Earlier this week, the National Football League (NFL) announced that it would voluntarily give up its tax-exempt status. The NFL has been tax-exempt since 1942 under section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code which grants tax-exempt status to organizations with a goal “to promote the common business interest” with activities “directed to the improvement of…
Last week, the House of Representatives voted to kill the federal estate tax with a vote of 240-179 in favor of H.R. 1105. This week, the bill headed to the Senate where it faces an uncertain future. What is certain is that the federal estate tax is unpopular. It’s consistently ranked at the top of…
Tax fraud was in the news a lot this tax season. Many taxpayers kept asking why the bad guys were able to steal so much money so quickly. Part of the answer may be complicated, involving sophisticated hacking schemes. But part of the answer isn’t so complicated: our tax system practically invites fraud because of…
I do a lot of radio and other interviews this time of year and inevitably I’m asked why doing your taxes is so complicated. My answer is predictable, “The Tax Code is too complicated.” Of course, that’s easy to say. And the proof is easy to find. The National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson agrees,…
(Author’s note: It’s back! My former “Fix The Tax Code” feature encouraged you, as the reader, to chime in. After a brief hiatus, it’s back. I hope you’ll play along.) Each tax season, as taxpayers struggle over do-it-yourself returns and grumble about the costs of hiring a tax professional, there are calls to make returns…
It’s Fix the Tax Code Friday! This week, Warren Buffett continued to be all over the news for his statements about taxes for the very wealthy. In case you’ve missed it, Buffett has amped up the rhetoric on tax reform by suggesting that those in higher brackets benefit disproportionately from existing breaks in the Tax…
This week, from Bachmann to Obama, the focus has been on prices at the pump. It’s been suggested that a steep drop in gas prices would kick start an economic recovery. If that’s true, the question is how to make that happen. Realistically, the U.S. government only has so much control over the price of…
This month, Philadelphia voted to raise property taxes rather than impose a controversial sales tax on soda and sugary drinks, while New York won another round on its efforts to collect excise taxes from cigarettes sold by Indian nations. Other cities and states have struggled with similar questions when it comes to raising revenue. So today’s…
It’s the return of Fix the Tax Code Friday! Earlier this month, executives from Boeing Co., Sears Holding Management Corp., Emerson Electric Co. and Perrigo Co., told members of Congress that they would will be willing to give up tax breaks in exchange for a lower corporate tax rate. This is consistent with a recent…
Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of talk about states cutting spending. For example, in Wisconsin, there’s been a very public battle over labor union contracts while in New Jersey, the police force was cut in a city formerly referred to as the “murder capital of the U.S.” California has talked…