From the category archives:

history

Deduct This: History of the IRA Deduction

27 June 2011

Remember Studebaker? Studebaker was a manufacturing company that started in 1852 in South Bend, Indiana, making wagons for farmers, miners, and the military. Ten years after the first gasoline-powered car was tested in the U.S., Studebaker entered the car manufacturing business and it was, at one point, the largest automobile maker in the world. By [...]

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Deduct This: History of the Tax Attorney’s Fees Deduction

25 June 2011

Wait? You mean that you didn’t know that there was such a thing as the tax attorney’s fees deduction? Well, perhaps that’s because it’s not actually called the tax attorney’s fees deduction. Tax attorneys like me just like to call it that. It’s technically part of the Job Expenses and Certain Miscellaneous Deductions subject to [...]

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Deduct This: The History of the Medical Expenses Deduction

20 June 2011

When you ask most taxpayers about available tax deductions, the deduction for medical expenses immediately springs to mind. It’s probably one of the most talked about deductions (in fact, a fairly significant portion of the questions submitted to the blog by taxpayers focus on the medical expenses) but the reality is that very few taxpayers [...]

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The White Haired Senior Tax Amendment

15 June 2011

Every now and again when I’m researching, I come across little tidbits in legislative history that make me laugh. Today is one of those days. In 1986, Sen Robert T. Stafford (R-VT) proposed the following amendment as S.AMDT. 2060: To provide that no person over 75 years of age with net income less than $40,000 [...]

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Deduct This: The History of Student Loan Interest

13 June 2011

This week, I reached a pretty significant milestone: I finally paid off my undergraduate student loans. Hold the champagne: I now get to plug away at graduate loans which are much bigger. Don’t read too much into that, it’s not a complaint in the real sense. I have always considered my education an investment and [...]

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Happy Tax Day (er, Sort Of)

1 March 2011

On February 3, 1913, Delaware became the 36th state to ratify the Sixteenth Amendment. On February 25, 1913, then Secretary of State Philander Knox (from Pennslyvania) announced that the amendment had been ratified by the necessary three-fourths of the states (six more states ratified the amendment after the fact). The amendment imposed a federal income [...]

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President’s Day: Presidential Moves #5

21 February 2011

In honor of President’s Day, I thought it would be fun to try and match U.S. Presidents to their tax policies. For purposes of clarification, I am well aware that tax legislation is Congressional, not presidential, but the President sets the tone for policy and action, so that’s the framework we’re using for the tax [...]

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President’s Day: Presidential Tax Moves #4

21 February 2011

In honor of President’s Day, I thought it would be fun to try and match U.S. Presidents to their tax policies. For purposes of clarification, I am well aware that tax legislation is Congressional, not presidential, but the President sets the tone for policy and action, so that’s the framework we’re using for the tax [...]

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President’s Day: Presidential Tax Moves #2

21 February 2011

In honor of President’s Day, I thought it would be fun to try and match U.S. Presidents to their tax policies. For purposes of clarification, I am well aware that tax legislation is Congressional, not presidential, but the President sets the tone for policy and action, so that’s the framework we’re using for the tax [...]

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President’s Day: Presidential Tax Moves #1

21 February 2011

In honor of President’s Day, I thought it would be fun to try and match U.S. Presidents to their tax policies. For purposes of clarification, I am well aware that tax legislation is Congressional, not presidential, but the President sets the tone for policy and action, so that’s the framework we’re using for the tax [...]

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