Some of the greatest stories in America reach their dramatic finale in a courtroom. Who doesn't admire Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch standing up to racism in Jim Crow-era...
These days it seems like every day brings new controversy to further divide Americans: red states squaring off against blue states and partisanship crossing the line into...
If you pay attention to financial news, you can't escape hearing about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is just like country music, Justin Bieber, and pineapple on pizza —...
Take a look at our Internal Revenue Code. No, really, take a good look. (You can buy it on Amazon for just $161.89: two thick paperbacks totaling 4,968...
Wall Streeters have a lot to give thanks for this holiday season. Earnings are up, so bonuses are up. And that, in turn, means taxes are up, too. The...
If you were coaching your kid's basketball team, you wouldn't win many games if you told them to aim for the backboard. Your opponents might love you, but there...
Big-league baseball players like the ones who just wrapped up the World Series enjoy careers that last 5.9 years on average, and with 162 games per year, they enjoy...
Life is full of ups and downs, and sometimes the downs can be so low that it doesn't feel like there's ever going to be an up again. How...
Streaming TV services like Netflix have changed how we watch television, dropping an entire season of a series at once for us to binge on. They've even breathed new...
Fall is officially here, and that means whiskey season is back. Most drinkers probably don't think much about taxes when they visit their favorite bar or spirits shop. Liquor...
Some of the world's most popular board games give players the chance to live out professional fantasies. Aspiring property sharks can cheat each other with the classic Monopoly. Would-be...
Aretha Franklin left this world with a musical legacy for the ages. The Queen of Soul started singing for her father's "gospel carnival tours" at 12, cut her first...
This week's story is a briny chowder of petty vandalism, tax avoidance, partisan posturing, and flat-out misinformation. There's probably something in here to offend everyone. So buckle your seat...
Mother Nature knew exactly what she was doing when she made babies cute. In fact, evolutionary biologists at Oxford University recently concluded they evolved that way to survive by...
Parenting is full of all sorts of milestones. Some of them are precious, like your child's first steps, their first words, and their first day of school. Some of...
The best marriages, so they say, age like fine wine. They gain richness, and color, and depth. They ripen and mellow as experience piles upon experience, bonding the couple...
When Mark Zuckerberg was 19 years old, he launched Facebook from his Harvard University dorm room. (Some cynics might say "stole" is a better word than "launched," but who...
Classic rock fans celebrated a milestone birthday on July 26: Rolling Stones front man and rock legend Mick Jagger turned 75! If that doesn't make you feel old, try...
Earlier this month, archaeologists digging in Egypt unearthed a 2,000-year-old black granite sarcophagus 16 feet below the surface. Pretty cool, right? But then they announced they were going to...
When Congress raises the hood on the tax code, they're usually working to raise money to pay for government. But sometimes they're more interested in nudging us to behave...
Americans love a champion, and every year, sports fans get to see new champions crowned. We've got a World Series, a Super Bowl, and NBA finals that drag on...
A generation ago, "serious" filmmakers flocking to Hollywood set their sights on movies, not television. Visionary directors like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola redefined their craft with a...
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Bitcash, and Ethereum rest on a foundation of "blockchain": a continuously growing public transaction ledger consisting of records called "blocks" that are linked together and secured...
Last month, we wrote that New York money manager AllianceBernstein is moving its headquarters and 1,100 employees from a slick black Manhattan skyscraper to the steaming concrete jungles of...
Back in the early 80s, a group of Democratic legislators decided to room together to cut the cost of staying in Washington for the three nights or so per...
It's 1715 in the Caribbean and the Golden Age of Piracy is at its peak. The War of Spanish Succession is over, and thousands of privateers are left without...
On May 14, the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Betting Act that had made Las Vegas the only state where bettors could gamble on college...
Early on Saturday morning, 29 million Americans woke up to take a break from school shootings, Russian collusion, and partisan gridlock to watch a California woman achieve a rare...
Tax Day 2018 has come and gone. Have you cleaned up the mess from the celebration? Has your hangover faded into memory? Now all that's left is to box...
