A 60-year-old IRS agent has been ordered to pay $476,000 in damages after a former tenant sued him for invasion of privacy. The ruling was issued during a recent civil trial in Broward County. According to records, 27-year-old Miranda Goldston found a hidden camera in a DVD/VCR player that came with the three-bedroom townhouse she rented from Kenneth Ryals. The tiny camera hidden in the DVD/VCR was pointed a Goldston’s bed.
The hip-hop star/actress/Who Wants to be a Millionaire contestant (charity, we hope?) owes around $357k from four different liens, two filed by the IRS and two by the state of California from ’08 and ’09.
So let’s brainstorm to help get this girl out of trouble. Is Barbershop 3 in the works? The Glee thing seems to have gone okay but do TV gigs pay enough? She’s not making Seinfeld money after all. Is WWTBAM still a series? Maybe they’re running it in the old Soviet Bloc and she can get on it there…
Hip-hop star Eve hops over tax bill [Tax Watchdog]
As you know, the bane of small businesses across this great land, the 1099 reporting requirement, was repealed by the Senate earlier this month. Despite some maneuvering amongst Senators to be crowned the biggest champion of small business, it seems that everyone agreed that this little sliver of the healthcare reform bill needed to go.
Now the House has taken up the charge but The Hill reports on a portion of President Obama’s proposed budget that is already annoying the hell out of some:
President Obama’s fiscal year 2012 budget still contains a portion of the 1099 provision while eliminating the requirement for goods but retaining it for services. The proposal is expected to raise about $10 billion over 10 years.
The National Federation of Independent Business blasted the new 1099 proposal as a “bait and switch.”
“We are disappointed that the president has not clearly heard what small businesses are saying,” NFIB senior vice president of Federal Public Policy Susan Eckerly said in a statement. “We at NFIB remain committed to helping the president and Congress understand the needs of small business as the budget process moves forward.”
“The administration recognizes the burden that this expanded information reporting provision will put on small businesses and proposes to repeal the provision,” the document says. “Instead, the administration proposes that a business be required to file an information return for payments for services or for determinable gains aggregating to $600 or more in a calendar year to a corporation (except a tax-exempt corporation); information returns would not be required for payments for property.”
Apparently this video is from last year but whatevs. Since the new year is creeping up fast, it serves as a friendly reminder that all the tax jockeys out there carry some heavy responsibility, stimulating the economy year after year.
Okay, let’s forget about the refunds for two. What’s really worth noting is all the CPAs out there scarfing bagels and guzzling coffee from January until March/mid-April because their time is far to valuable to bother going to the grocery store to buy a piece of fruit. Then think about all the late night take-out. The profession is single-handedly keeping bagel shops, pizza joints and various Asian restaurants in business year after year.
Never mind that the refunds are a result of overwithholding, or anti-stimulus, the rest of the year. Actually, in a way, it underlines how all “stimulus” spending really works: it takes our money all year, and we’re supposed to feel stimulated when they give a little of it back.
So in reality, the only stimulus is CPAs giving a boost to various segments of the restaurant industry. It’s not ideal but it’s an annual boost they can rely upon, nonetheless.
