Blog Title: Don't Mess With Taxes

Sure you hate taxes, but you are stuck with them. We make your tax tasks less, well, taxing, and help cure your personal finance ills with regular doses of money news, notices, tips, commentary, insight and humor.

'Girls Gone Wild" founder offers a preview of his tax evasion defense

Joe Francis, whose soft porn Girls Gone Wild video empire has made him rich, doesn't go on trial for tax evasion charges (blogged about here) until next month. But he's already announced that he's going to use a modified Snipes Defense. Francis says that it's his accountant's fault. That was the original Snipes Defense: "I...

My favorite Florida spot is Fay target

I am so bummed! My most favorite place in all of Florida looks like it's the bullseye for Fay. My best hope is that if the track there to the left holds, Fay's still "just" a tropical storm and not a full-fledged hurricane when she makes landfall at Sanibel Island. That lovely retreat on Florida's...

Liechtenstein will cooperate ? somewhat

Liechtenstein, which has been under pressure from worldwide tax officials to ease its bank secrecy standards, now says it will "cooperate" in an effort to ease global tax collector concerns about the reported billions of dollars stashed there by tax-averse customers. But such "comprehensive cooperation," as Liechtenstein officials characterize it, only goes so far. So...

Taxes at Comic-Con?

Two attorneys have come up with what is probably the first tax comic book. Get Smart (About Special Manufacturing Deductions) is the creation of Jeffrey M. Tolin, tax principal and senior tax advisor for the entertainment industry at Ernst & Young, and Michael H. Salama, vice president for tax administration and senior tax counsel with...

Obama tweaks his tax plan

Barack Obama has tweaked his tax plan in connection with expanded Social Security payroll tax collection and higher capital gains tax. Jason Furman and Austan Goolsbee, Obama's economic policy director and senior economic adviser, respectively, elaborated on the revised proposal last week on the Wall Street Journal op-ed page. Obama still supports changes to both...

State tax initiatives: on, off and maybe

Ballot initiatives are a popular way to let state politicians off the hook get the public involved in the legislative process. Yes, I know that proponents of the process argue that the direct-to-voters approach keeps state governments in check. But in many cases, it's also an easy way out for lawmakers, who then can point...

What did UBS execs know and when?

The latest news in the global offshore account investigation doesn't look too good for UBS. At least three years ago, some of the Swiss bank's senior executives knew about possible violations of U.S. securities laws in connection with American clients of its private bank, according to a story in today's New York Times. Top UBS...

Sales tax holidays, take two

Attention Massachusetts, Connecticut and Texas shoppers! Your state sales tax holiday is this weekend. Texas kicks off this final round of back-to-school sales tax-free events on Friday, Aug. 15. State and some local levies will be waived through Sunday, Aug. 17. Massachusetts is giving its shoppers the weekend days to save or spend or both,...

NFL opposes IRS' expanded salary reporting rule

So what are NFL suits afraid of? Being laughed at for making too little money. I'm not laughing. Are you? Heck, I'm not even smiling. I'm sitting here with my jaw hanging open at the latest example of National Football League audacity. First, the NFL cried to Congress about how the mean old cable companies...

Tax Carnival #39:
Dog Days of Summer 2008

Here we are, smack dab in the middle of the dog days of summer. It's hot (so far here in Austin, we've had 46 days of 100 degree or higher temps) and although I'm dog tired, I'm dogged by a ton of things still nipping at my heels. That's why this 39th edition of the...