Many taxpayers cheered in 2008 when the Housing and Economic Recovery Act, or HERA, was signed into law by President Bush. The bill was designed to provide “needed housing reform” and was intended to kickstart the declining housing market. Of course, Congress never met a bill that couldn’t be bulked up with other bits and…
It used to be that when you opened a new account at a bank or other financial institution, you got a free pen. Or, if the bank was feeling really flush, a toaster. These days, however, banks are wooing customers with more valuable incentives like frequent flyer points. Those incentives now come with a price:…
Tax refund fraud costs taxpayers billions of dollars each year. In an effort to curb fraud, the Internal Revenue Service has made a number of changes over the past few years, including new controls over Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) which took effect in 2013. Those rules, however, are changing again. ITINs are numbers assigned…
So do they or don’t they? After maintaining for quite some time that Lois Lerner’s emails are completely, definitely gone (maybe), it turns out that there’s now a different story. According to Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton: Department of Justice attorneys for the Internal Revenue Service told Judicial Watch on Friday that Lois Lerner’s emails,…
This week, Mo’Ne Davis made Sports Illustrated history: she became the first Little League player to make the cover of the sports magazine in its more than 60 year history. The 13-year pitching phenom from Philadelphia captured the hearts and minds of many baseball lovers over the past few weeks as she – and her…
Dolce & Gabbana. Miuccia Prada. Roberto Cavalli. Valentino. Silvio Berlusconi. That’s not merely a list of some of Italy’s most famous, most wealthy newsmakers. The names on that list have made news over the past few years for another, more dramatic reason: they’ve all been targeted (most successfully) by Italian taxing authorities for tax evasion….
Bank of America Corporation (BoAC) will pay $16.65 billion to settle claims against Bank of America and its related parties (including Countrywide Financial Corporation and Merrill Lynch). That was the word today from Attorney General Eric Holder and Associate Attorney General Tony West. It is the largest civil settlement with a single entity in American…
It’s my annual call for guest posts! As I have done for the past few years, I’ll be turning over the blog to my readers for an entire week. This year, I’m offering readers the chance to answer one of six tax-related questions: To combat inversions and other tax planning techniques for corporations, do you…
Twenty years. That’s about how long Anna Nicole Smith (and subsequently, her estate) engaged the legal process to try and secure a portion of her husband’s estate. A federal judge has finally ruled in the matter – and the decision was not in favor of Anna Nicole and her family. As a tax and estates…
If you’re clicking through the internet today hoping to do a little shopping, you likely have Aaron Montgomery Ward to thank. On August 18, 1872, Aaron Montgomery Ward produced the first Montgomery Ward mail order catalog, largely thought to be the first mail order catalog meant for the general public (Tiffany claims that their Blue…
