What movies, music, and celebrity headlines can teach us about taxes — Taxgirl’s take on tax in pop culture and the news.
Earlier in the week, I reported that entertainer Lauryn Hill was charged with failing to file tax returns for the years 2005, 2006 and 2007. I suggested that there was evidence in her background (specifically, statements made by her former Fugees bandmate and friend, Wyclef Jean) that might point towards mental illness or other related…
Lauryn Hill has been charged with failing to file three years’ worth of tax returns. The 37-year-old entertainer currently lives in South Orange, N.J. She first made waves as part of the group, the Fugees, which also boasted Wyclef Jean and rapper Pras Michel. The group’s second album, The Score, went multi-platinum, won a Grammy…
And all I get in the mail are credit card offers, Victoria’s Secret catalogs, and solicitations to renew memberships to the museum a year in advance… Ginny Hopkins gets all of the good mail, like a check from the Internal Revenue Service for $434,712. Pretty awesome, right? Only it wasn’t real (shocking, I know). The…
The 2012 NFL season is set to open in 121 days (not that I’m counting or anything). The game opener will be a showdown between my own Philadelphia Eagles rivals: the defending Super Bowl XLVI champion New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys. I think we know how this one is going to end already….
Happy Cinco de Mayo! Contrary to popular belief, Cinco de Mayo isn’t Mexican Independence Day – that’s on September 16 (be sure and drop that casually tonight over tequila and margaritas and you’ll sound super smart). It is, instead, the anniversary of the Mexican army’s victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the…
On the first season of CBS’ Survivor, Richard Hatch was quickly painted as the villain. He was, to many viewers, too cocky and too focused on winning. Despite his less than favorable reputation, Hatch went on to become the first ever Survivor winner. More than ten years later, Hatch has found out what it means…
On May 21, 1980, Katherina Reitz Brow was stabbed to death in her home in Ayer, Massachusetts. Three years later, the man accused of the crime was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. That man, Kenneth (“Kenny”) Waters, would serve eighteen years in jail for a…
I love marketers. And the marketers behind IRSTaxSurvivor.com must be geniuses. I can just hear the discussion now, over paper cups of cheaper-than-Starbucks coffee: Person 1: What’s scarier than IRS? Prison. So what makes for the scariest commercial ever? One that makes you think that the IRS will send you to prison. Person 2: Brilliant!…
On April 2, One L. Goh allegedly went on a shooting spree inside Oikos University in Oakland, California, killing seven students. That same day, federal agents were otherwise occupied, raiding a business less than a half a mile away. That business, Oaksterdam University, is a medical marijuana training school in a location where it is…
Happy Tax Day! It’s easy to focus on the whole writing a big check to Uncle Sam bit and have a sour taste in your mouth. But don’t despair! Tax Day also means free stuff. And free is good, right? Take advantage of some of the promos and specials running today in honor of Tax…