What movies, music, and celebrity headlines can teach us about taxes — Taxgirl’s take on tax in pop culture and the news.
In the end, simply paying the tax wasn’t enough. Despite assurances to the court today that her outstanding tax liabilities had been paid in their entirety, Lauryn Hill was slapped with a three-month stint in prison for failing to file and pay taxes on time. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge…
Today – or maybe tomorrow, depending on who you ask – is the 80th birthday of country music legend Willie Nelson (he says today but his birth certificate says tomorrow). He’s been making music since 1956 and his songs are so ubiquitous that even folks who don’t like country music can name a few. And…
As it turns out, it wasn’t Lauryn Hill’s final hour after all. The singer was set to be sentenced earlier this week for failing to pay back taxes but her sentencing has been postponed for two weeks in order to make restitution. Hill was initially charged with failing to file three years’ worth of tax…
Today is April 20 or 4/20. If I get a blank stare with that proclamation, then you’re among the millions of Americans who are outside of counterculture. You see, 420 is famously (or infamously, depending on who you ask) associated with the celebration of marijuana. While there are dozens of theories about how the date…
Wesley Snipes is a free man… mostly. TMZ is reporting that the 50-year-old film actor has been released from prison. According to the popular site, Snipes was released on April 2 and transferred to the New York Community Corrections Office. He will be on house arrest thereafter until July 19. If my math is correct,…
Pop star Justin Bieber raised eyebrows this week for his bizarre swipe at Lindsay Lohan. After being compared to the troubled Lohan in the press, Bieber took to the social media site Instagram to badmouth the Mean Girls star, saying, among other things: “to those comparing me to Lindsay Lohan look at her 2012 tax…
And you thought you were having a tough tax season… Channing Gould, age 19, was arrested this week after he was shooed off of a corner at North Tarrant Parkway and Park Vista Boulevard in Fort Worth, Texas. Gould was accused of disrupting traffic, a charge he disputes. Gould says he was simply doing his…
Oh, I do love it when famous people talk about tax. (Stay with me on this one… It takes a little bit.) Two of my favorite actresses/comic geniuses, Tina Fey (who made Forbes’ list of the Most Powerful Female Celebrities of 2012) and Amy Poehler, hosted the Golden Globes in January. During the show, they…
(Update: A reader sent an email last night suggesting that Pacquiao’s manager’s tax calculation of $10 million was too high since all of Pacquiao’s income would not be taxed at the highest tax rate. To clarify, that is correct since we have a progressive tax system (and, as was pointed out to me in the…
This year, you can bet on everything from the winning team to who will score first and which Harbaugh brother – or both – will sport a cap during the game. What does all of this mean come tax time?