"Richest" tax expenditures

A CNNMoney .com article of April 26, 2011 by Jeanne Sahadi , has the title " America's Richest Tax Breaks ." This caught my at...

California AB 509, EITC and Notice of Refund

The Assembly Revenue & Taxation Committee will discuss AB 509 at its May 2, 2011 hearing . AB 509 would require state agencies to do the...

NY Tax Law Defines "Sandwich"

I have blogged about this before - oddities of state sales tax rule definitions of what is taxable and what is not. For example, certain ...

Launch by SJSU MST Students of The Contemporary Tax Journal

I am very pleased to announce that the San Jose State University MST Program has launched a student-run, online tax journal. The Contemporar...

Proposal for Greater Taxing Authority for California Counties

California SB 653 proposed to give counties greater leeway over the types of taxes they can impose, subject to any required voter approval (...

Taxes and Car Insurance - Taxes in Our Daily Life

Someone recently pointed out to me this very short article - " 5 Ways Taxes Affect Your Car Insurance ." One notes that a tax lien...

Modernizing the California Tax System

An NBC Bay Area Editorial of April 15, 2011 - " Revamping our Revenue Model - Bringing California's Tax System Up to Date " by...

"Reduce spending in the tax code"

Last week (April 13, 2011), President Obama said , in his budget/fiscal policy plan speech, that one thing he wants to do is "reduce sp...

New White House Taxpayer Receipt and Its Limitations

The White House has created a website to enable individuals to enter their 2010 Social Security, Medicare and federal income taxes to get a ...

Reviewing the sales tax checklist

One certainty in tax practice is that sales-tax rules are never constant. Issues come up because of new types of transactions (such as cloud...

Testimony before House Ways & Means Committee

On April 13, 2011, I had the opportunity to represent the AICPA in testifying before the House Ways & Means Committee on the " Ta...

Why is the tax law complicated?

In trying, for my own benefit (and a future article), to identify the reasons for complexity, I come up with these: Too many provisions . Th...

President Obama and Deficit Related Tax Reform

In his speech on April 13, 2011, President Obama included tax reform in his plan to reduce the deficit. Per the White House fact sheet , the...

IRS Data for 2009 for Individuals

The IRS recently released some preliminary data for 2009 individual tax returns. I haven't had time to analyze all of it or crunch numbe...

IRS Commissioner Shulman and 21st Century Compliance

In a speech to the National Press Club on April 6, 2011, IRS Commissioner Shulman laid out the basics of a plan to improve compliance, audi...

Sales Tax Rate Increases in Some California Cities

The California Board of Equalization points out that effective April 1, 2011, the sales tax rate increases in 13 cities where voters approv...

Media, the public, election year - obstacles to a lower corporate tax rate?

I was surprised to learn yesterday while making a presentation about the basics of taxes to a general education financial literacy class at ...

Enterprise zones and the role of the tax system

I saw an interesting article in the Daily News (San Fernando Valley) - "Local entrepreneurs thrive in enterprise zones" by Dana ...

Millionaires and the Income Tax

Two recent stories are interesting as they relate to tax system design issues. How progressive should an income tax be? How does the distrib...

State tax revenues up, but budget and tax system problems remain

The US Census Bureau reported on March 29 that state tax collections were up in the fourth quarter, other than property taxes. A March 30 Wa...