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All You Need Is Love

By |2016-11-17T09:00:21+00:00November 17, 2016|Tax IRS|

All You Need Is Love   No matter who we voted for, we can all agree that this has been the nastiest presidential election since Thomas Jefferson called John Adams a hermaphroditic bastard. This week it's finally (finally!) come to an end. Whether you're elated or nauseated by the results, there's probably one emotion you share with most Americans right now: relief that the campaign is over. You've taken a long hot shower, and you got to enjoy your Sunday afternoon football with no political ads. [...]

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We’re Number One!

By |2016-10-24T09:00:14+00:00October 24, 2016|Tax IRS|

We're Number One!   Americans love awards shows — the Oscars, the Grammys, the Emmys, and the Tonys. So we all watched eagerly as the nonpartisan Tax Foundation rolled out the red carpet and released "International Tax Competitiveness Index 2016." The ranking rewards countries with low marginal rates to discourage businesses from fleeing abroad and simple systems to raise the most revenue with the fewest "economic distortions." Which of the 35 member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) took home the gold? [...]

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Watch Out! They Be Scammin’!!

By |2016-09-22T09:00:03+00:00September 22, 2016|Tax IRS|

Watch Out! They Be Scammin'!!   How many calls have you gotten? I think I get at least 2 a week. And they sound very threatening. So... here's the latest from the IRS. (It's a bit lengthy, but worth your time.) Part I: The Phone Call - "We're Coming for You!" IRS Warns Taxpayers of Summer Surge in Automated Phone Scam Calls; Requests for Fake Tax Payments Using iTunes Gift Cards IR-2016-99, August 2, 2016 WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today warned taxpayers to stay [...]

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Goin’ for the Gold!

By |2016-08-25T09:00:12+00:00August 25, 2016|Tax IRS, Tax Planning|

Goin' for the Gold!   For awhile there, it looked like the just-concluded Rio Olympics would be a carnival of chaos. Golfers boycotting to avoid the Zika virus? Check. Swimmers making their way through raw sewage? Check. And those were just the disasters we anticipated before the opening ceremonies! Who could have predicted divers splashing into a pool of green water, or the robbery of the Australian swim team? In the end, it all worked out, and we got to witness the usual quadrennial spectacle of [...]

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Tax Bill

By |2016-07-06T09:00:19+00:00July 6, 2016|Tax IRS|

Harry Potter and the Deathly Tax Bill   Harry Potter's sidekick Ron Weasley has challenged opponents from a mountain troll to the Horcruxes to the Death Eaters. Now the actor who plays him, 27-year-old Rupert Grint, is taking on a foe as powerful as Voldemort himself. Last month, he challenged a squad of dementors taking on the deceptively ordinary appearance of bureaucrats at Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, Great Britain's equivalent of our IRS. Grint has conjured up a fortune since being plucked from his local [...]

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Take This Tax and Shove It!

By |2016-06-24T09:00:41+00:00June 24, 2016|Tax IRS, Uncategorized|

Take This Tax and Shove It!   Do you know what happens when you play country music backwards? (Read to the end to get the answer.) Country music has a long history of celebrating outlaw behavior, which naturally extends to celebrating "outlaw" performers. Plenty of fans have heard the album Johnny Cash recorded of his first prison concert at California's San Quentin penitentiary. But Cash's fellow country icon Merle Haggard, who recently passed away at age 80, was there to hear the concert live — because [...]

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Don’t Get ‘All Shook Up’!

By |2016-06-13T09:00:46+00:00June 13, 2016|Tax IRS, Uncategorized|

Don't Get 'All Shoot Up'!   Philadelphia's incoming mayor Jim Kenney is the latest local official to propose quenching his city's fiscal thirst with a new tax. His inaugural budget would impose a three cents per ounce tax on soda, juices, iced tea, and other sugary drinks. The mayor claims the measure would raise $400 million over the next five years. The issue has even bubbled up into the presidential race — Hillary Clinton supports the tax, while her challenger Bernie Sanders condemns it as disproportionately [...]

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Rats Finding Cheese

By |2016-02-18T00:18:32+00:00February 18, 2016|Tax IRS|

Rats Finding Cheese Anyone who's ever watched a gangster movie knows there's nothing worse than a rat . . . a snitch . . . a stool pigeon. Life is hard for that much-maligned species! In Martin Scorsese's classic mob saga Goodfellas, Henry Hill rats out his partners in crime to get a reduced sentence — then pays the heavy price of having to "live like a schnook" in the witness protection program. But there's one place where rats can earn fat cheesy rewards . . [...]

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Uncle Sam, Knowing When to Hold’em

By |2015-12-03T22:55:45+00:00December 3, 2015|Tax IRS|

Uncle Sam, Knowing When to Hold'em   Last month, millions of fans across America sat down in front of their televisions to watch the Kansas City Royals beat the New York Mets, 4 games to 1 in baseball's World Series. But few of those fans would ever dream they could suit up and join the players in the dugout. That's because, while many of us played as children or teens, America's national pastime is, for the most part, a spectator sport. That's not the case with [...]

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Tax Man Turns $1 = $10,001

By |2015-11-03T22:41:49+00:00November 3, 2015|Tax IRS|

Tax Man Turns $1 = $10,001 Here in the United States, Uncle Sam imposes a "progressive" income tax. As your income goes up, so does your tax rate. However, those rates go up incrementally. If you're married, filing jointly with your spouse, the 39.6% top rate kicks in at $413,201. (We use the term "kicks" deliberately because that's how it feels when you're giving Uncle Sam nearly 40 cents on the dollar.) The good news, if there really is any, is that the higher tax applies [...]

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