The unintended, absurd tax quirks brought about by the application of the Alternative Minimum Tax in the 39 years of its rocky existence are too numerous to describe. But suffice it to say, the AMT has done more than any single tax provision in history to contribute to the tax code’s suffocating complexity and unwieldiness. [...]
Tags: Alternative Minimum Tax · Individual Taxation · Legislative Watch · Tax Policy
“Where does he get such wonderful toys?” – The Joker Paul Caron of TaxProf Blog reminds me of Batman. He always manages to find the most interesting toys. A couple of days ago he found the 1040 Jigsaw Puzzle and today he blogged about a sure to be popular item in the stockings of tax accountants [...]
Tags: Tax Humor
Did you ever wonder why the IRS prevails in trials before the United States Tax Court in 9 out of 10 cases. The more paranoid among us will attribute the IRS’s lopsided success rate to a silent conspiracy between the Court and the government. But the truth is more benign. More than 80% of all Tax [...]
Tags: Court Cases · Tax Litigation · Taxpayer Rights
Once again on TaxProf Blog I find a link to an interesting tax article, 20 Reasons to Kill the Corporate Tax, written by (fellow Greek?) James Pethokoukis of U.S News and World Report. Here are Pethokoukis’ more interesting (and rarely mentioned) reasons for eliminating the corporate income tax: 4. Some 70 percent of the corporate tax burden is [...]
Tags: C Corporations · Corporate Tax
“Mr. President, I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Depending on the breaks.” -General Buck Turgidson- Dr. Tax-O-Sphere put his stethoscope in his ears and listened for the heart beat of tax nerds. Here is what he found: The Tax Girl [...]
Tags: Dr. Tax-O-Sphere · Tax Blogging
Former IRS examiner John Snyder isn’t an actor, but it takes less than six links to tie him to Kevin Bacon. Paul Caron of TaxProf Blog posted today that John Snyder, the IRS examiner who had taken peeks at the federal income tax returns of celebrity Kevin Bacon and hundreds of other celebrities, was [...]
Tags: News · Tax Crimes
The Tax Foundation has launched a program called CompeteUSA designed to educate the public on the adverse impact of high business taxes. [CompeteUSA's] goal is to raise the public’s awareness of America’s high business taxes and how those taxes are affecting our competitiveness, wages, and living standards. The wages and living standards of American workers are [...]
Tags: Announcements · C Corporations
