In Lubbock County, Texas, there’s talk of a tax increase. The increase is to be 1.7 cents per $100 for the next fiscal year, boosting the rate to 34.6 cents from the current rate of 32.9458 cents. The increases have been touted for a number of reasons. This week, on Fox TV, Lubbock County Judge…
So today was the day: SCOTUS has ruled on the Affordable Health Care Act (also called “the health care law” and “Obamacare”). The Supreme Court has backed the entire law on a 5-4 with Chief Justice Roberts as the swing vote. Predictably (well, for tax geeks like me), the decision hinged on a number of…
President Obama and the First Lady managed to do something that many taxpayers haven’t yet done: they have filed their federal income tax returns for the 2011 tax year (downloads as a pdf). Like most married couples, President Obama and the First Lady file as married filing jointly. They also itemized their deductions, something that…
You don’t grow up as a middle child without learning a few tricks of the trade. One of the most notable: if you have something to say that you know won’t go over very well, you wait until there’s a distraction. And with two brothers, there was always a distraction. This week, President Obama (who…
This week, after a number of news programs ran stories about free cell phones being distributed to welfare recipients, I received a bunch of inquiries asking whether it was true. Specifically, I was asked whether there were free “Obama phones” being distributed on the taxpayers’ nickel. Here’s the scoop: Yes, there is a law in…
Last night was the State of the Union speech as delivered by President Obama. Traditionally, the State of the Union speech is delivered once a year to both houses of Congress. For the last hundred years or so, the speech has been delivered in January of each year and is the President’s opportunity to address Congress…
It’s getting chilly in Pennsylvania… You can almost (almost) sense that Christmas is on the way. It’s no wonder then that President Obama would invoke the holiday spirit in his address from the Keystone State. Speaking from Scranton, Obama encouraged Congress to extend the existing payroll tax holiday. Originally, the extension looked dead in the…
Hooray! Christmas has been saved! Okay, a bit dramatic. But the hue and cry surrounding the so-called Christmas tree tax had reached such a fevered pitch by this afternoon that you could have assumed the very holiday itself was under attack. Rest assured, the holidays are still on track. Nonetheless, President Obama announced plans to…
Let’s say that you have a shot at your dream job. You’ve done your homework, you’ve put in the hours, you’ve managed to get through the interview. There’s just one more thing: your tax return. Your potential employer has asked to you to disclose your tax return with the understanding that the information on the…
In the midst of all of this birther nonsense, one man has been fixed in the spotlight and it’s not President Barack Obama. It’s Donald Trump. As you know, Trump has been at the forefront of the birther movement as of late and has taken credit for the release of Obama’s long-form birth certificate. At…