By all rights, "Tax Day" ought to be one of our favorite holidays, like "Christmas in April" without the carols, the hype, or the eggnog. That's because eighty percent...
The lights of Broadway have long shone bright as the show business capital of the United States. (Hollywood may have the movies, but it's just not the same. And...
Baseball is back in swing, and several teams have already made it clear that they won't be contending for playoff berths. The Cincinnati Reds are leading that sorry pack,...
Baseball is back, even as some teams are looking at early-season snow days. Little-leaguers across the land are donning gloves and getting ready to watch their favorite big-leaguers take...
Back in 1985, a group of ambitious lawmakers set out to reform the federal income tax code. House Ways & Means Chair Dan Rostenkowski introduced the legislation. (This was before he...
The rapper Cardi B grew up in the South Bronx's Highbridge neighborhood, where the median family income barely tops $27,000. Cardi, born Belcalis Armanzar, couldn't wait to get out....
St. Patrick's Day is here, and every "Irish for a day" tippler in your social circle will take advantage of this convenient excuse to haul grandma out of the...
The three-martini lunch has a long and mostly honorable history as a deductible business expense. As former President Gerald Ford once said, "Where else can you get an earful,...
We Americans have fought with our internal revenue code since 1913. But slicing and dicing income, deductions, and a dizzying array of business and personal credits is hardly the...
It's February, and love is in the air. Restaurants are advertising intimate specials for two. Florists are rolling out the red carpet. And in the greeting card racks across...
Country music embraces a long tradition of songs about sadness and ruin, heartbreak and pain. It just makes sense, then, that country sometimes runs afoul of the tax system....
When you think of "federal crime," you probably think of big-ticket offenses like mail fraud, identity theft, and tax evasion. But our criminal code is also full of, shall...
In 2016, SyFy debuted a new show called Incorporated about a dystopian future where corporations, not governments, rule the world. If that nightmare ever comes true, we all know...
In 2012, the singer Whitney Houston died suddenly, drowning in a hotel bathroom after years of battling drug addiction. Yet the world will always treasure her musical legacy. The...
NFL playoffs have begun, and Wild Card Week featured some real competition. On Saturday, the red-state Tennessee Titans barbecued the red-state Kansas City Chiefs, 22-21, and the red-state Atlanta...
Welcome to 2018! New Years' always brings changes to taxes. Key numbers, like tax brackets, standard deductions, personal exemptions, and qualified plan contribution limits, all roll over on January...
On Sunday, October 30, 1938, Mercury Radio Theatre fans, who were listening to Ramon Racquello and His Orchestra, were interrupted by a news broadcast reporting an odd explosion on...
Every year, PNC Bank publishes their "Christmas Price Index" to track the cost of the Twelve Days of Christmas. For 2017, it's a hefty $157,558. (And you thought...
Your kids have finally finished eating their Halloween candy, which means that the real holidays are right around the corner. But before you sit down to open presents, December...
Two hundred and forty one years ago, we declared our independence from Mother England — over taxes, of course. But here on our side of the pond, we've never...
April 15 hasn't always been the national exercise in self-flagellation that it is today. Up until the 1940s, you could just waltz into your local IRS office and they...
They say that "what goes up must come down." But that's not true when it comes to college costs. U.S. News reports the average private college tuition stood...
We've all got an image in our minds of who uses "offshore tax havens" to host their business. Let's say you're a junior-varsity Russian oligarch. You've spent a lifetime...
The streaming video service Netflix has earned a reputation for providing quality content like Narcos, Orange is the New Black, and The Queen. But Netflix has also upended how...
Former President Jimmy Carter once called our tax code "a disgrace to the human race," and there's really not a lot to like about it. There's at least some...
In today's new Gilded Age, Americans are constantly vying to one-up each other. You show up at your high-school reunion in a new Mercedes E-Class; then your classmate pulls...
Halloween is almost here, and if it seems like things have changed since you were a kid, you're right! Halloween has become big business, with the National Retail Federation...
Consumer surveys consistently show that CPAs are the most trusted financial advisors of all. But what happens in the rare instance when you can't trust your CPA? Nothing good,...
