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Yes Ma’am, The Help, and Housekeeping

New Orleans        I haven’t been able to bring myself to see, The Help, a movie ostensibly set in the early 1960’s in Jackson, Mississippi where a young, white writer gives voice to her African-American maid friends during the Civil Rights era.  Fantasy has little appeal for me.  I did go to see the Gary [...]

IRS Finally Moves on Advocacy Gifts and Taxes: Pike’s Analysis

Tegucigalpa    The front page of the times indicated that both George Soros and the Koch brothers, the Daddy Warbucks of the right and the left, were among a small handful asked to defend their gifts to advocacy 501c4 organizations and why they should be not be required to pay 35% gift taxes. [...]

H&R Block, HSBC, & the end of RALs

New Orleans Refund Anticipation Loans or RALs are a product that have preyed on lower income worker families since their inception and promotion by the big tax preparers, H&R Block, Jackson-Hewitt, and Liberty, as well as smaller fry who could get access to credit.  Negotiating with these companies could get depressing when I worked [...]

Finally Regulating Tax Preparers

Octatel This may be a case of doing the right thing for the wrong reason, but under any circumstance, it is good news for the the 60% of American taxpayers who pay money to tax preparers for help with their returns:  the IRS finally announced that they are going to require certification and registration [...]

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