Accounting Trends

"You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six." Yogi Berra

Businesses generally try to get the highest price possible for their products. It's called "capitalism," and it generally works to establish "equilibrium prices" between knowledgeable buyers and willing sellers....

In 1984, the documentary filmmaker Marty Di Bergi scored a hit with This is Spinal Tap, a look inside Britain's loudest band and their 1982 Smell the Glove concert...

November 2nd, 1995, was a delicious day in television history. That's when Jerry Seinfeld and the rest of his gang introduced us to the "Soup Nazi",...

Spend an afternoon at any area theater, and you'll see heroes with superpowers wreaking havoc wherever they go. Superman is faster than a speeding bullet (and leaps tall buildings...

Filing your tax return usually isn't much of a chore. If you're like most people, you e-file it and call it a day. (Maybe you cross your fingers in...

Words like "hero" and "icon" get tossed around pretty casually these days. But the world lost a true card-carrying legend with the passing last week of boxer Muhammed Ali...

Lots of states get a bad rap. California is too flaky. New Yorkers are too unfriendly. North Dakota is too cold. (Wait a minute . . . you mean...

Nina Olson is the most important person you've never heard of at the IRS. She's the "National Taxpayer Advocate," and she heads up an organization created to cut through...

Way back in 1963, the singer Andy Williams introduced one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time: "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year." Decades later,...

America's biggest companies fight like tigers for surprisingly tiny advantages. Grabbing as little as a single extra percent of market share can mean millions in new revenue, especially in...

Someday, the financial wizards who run things on Wall Street will realize there's "paper to be stacked" opening an Investor Hall of Fame. (Hey, the Rock and Roll Hall...

If you've spent any time online lately, you're familiar with so-called "listicles" — those irresistible lists of trivial facts that pass for "online content" these days. You know what...

Back when you were a kid, your mom said you'd catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. (We're not sure why she thought you'd want to catch flies...

Why did Willie Sutton rob banks? Because that's where the money is, of course. Why does the IRS focus its attention on income taxes? Same reason! For fiscal 2014,...

If you're like millions of Americans, you spent last weekend welcoming the unofficial start of summer. (Time to start wearing white again!) You might have enjoyed a day at...

Politicians in Iowa, like politicians everywhere, want to encourage their local economy to grow. (Happy voters lead directly to reelection, of course.) But back in 2008, construction in Iowa,...

The former Soviet republic of Ukraine has become the world's hottest military and diplomatic flashpoint as Ukrainian nationalists face off against pro-Russian separatists. Russian President Vladimir Putin courteously waited...

Two weeks ago, few Americans had heard of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Now, thanks to Sterling's big mouth, we're all talking about him. As President Barack Obama...

In 2003, country music superstar Toby Keith released "I Love This Bar," the first single from his Shock'n Y'All album. (For those of you under age 25 or so,...

Donald Rumsfeld may be one of the most controversial figures of our time, but you have to respect his resume. He won a seat in Congress at an age...

The calendar may say that spring officially begins on March 21. But for millions of golfers across the country, the season didn't really start until this weekend — specifically,...

Getting an audit notice is never anyone's idea of fun. But getting audited isn't always the disaster it might seem. In fact, for fiscal 2012, 107,820 lucky winners got...

It seems like every day brings new questions about the digital currency called bitcoin, which first appeared in 2009. Who is the shadowy "Satoshi Nakamoto" who created the currency's...

Last week, we talked about the IRS Criminal Investigation unit's Fiscal 2013 annual report. We told you about four of the 2,812 offenders who drew prison sentences for their...

Most of the Internal Revenue Service's 90,000 employees are financial bureaucrats, working to collect the taxes that finance our government. But the Criminal Investigations unit, or IRS-CI, is an...

Modern-day salvagers can spend years to find centuries-old treasures. Mel Fisher spent 16 years searching for the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha, which sank in a hurricane off...

Sunday night, millions of movie fans across the globe tuned in as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences presented the 86th Academy Awards. Viewers were amazed that...

The Swedish pop band ABBA rocketed to global superstardom in the 1970s, with hits like Waterloo, Fernando, and, of course, Dancing Queen. Named for members Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus,...

If you're like most of us, you've spent at least some time over the past couple of weeks watching the games of the 22nd Winter Olympiad. Who cares if...

Managing the Internal Revenue Service is no easy job. It takes a lot of automation to process over two hundred million tax returns per year. And, while the Service...

On Sunday, quarterback Peyton Manning led his uncharacteristically hapless Denver Broncos to the second-most-lopsided Super Bowl loss ever. Manning & Company just couldn't catch a break, from the safety...

When you think of France, you probably think of food. The French are known throughout the world for their truffles, foie gras, and fine champagne. French chefs have spread...

So-called "tax protestors" have dreamed up dozens of excuses for not paying the taxes the rest of us grumble about. They argue that the Sixteenth Amendment, which authorizes the...

On September 1, 1914, "Martha," the last remaining passenger pigeon (ectopistes migratorius), died at the Cincinnati Zoo. On September 7, 1936, "Benjamin," the last Tasmanian tiger (thylacinus cynocephalus), died...

They say that knowledge is power, and that's especially true with taxes. So here's a quick quiz to test your tax knowledge in 2014. But look out — the...

2014 is here, and it's time for New Years' resolutions. Americans across the country are pledging to lose weight, quit smoking, exercise, and find new jobs. Some of them...

2013 has been a big year for taxes. The "fiscal cliff" deal boosted the top federal income tax rate to 39.6%; "Obamacare" added new taxes on top earners; and...

Christmas is almost here, and that means millions of parents across America are telling their kids to behave themselves or risk winding up on the "Naughty List." (Admit it...

Tax collectors generally don't choose their line of work for the pay. Glassdoor.com, a gossipy website covering salaries and careers, reports the average Revenue Agent earns $73,967. Careerbliss.com tells...

December is here, and for millions of college football fans, that means following their favorite coach to a New Year's bowl game. In Birmingham, Alabama's Nick Saban is reeling...

Back in 1621, a group of hardy Pilgrims sat down for a three-day festival of thanksgiving to celebrate surviving plague, starvation, cold, scurvy, Indian attack, and all the other...

In Shakespeare's most recognized tragedy, the star-crossed lover Juliet asks "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Now,...

Psychologists agree that the ability to concentrate is key to achieving our goals. But today's high-tech world is full of distractions, from thousands of cable TV channels to millions...

Law reviews are scholarly journals focusing on legal issues, usually edited by students at a particular school. America's law schools currently crank out hundreds of different reviews, which means...

It's Week Nine of the 2013 football season, and millions of Americans are following every play. The Kansas City Chiefs are still undefeated. The New York Giants have finally...

It's safe to say that people don't like paying taxes. America was born out of a tax rebellion, and Americans have resisted every variety of tax ever since. Some...

Back in grade school, you did all sorts of math problems. You started out with drills to learn your basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication. You learned long division (ugh)....

People lose things all the time. Usually it's no big deal. We misplace our phone, keys, or sunglasses — then they show up an hour or a day later,...

Back in 2007, a Los Angeles judge sentenced actress Lindsay Lohan to one day in jail for misdemeanor drunk driving and cocaine charges. California's prisons are notoriously crowded, so...

Getting an audit notice from the IRS isn't anyone's idea of a party. But it's not the end of the world. Usually the auditor just wants to make sure...