We live in an unfortunate era of disunity. Cultural divides, racial divides, religious divides, and political divides are threatening to tear America apart. Every so often, though, someone comes...
Most of us like to eat, even if we choose to deny ourselves this pleasure from time to time. And those of us with an entrepreneurial bent often dream...
"You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six." Yogi Berra
The calendar is full of little-known commemorations that probably escape your...Ordinarily we use this space for lighthearted stories that poke fun at the tax system and some of the clever ways that people endeavor to make it work for...
The 2017 college football season kicked off this week, and for most people that means talk of pre-season polls, Heisman trophy hopefuls, and BCS championship prospects. But we're not...
Where is "home"? Home is where the heart is. Home is wherever you make it. Home is wherever I'm with you. And, of course, I'll be home for Christmas....
One of the highlights of living in our technologically-advanced age is the ability to buy tools to do almost anything. If your kid fractures his arm playing baseball, you...
Mark Twain once said, "Never put off till tomorrow what may be done the day after tomorrow just as well." But Twain's advice doesn't always pay when it comes...
What were you doing at the end of your day on Friday, August 4? Were you knocking back a bottle of suds at your favorite happy-hour bar? Enjoying vacation...
When affluent clients want to pay less tax, they turn to accountants, attorneys, and financial advisors, among other advisors. And we can make a nice living helping clients accomplish...
One day back in March, 2002, Us Weekly editor Bonnie Fuller spotted a photo of actress Drew Barrymore bending over to pick a coin off the ground. A light...
Summer is here, so naturally, everyone's thinking about hockey. The Pittsburgh Penguins have just taken their second Stanley Cup in a row, and the rest of the NHL is...
Summer is here, and in most of the country, it's hot! The All-Star game has come and gone, dog days are right around the corner, and if your air...
Actress Alyssa Milano first gained fame playing Tony Danza's daughter on the television sitcom Who's the Boss. The show ran for eight seasons, snagged ten Emmy and five Golden...
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",...
Economic inequality is a hot topic in today's world. Researchers here and abroad consistently show the top 1% of earners gobbling a disproportionate share of gains throughout the world....
What scares Americans most? It's not the IRS, or public speaking, or even sharks. No, the answer, as you probably guessed, is snakes. Gallup once polled 1,016 American adults,...
Summer is almost here, and sports fans across America have a lot to look forward to. Basketball's 13-month-long season is (finally) starting to heat up. Hockey playoffs are coming...
Right now, all across America, thousands of talented youngsters are dreaming of careers in performing arts. Whether they aspire to be the next Meryl Streep, or Taylor Swift, or...
Every year on the first Saturday in May, an enormous crowd of socialites, "turf investors," and people just looking for a party descends on Churchill Downs for the Kentucky...
Americans are great at taking perfectly serviceable holidays and turning them into excuses for parties. On St. Patrick's Day, millions of Irish-for-a-day drinkers belly up to their favorite fake...
We've just made it through our annual exercise in self-flagellation known as "tax filing season." And who's fault is that? Don't blame the IRS, blame the Congress that wrote...
In 1935, Americans were mired in the depths of the Great Depression. Gross domestic product had shrunk from $103.6 billion in 1929 to $73.3 billion. Unemployment stood at a...
In 1982, Unilever came up with a catchy jingle to sell Klondike bars, a sort of Eskimo pie without a stick: "What would you do for a Klondike Bar?"...
Baseball is back! On April 2, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays spanked the visiting New York Yankees, 7-3, to kick off the 2017 season. Later that day, the defending...
Last week marked the end of an era as David Rockefeller, the last grandchild of Standard Oil baron John D. Rockefeller, died at age 101. Rockefeller, whose name was...
For decades now, governments across the world have struggled with where to impose taxes to raise the revenue they need to offer modern services. Should they simply raise rates?...
In Roman mythology, the hero Hercules used his divine strength to smash through the mountain that used to be Atlas. This created the Straits of Gibraltar, linked the Atlantic...
For generations, Americans fostered a culture of thrifty self-reliance, especially where it comes to taking care of our stuff. It started all the way back in pioneer days, and...
