The Many Sizes of "Small"

It is amazing, and perhaps odd, that small businesses are defined in so many different ways in the federal tax law. The recently enacted Sma...

Tax Collection and the First Amendment

A ruling was handed down this week in the lawsuit between Amazon and North Carolina regarding the details of customer orders the state shoul...

Deficit Commission and Tax Expenditures

There is talk that President Obams's Deficit Commission might recommend curtailing of some tax expenditures! This would certainly be p...

Idaho Pumpkin Stand Debacle - Lessons to be Learned

In case you missed it, there was a story in a few newspapers this week about the Idaho Tax Commission closing down a pumpkin stand operated ...

Various Tax Measures on November 2 Ballots in Several States

California is not the only state with tax-related ballot measures to be decided by voters on November 2, 2010. The National Conference of S...

IRS Stats Group Posts Reports Dating Back to 1863

This week the IRS announced that it has posted some of its numerous historic statistical reports dating back to 1916 as well as the Commissi...

Cell Phone Pervasiveness and Tax Fairness - and Federalism Too

I think two actions of the past few weeks need to be linked in order to get a better sense of the tax policy issue and to determine whether ...

VAT - Economic Effects of More Investment and Less Consumption

The National Retail Federation released a study on October 14 on the likely effects of a VAT in the US. The VAT used in the study was model...

Tax System Equity and Tax Expenditures .. and Stanley Surrey Explanation

On October 11, 2010, the Washington Post ran an editorial entitled " The Current U.S. Tax System Is Tilted Toward the Haves ." It...

Chicago Bottled Water Tax and Blog Action Day 2010

October 15 is Blog Action Day serving the purpose of trying to get bloggers to all blog on the same topic on this day. The 2010 topic is w...

Taxpayer receipt or is there better information

I was intrigued by a September 2010 Idea Brief from The Third Way - A Taxpayer Receipt . This group would like to see the IRS add a feature ...

Trends and the Tax System - The Home Mortgage Interest Deduction

I think that a consideration of trends is helpful in reforming a tax system. For example, today's economy has become more global than in...

Lessons Learned - Tax Reform Act of 1986

What lessons do you think were learned from TRA'86? How might such lessons be relevant to tax reform efforts today? Please share your id...

Tax Reform Discussions in 2011?

A 9/29/10 article in The Hill - "Rep. Levin seeks early action on tax reform next year" reports that the House Ways & Means C...