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Tax Trivia Giveaway #3: High Income Taxpayers

31 January 2012

Our next tax trivia question is: In 2000, Vice President Cheney and his wife owed federal taxes of $14,295,058 on adjusted gross income of $36,086,635. After taking into account withholding and other payments, how big a check did the Cheneys have to write when they mailed in their taxes? (I’ll take answers within $100,000) For [...]

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Tax Trivia Giveaway #1: Top Tax Rates

30 January 2012

Our first tax trivia question is: In 1913, Congress levied a one percent tax on net personal incomes above $3,000, with a six percent surtax on incomes above $500,000. As the nation sought greater revenue to finance the World War I effort, the top rate of the income tax rose considerably. What was the top income [...]

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After Loss, Romney to Release Tax Returns

22 January 2012

So, show of hands: who really thought that former Massachusetts Governor and current GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney would win South Carolina? My hand will stay firmly by my side. I expected Romney to lose South Carolina. I also still fully expect him to get the nod from the party at the GOP Convention despite [...]

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Is Your Mortgage Interest Deduction At Risk?

17 November 2011

Is your mortgage interest deduction at risk? What about your charitable donation deduction? Your real estate tax deduction? Your medical expenses deduction? Under a new conservative plan introduced by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), one of the members of the “Super Committee”, the amounts that taxpayers could claim as deduction on a Schedule A would be [...]

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Who Stole the Green Movement?

15 November 2011

Today, more than 500 elementary school students in our local public school hauled recyclable bags filled with more recyclable plastic bags to school to mark America Recycles Day. Our green clubs are counting the bags – we already know that one kindergarten class brought in nearly 2000 – and putting them aside to reuse (for [...]

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Perry Wants You to Know that Romney is Rich: Do You Care?

27 October 2011

Let’s say that you have a shot at your dream job. You’ve done your homework, you’ve put in the hours, you’ve managed to get through the interview. There’s just one more thing: your tax return. Your potential employer has asked to you to disclose your tax return with the understanding that the information on the [...]

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I’m From The Government And I’m Here To Help

21 October 2011

Twenty five years ago, pop singer Michael Jackson was in the news. Big shoulder pads were all the rage. Libya was under siege. Federal spending outpaced revenues. The U.S. was fighting its way out of a recession. And following a round of tax cuts that didn’t live up to expectations, the words “tax reform” were [...]

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The Post I Swore I Wouldn’t Write

11 September 2011

I wasn’t going to write this post. I thought about it long and hard and I had promised myself that I wouldn’t write it because I didn’t feel that I had anything meaningful to add to the conversation of the day. And I didn’t want to appear self-serving. And I didn’t want this to be [...]

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Debt Ceiling? What Debt Ceiling?

11 July 2011

I’ve received a lot of emails lately asking me to explain what the debt ceiling is and what it really means. It seems that it’s a term that Congress likes to throw around without a lot of explanation. So here’s the scoop: As of August 2, the United States can’t pay its bills anymore. We [...]

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Taxation Without Representation: Setting the Stage for Independence

4 July 2011

Today, kids will decorate wagons with streamers and drag them down small town streets while big marching bands play John Philip Sousa tunes. There will be floats and beauty queens with big smiles (and even bigger hair). Smells from cookouts and barbecues will fill neighborhoods as folks fire up the grill to make hotdogs, hamburgers [...]

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