Every year, the IRS gives us a peek inside the wallets of the highest-earning 400 Americans. It's full of juicy facts like their average income ($318 million in...
The people who work at the IRS can be proud to do an important job. They're the "accounts receivable" department for the federal government, and whether you think we...
On January 20, 2008, AMC debuted a promising new drama called Breaking Bad. The series chronicled the highs and lows of high-school chemistry teacher Walter White, who was diagnosed...
On January 23, the IRS began accepting 2016 tax returns, and that means refund season is officially here. For 2017, the IRS expects 70% of Americans will get refunds,...
Last year, the Philadelphia City Council slapped a 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax on soda and artificially-sweetened drinks. The new tax, which became effective on January 1, sounds like something intended...
Back in 2004, Donald Trump was just another overextended real-estate developer with two divorces and four bankruptcies under his belt. That all changed with the debut of The Apprentice,...
(Hard to believe, right?) Last week, we presented three stories from the IRS Criminal Investigation unit's most recent annual report outlining their work to protect the Treasury's revenue from...
The IRS publishes hundreds of reports every year, covering all sorts of topics. You'll find routine statistical summaries, like the always-popular "Number of Individual Income Tax Returns, Income, Exemptions...
2017 is likely to be a big year for taxes. House Speaker Paul Ryan and President-elect Donald Trump haven't been shy about their New Year's resolutions to rewrite the...
If you have kids and you celebrate Christmas, you're probably familiar with the Elf on the Shelf — a storybook and accompanying doll that help encourage your little darlings...
'Tis the season to be jolly, and how jolly could we be without Christmas trees on display? For some of us it's the classic Pinus Sylvestris, or scotch pine....
December is a busy month for holidays, what with Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa all crowding calendars. But there's a lesser-known holiday that falls on December 16 that we don't...
Author F. Scott Fitzgerald, who brought us the Great Gatsby among other well-heeled characters, once said the rich are very different from you and me. To which Fitzgerald's jazz...
A hardy band of refugees board a leaky wooden boat, just 106 feet long to hold 132 of them, and set off for freedom across an unknown sea. Syrian...
Thanksgiving is a time for homecoming, and some of us are fortunate to return to a place where we've spent decades of holidays. Who wouldn't relish celebrating in a...
No matter who we voted for, we can all agree that this has been the nastiest presidential election since Thomas Jefferson called John Adams a hermaphroditic bastard. This week...
Given how long the 2016 presidential election season was, you're probably in one of two camps right now: ready to move to Canada, or relieved you don't have to....
The 2016 NFL season is in full swing, and fans are spending billions of dollars to show their loyalty to their teams. The average ticket costs $92.98. The average...
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...
Americans love awards shows — the Oscars, the Grammys, the Emmys, and the Tonys. So we all watched eagerly as the nonpartisan Tax Foundation rolled out the red carpet...
If you've spent any time on the internet, you know it's a vast rabbit hole of places to waste precious minutes of your life. "Will it Blend" is...
Last month, Hollywood brought back the classic western with a remake of The Magnificent Seven. It's a tale as old as the West itself. An evil land baron terrorizes...
America is a nation divided. Cat people vs. dog people. Trump people vs. Clinton people. And last week, we discovered a new gulf to bridge: "Brad" people and "Angelina"...
Matt Bissonnette grew up in a dinky flyspeck of a town off the Alaskan coast that you can't get to without a boat or a plane. He ultimately escaped...
Labor Day has faded into memory, and before you know it, the holidays will be here. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the year-end Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa cavalcade of commercialism are the obvious "Big...
Novelist Tom Clancy shot to the top of the best seller lists when former president Ronald Reagan called his debut, The Hunt for Red October, "the best yarn." His...
Now's the time of year when kids across America start heading back to school. New kindergartners eagerly don their snazziest big-kid outfits to pose for smiles and pictures. (The...
For awhile there, it looked like the just-concluded Rio Olympics would be a carnival of chaos. Golfers boycotting to avoid the Zika virus? Check. Swimmers making their way through...
The Mafia. The Mob. La Cosa Nostra. Call it what you will, this "certain Italian-American subculture" has a long and storied history. Mobsters like Al Capone, Henry Hill, and...
