Tax Planning

And the Gold Goes To . . . !

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 the host city Sochi, a Black Sea beach resort, is warmer than Miami, Florida? 2,800 athletes from 88 countries have traveled to compete in 98 events, and the world is a better place for the fellowship.

Olympic games are famous for sports we don't usually see anywhere else. In the summer games, we get rhythmic gymnastics (dancing with a ribbon), dressage (dancing with a horse), and trampoline (dancing on a trampoline). In the winter games, it's ice dancing (to give you your dancing fix), biathlon mixed relay (dancing on cross-country skis with guns), and curling. (You don't have to appreciate dancing to enjoy curling, but it does help to be Canadian.)

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Adding Insult to Super Bowl Injury

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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 they gave up on the game's first play, to Manning's two interceptions, to Percy Harvin's second-half kickoff return, to . . . you get the picture. So, Manning didn't walk away with that hoped-for second Super Bowl ring. But at least he walks away with the $46,000 bonus the NFL awards to losing players.

Or does he? Well, here's the deal. It turns on two things:

New Jersey, like most states, tackles visiting athletes with a "jock tax."

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Thoughts on Taxes for 2014

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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 dozens of state and local governments raised their taxes, too. Congress will finish 2013 even more divided than it began, which will probably protect us from new taxes next year. But here are some quotes to ease the sting of this year's higher bills:

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#Windfall

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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 of internet sites, with smart phones constantly within reach. Some experts say our attention span is actually shrinking. So should it be any surprise that Americans have fallen in love with Twitter, the online social networking and "microblogging" site that lets users send and read "tweets" limited to no more than 140 characters?

Twitter attracted confusion (and no small amount of scorn) when it debuted in 2006 — co-founder Jack Dorsey admitted that the service is "a short burst of inconsequential information." But there are now more than 200 million "monthly active users" posting more than 500 million tweets per day. Singer Katy Perry currently has the most followers, at 46.8 million. She's trailed by

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Voting With Your Feet

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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 of them even go as far as renouncing their American citizenship to avoid the tax man.

Expatriation sounds like an awfully big step just to pay less tax. But more and more Americans are doing it. In 1994, Campbell's Soup heir John T. "Ippy" Dorrance III saw greener pastures in Ireland, trading what was then a 55% estate tax for Ireland's 2%. And just last year, Facebook founder Eduardo Saverin "defriended" Uncle Sam and the IRS after moving to Singapore, potentially saving hundreds of millions in tax. Americans who give up their citizenship pony up an "exit tax" on the value of their assets when they leave, essentially paying as if they had sold everything the day before surrendering their passport. But that doesn't stop the determined from leaving — in the second quarter of this year, 1,131 Americans bid bon voyage to their citizenship.

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Story Problems for Grownups

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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). You moved on to fractions. And all along the way, as part of your teachers' efforts to convince you that it all matters here in the "real world," you did "story problems." Remember those?

Well, now you're all grown up, so here's a grownup story problem to ponder:

You're an IRS auditor, toiling away to protect the government's revenue base. Then you decide to leave "the dark side" and start your own practice. Things start off great, but you want more. So you mock up some fake tax returns, tell some clients they owe $11 million, and have them make payments into a bogus "trust account." Then you take the money for yourself, make some home improvements, buy a beach house in Mexico, pay to use a private plane, pay $2 million on your personal credit cards and loans, and make some investments. It's good to be rich, isn't it? But now there's a teensy-weensy little problem. The IRS is on to you, your clients are hopping mad, and two of them are scheduled to testify against you! What do you do?

Well, if you're Steven Martinez of Ramona, California, you send your limousine driver (!) to offer a hit man $100,000 to take out the clients. But you don't just whisper some names in his ear and slink back home. Oh, no. Because you're an accountant