State and local tax news — from state income tax quirks to property tax fights, because not all tax battles happen in Washington.
V is for Voluntary Disclosure. I know what you’re thinking: this doesn’t apply to me because I don’t have offshore accounts. But don’t leave just yet. It’s not only taxpayers with offshore accounts that might qualify for voluntary disclosure programs. While most taxpayers are familiar with the 2012 Offshore Voluntary Program (and its predecessors, the…
I once spent about 15 minutes wandering up and down the aisles of the Superfresh grocery in Society Hill looking for a bottle of wine. No, I’m not picky. I just didn’t realize that you couldn’t buy wine in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania outside of the state-operated liquor store system (there is an exception for…
All of the taxes in the world don’t mean a thing if you can’t collect on them – or so many states and localities are figuring out these days. Taxing authorities from Tennessee to New Jersey are reporting shortfalls and lags in collections activities just as cuts from federal funding are being felt. Some taxing…
Every year, we expect to see a few glitches in tax filings, including software bugs and processing issues. Generally, those are resolved pretty quickly and without much interruption. This year, however, the Minnesota Department of Revenue has taken the rather remarkable step of advising taxpayers not to use Intuit products, including TurboTax, to file your…
On March 7, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, students, parents, labor allies, and community leaders will rally at the School District of Philadelphia to protest planned cuts to teacher contracts in the City. The proposal includes pay cuts of up to 13%, longer workdays, and no limits on class sizes. Additionally, under the plan, the…
Five days. That’s how long until the sequestration goes into effect. Sequestration, painted as one half of the worst thing ever, is a series of across the board federal cuts that are scheduled to occur if Congress doesn’t act to cut spending. And Congress hasn’t acted on spending since 2011 (when they voted not to…
On December 14, 2012, my mom and I traveled to my son’s elementary school to watch his holiday show. He performed with the other kids in his first-grade class. They sang songs about Christmas and Hanukkah and even got in a little drumming. It was adorable. I kissed him goodbye, ruffled his hair, and left….
We go through shoes in my house like paper towels. My kids love the outdoors and all of three of them play sports of some description (rugby, soccer, and field hockey are our current favorites). They beat up shoes. And, of course, I run, so I plow through running shoes on a fairly regular basis….
We’re #1! We’re #1! Oh, New Jersey]. I got a kick out of seeing many of my friends in social media posting about New Jersey’s most recent “honor”: Forbes recently reported that the state was tops in terms of exits. No, not those kinds of exits that Springsteen and Bon Jovi refer to… But exits…
Taxpayer asks: Where I live, you prepay property taxes by 6 months. So in 2012 I paid taxes In Jan and then in June. In July, I sold the house so at the closing I paid (I guess to the seller) the taxes for Jan-July that I occupied the house. Can I deduct these taxes…