Americans can't seem to get enough of reality television. Most critics think that's because reality TV presents us as we all aspire to be. Something about the camera seems...
If you're like most Facebook users, you get plenty of friend requests from people who aren't really friends. Co-workers you never respected from your last job; classmates you never...
Americans love peeking into the wallets of the rich and famous. Just how much are they really worth? How did they get there? And who's on top of the...
Let's say the IRS decides they don't like your tax return from a couple of years ago. They audit you, and send you a "deficiency notice" for, say, $10,000....
The dog days are here, and multiplexes across America are delighting audiences with the usual summer fare. Down to the left in Theatre Three, a motley crew of undersea...
Harry Potter's sidekick Ron Weasley has challenged opponents from a mountain troll to the Horcruxes to the Death Eaters. Now the actor who plays him, 27-year-old Rupert Grint, is...
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...
Country music has a long history of celebrating outlaw behavior, which naturally extends to celebrating "outlaw" performers. Plenty of fans have heard the album Johnny Cash recorded of his...
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...
When most of us hear the word "tax," we immediately think "IRS." It's natural to associate those three-letter words with each other (even if "IRS" is an acronym and...
Humorist Dave Barry entertained millions of readers with his nationally syndicated column from 1983 to 2004. Along the way, he earned a Pulitzer Prize for commentary, inspired a television...
Spring is here, and golfers across the country are busting out their loudest pants to hit the links. Tiger Woods is taking a break from chasing pancake-house waitresses to...
Every year, business reporters look forward to listing the country's highest-paid CEOs. Corporate chiefs have always done well for themselves — in 1980, the average S&P 500 head earned...
Backgammon is an ancient game of dice, strategy, and skill. The name dates back to the 1600s, but the game itself goes back to the Byzantine Emperor Zeno (AD...
The artist forever to be remembered as Prince shocked the world with his unexpected death last month at his Paisley Park compound outside Minneapolis. As is often the case...
For most of us, filing a tax return is a fairly private affair, just between us and our friends at the IRS. But for President Obama and his family,...
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...
Last Sunday, the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism stunned the world with their release of findings from 11.5 million files leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. The...
If you're not already one of the millions of Americans with a smartphone glued to your hands, this story may make you reconsider . . . . Vermont Senator Bernie...
Spring is here, at least according to the calendar, and you probably aren't thinking much about Eskimos as April 15 approaches. But here's a fun story from the Wayback...
You already know that our Congress is as gridlocked as at any time in recent history. Budget and spending bills get rolled up into year-end monstrosities. Urgent priorities like...
The passing of former First Lady Nancy Reagan last week at age 94 marks a bit of an end to the 1980s. Nancy earned both praise and criticism for...
The actress Sally Field has appeared in dozens of television and movie roles since first appearing as "Gidget." But she's perhaps best known for a 45-second acceptance speech at...
March 2 marks the birthday of Theodore Geisel — better known to millions of children and former children as Doctor Seuss. That's reason enough to celebrate. But the beloved...
How much is a classic bright-red Ferrari worth? Well, if it's the 1957 335 S Spider Scaglietti that the French Bardinon family auctioned earlier this month, the answer is...
Anyone who's ever watched a gangster movie knows there's nothing worse than a rat . . . a snitch . . . a stool pigeon. Life is hard for...
Football fans who enjoyed Super Bowl 50 all know that while offense may sell tickets, it's defense that wins championships. The Carolina Panthers learned this lesson the hard way...
Rock & roll fans lost an icon last month with the death of David Bowie just two days after his 69th birthday. Bowie made a career out of breaking...
Way back in 1889, the inventor Thomas Edison and the financier J.P. Morgan put their heads together to create the Edison General Electric Company. Just seven years later, it...
Centuries ago, medieval alchemists used all the technology at their disposal to try to transform base elements like lead into precious substances like gold. Occasionally they even succeeded! Alas,...
Golf courses may be some of the most beautiful manmade environments on earth. Millions of Americans actually hate the game itself, but tolerate topping their drives, shanking their wedges,...
