislation in North Carolina that would eliminate state income tax on bonuses up to $2,500 and overti...
Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Bad Tax Proposal Wrapped in Manipulation

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They call it the The Death Tax Repeal Act of 2023 . It was introduced recently as a bill in Congress. If enacted, it would repeal the estate...
Tuesday, April 04, 2023

Can Tax Return Preparers Learn from the Misdeeds of Other Preparers?

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I have written many times about tax return preparers who have been investigated, indicted, convicted, sentenced, or subjected to an injunct...