Back in the Gilded Age, an ambitious social climber and noted toady named Ward McAllister coined the phrase "the Four Hundred," named for the number of people that Manhattan...
The 2016 presidential election is almost here. Are you excited yet? (Some cynics would say the campaign actually started as long ago as November 7, 2012 — the day...
"Bar Rafaeli" sounds like a happening watering hole in a trendy part of Brooklyn — the kind of place where bearded hipsters rocking flannel shirts and man-buns tip back...
The holiday season is in full swing, and we expect you're on your best behavior to make Santa's nice list. But there's one famous guy who works harder than...
Back in 2002, Steve Epstein, the director of the Pentagon's Standards of Conduct Office, faced a common dilemma among ethics officials: how to keep his training sessions fresh and...
Turn the dial on the Way-Back Machine to the days of the Great Depression. Millions of Americans are jobless, struggling just to eke out a living. But one man...
Last month, millions of fans across America sat down in front of their televisions to watch the Kansas City Royals beat the New York Mets, 4 games to 1...
Few figures from recent history loom larger than British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, "the Last Lion." He spent "the wilderness years" of the 1930s fighting the Conservative Party's leadership,...
How big a tax bill would you have to pay before it really hurt? Would sending the IRS $10,000 do it? What about $100,000? What about $1 million? Would...
Every so often a new show hits Broadway with lights that shine brighter than the rest. In 1996, Rent celebrated a group of impoverished East Village artists struggling to...
Paying your taxes is one of those responsibilities that most of us accept when the time comes. Sure, we grumble about it. But we pay, then get on with...
Here in the United States, Uncle Sam imposes a "progressive" income tax. As your income goes up, so does your tax rate. However, those rates go up incrementally. If...
Every once in awhile, some knucklehead in a position of power at one of the world's biggest businesses does something so incredibly stupid, you wonder how they can remember...
Last month, one of the most truly American lives came to an end at age 90. Baseball legend Lawrence "Yogi" Berra was a superstar both on and off the...
Imagine you're a hardworking pot dealer just trying to operate an honest shop in the newly legal marijuana industry. You get audited, and the examiner hits you with a...
Coca Cola has earned a lot of headlines for their "Share a Coke with . . . " marketing campaign, printing bottles and cans with 1,000 of the most...
Turn on the financial news and you'll hear all sorts of explanations for the stock market's ups and downs. Oh no, the Fed's going to raise rates! Oh no,...
This year, as usual, millions of American tourists took advantage of summer vacation to travel abroad. Favorable exchange rates made European destinations especially attractive. Seeing Old World cultures gives...
Sports fans go nuts this time of year. Baseball fans are watching pennant races heat up; football fans are watching the NFL take the gridiron to kick off the...
Employers have played a key role in financing their employees' healthcare since World War II, when they threw in tax-free benefits to attract talent in a time of wage...
It seems like every day brings word of a new internet hack or data breach. Target got hacked by Russian teenagers and millions of credit cards had to be...
Campaign 2016 is here! Last Thursday, 10 Republican presidential candidates squared off against each other in Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena, tackling such crucial topics as hugs, pimps, and Rosie...
On July 23, NASA announced the discovery of Kepler-452b, the first potentially Earth-like planet within the "habitable zone" of a star like our Sun. Kepler-452b is 1,400 light-years away,...
Back in 2010, British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and spilled millions of barrels of oil off the Louisiana coast. Countless small business owners, including fishermen, hotel operators,...
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...
We tend to think of the Internal Revenue Service mainly as Uncle Sam's "collections department." But it's also a true law enforcement agency. Special agents from the Criminal Investigations...
You know what's even worse than paying tax on money you make? Try taking a loss on money you lose. Make $100, pay a 40% tax, and you've still...
Us Weekly is one of those glossy tabloid magazines you see in the checkout line at your local supermarket. Every week, they run a photo feature called "Stars: They're...
June is Graduation Season, and odds are good that you've spent some time seated on a cheap folding chair or arena bleacher watching someone proceed down an aisle in...
For two weeks every spring, the tennis world focuses its attention on Roland Garros, the Parisian center that hosts the French Open. This year, fans yawned as the dominant...
Picture a greedy cabal of shameless officials lording over a famously corrupt international cartel. Add suitcases full of cash bribes, and multimillion-dollar payoffs coursing through a shadowy network of...
Memorial Day came early this year, and that means we get more time with our summer whites! (Of course, summer doesn't "officially" start until June 21, but who's counting?)...
Late-night talk-show host David Letterman has delighted audiences with his wry, subversive sense of humor for an impressive 33 years. But this week he bids us farewell. We'll remember...
New York City is the indisputable hub of American capitalism. Its glittering streets are home to the worlds of finance, advertising, fashion, publishing, and even organized crime. The island...
Americans have been complaining about income taxes since the IRS unleashed the first Form 1040 on us back in 1913. Sure, we all hate paying them. But as the...
Last week, a New York judge issued writs of habeas corpus on behalf of two chimpanzees named Hercules and Leo, currently living in a research lab at the State...
You've bought a lottery ticket or two in your time, right? The Powerball jackpot hits a kajillion dollars, and you realize you really can't win if you don't play....
Every year, the IRS Criminal Investigations unit (IRS-CI) releases a surprisingly entertaining report detailing their efforts to protect the Treasury from scammers, fraudsters, and cheats. This year's edition reveals...
The 2016 presidential election is 20 months away. Sadly, for those of us who don't watch C-SPAN for fun, that basically means it's right around the corner. (Keep a...
This time of year, taxpayers across America are scrambling to put together their last year's mileage records. First you've got to total up how many miles you drove for...
Who hasn't wanted to be a spy at some point or another? Boys see their first James Bond movie, and they don't want to be like 007 — they...
You know that sinking feeling. You're driving down the road, minding your own business, when you see a cop's "cherries and berries" flashing in your mirror. Then you look...
Actor Robert DeNiro has played some of the most compelling characters in movie history: the schizophrenic ex-marine Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, the young mob boss Vito Corleone in...
Taxpayers across much of the midwest and east coast have enjoyed a relatively light winter this year, with mild temperatures and little snow. But Old Man Winter made up...
State governments collect billions of dollars in taxes every year, and they work just as hard to protect their revenue base as their friends at the IRS. Sometimes that...
You probably thought the holiday season ended when the last Christmas lights finally came off the house. But then you would have forgotten the closest thing we have to...
Getting mail from the IRS is rarely something to celebrate. If it's a bill, consider yourself lucky — at least you can just pay it and be done. If...
Here in America, most of our tax debates center on "income." How do we define it? How do we count it? What do we get to exclude from it,...
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,...
College football fans have been crying for a season-ending playoff tournament for years, to replace the invitational "bowl championship" series that usually prompted as many questions as it answered....
Most of us don't get to choose our parents. And while we're usually grateful for the ones we have, we've also dreamed of lives that might have been. What...
The Imitation Game is the critically acclaimed story of Alan Turing, a British mathematician who is widely credited as being the father of computer science and artificial intelligence. Benedict...
Every year, PNC Bank publishes their "Christmas Wealth Index" to track the cost of the Twelve Days of Christmas. For 2014, it's $116,273.06, up 1.4% from 2013. (And you...
"Christmas comes this time each year," as the Beach Boys astutely observed in "Little Saint Nick." That means Santa Claus will be making his annual "list," checking it twice,...
We know something that's on your holiday shopping list. And we don't even have to read your mind to know it. You're buying batteries — and you're buying lots...
Our United States of America was forged in the flame of tax protest. As early as 1750, our Founding Fathers objected that taxation without representation is tyranny. In 1776,...
Back in 1982, Forbes magazine compiled their first "Forbes 400" list of the richest Americans. It took $75 million to gain entry to that first list, which featured an...
Harold Hamm was born in Lexington, Oklahoma, the 13th child of Oklahoma sharecroppers. He graduated from high school then went straight to work in an oilfield. But he didn't...
In 1836, Mexican General Santa Anna and 1,500 troops laid seige against 182 Texans garrisoned at the Alamo, a Spanish mission designed to resist attack from native tribes. Thirteen...
We're all familiar with the idea of "tax exempt" organizations. The theory here is that some groups serve such valuable roles in society that they should be exempt from...
The 1985 Chicago Bears were one of the greatest teams in NFL history — in fact, ESPN ranked them the greatest ever. Quarterback Vince McMahon, Hall-of-Fame running back Walter...
Most of us would rather have a root canal without anesthesia than face an IRS audit. Fortunately, your chances of winding up in that particular hot seat are fairly...
Everyone knows what a hobby is, right? It's something you do to relax and have fun, not something you do as an occupation. And everyone knows what a business...
Last week, New York Yankee shortstop and future Hall-of-Famer Derek Jeter played his last Major League Baseball game. He chopped a single to third in the third inning to...
MTV's Jersey Shore premiered in late 2009 and quickly became the network's most-watched series ever. Cast members Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, Jennifer "JWoww" Farley, and their...
The personal finance website mint.com reports the average American woman spends $15,000 on makeup in her lifetime, including $3,770 on mascara, $2,750 on eyeshadow, and $1,780 on lipstick. Americans...
The world of comedy lost a giant this month. Joan Rivers may have topped out at just 5'2" and weighed 110 pounds soaking wet, but when it comes to...
Silicon Valley's high-tech employers are famous for feeding their employees at work. It's not entirely selfless — feeding people helps attract talented workers and keep them chained to their...
Takisha McGee works (at least for now) as a Section Manager for the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility, where their mission is to "interpret and apply the standards of...
The last Saturday in August is International Bacon Day here in the United States. (Yes, it's really a thing.) Hang your bacon decorations and warm up your voice for...
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...
Robert Redford has thrilled movie audiences for decades. He's breathed life into iconic roles like the outlaw Sundance from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He's won two Oscars,...
Football fans can rejoice — the NFL is finally back! On Sunday night, the New York Giants defeated their cross-state rivals from Buffalo, 17-13, in a meaningless pre-season contest....
On July 23, Batman turned 75! Everyone knows how the billionaire industrialist Bruce Wayne dons a bat-like costume to protect Gotham City from supervillains like The Joker, The Penguin,...
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...
Cleveland, Ohio has historically been one of America's most populous and productive cities, peaking as the fifth-largest back in 1920. Today, "C-town" is a shadow of its former glory,...
The IRS currently has nearly 90,000 employees — about the population of Springfield, OH, or Muncie, IN. The vast majority of them are honest, hardworking civil servants, doing their...
Here in the United States, we think our Super Bowl is the biggest sporting event around. Every four years, though, we're reminded that there are nearly seven billion other...
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,...
This is a big week for taxes and technology. State "insurance exchanges" are scheduled to open for business under the Affordable Care Act, which lets consumers sign up for...
When you hear the word "tax," you probably think of something the IRS takes out of your paycheck. Or you might think of something they take out of an...
If you get an IRS audit notice, you probably expect to spend hours responding to endless document requests, visiting bland government offices, and meeting with faceless bureaucrats. You might...
Every year, the IRS Criminal Investigation unit releases an annual report detailing how they pursue and prosecute tax-law violations. It's full of the usual dry statistics you...
Labor Day has come and gone, and, while fall isn't "officially" here, it's time to put away those summer whites. Never mind that the mercury is still hitting 100...
When people misbehave — badly enough — they go to jail. But when corporations misbehave, they can't go to jail. So they pay fines instead. Recent years have brought...
Let's start by saying that no one likes getting audited. But the average income tax audit isn't the end of the world. For tax year 2012, the IRS audited...
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...
Benjamin Franklin famously said that "three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead." And that was before the National Security Agency and other government agencies could...
August is almost here, and golf season is in full swing. Duffers are filling the air with curses as colorful as their outfits. Tiger Woods is taking a break...
Let's imagine, just for a minute, that you decided on a new line of work: ripping off the IRS. How do you think you would launch your new business?...
Junior high school is a difficult time for parents as well as students. It's a time when boys start to discover girls, and girls start to discover boys. (Reports...
The acting world lost one of its brightest lights when Sopranos star James Gandolfini died of a sudden heart attack while touring Italy with his family last month. Gandolfini...
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...