Personal Taxes

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Master This Green!

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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, when Bubba Watson outplayed 20-year-old phenom Jordan Spieth to claim his second green jacket at the 2014 Masters.

Augusta National Country Club, home of the Masters, is America's temple of golf. Augusta's "perennial ryegrass" fairways are manicured to a smoother finish than your living room carpet, and its greens are so hard and fast you could play billiards on them. So, with all that lush green stretching as far as the eye can see, would it surprise you to learn that the residents of Augusta have "mastered" a lucrative tax break? It's become so identified with the legendary golf tournament that it's known as "the Augusta rule." But if you own your own business, you may be able to take advantage of it yourself.

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Fall into a Fortune

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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 refunds after their audits. Granted, that's still shy of seven percent of everyone audited that year. But it proves you can walk away from the IRS a winner.

Here's a clever strategy one taxpayer used to walk away from the IRS with a windfall. But you might want to be careful before you try it yourself!

There's an App for That

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 still stores master tax records on computers commissioned during the Johnson administration (Lyndon, at least, not Andrew!), the IRS still spends hundreds of millions per year to take advantage of the latest information technology.

The geeks who manage the IRS's computers do a great job with the limited resources Congress gives them. But they want to be like the cool kids in Silicon Valley, too. So they've created an app, called IRS2GO, that you can download to your iPhone or Android device. You can use the IRS app to track your refund, find free tax return preparers, access your tax records, and even connect with the IRS on Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, and Facebook.

Those are all great functions, of course. But we got to thinking . . . what sort of things would you really want an IRS app to do for you? We thought maybe these would be even more popular:

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The Endangered Species List

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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 at Australia's Hobart Zoo. And on June 24, 2012, "Lonesome George," the last living Pinta Island tortoise (chelonoidis nigra abingdoni), died in Ecuador's Galapagos National Park.

When you think of endangered species, you naturally think of plants and animals. But the IRS has its own endangered species list (called "listed transactions"), and that means sometimes even tax strategies go extinct. So, for example, in October, 2006, the last grandfathered private annuity trust was formed. On April 10, 2007, most so-called "Section 419(e)" plans were shot down. Now, could the venerable Swiss bank account (bankum secretus strongius) be next?

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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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When 20 > 20.1

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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 degrees in parts of the country; forget about those pennant races still heating up in the AL West and NL Central. This weekend, the National Football League kicks off regular season play! This week's season opener is just the first step on the road to Super Bowl XLVII, to be played outdoors on February 2, 2014, at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. (If you look hard enough on ESPN, you can find pre-game coverage starting early next week.)

Earlier this year, Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco won MVP honors in Super Bowl XLVII and signed a new six-year contract worth $120.6 million. It makes him the highest-paid player in the game, just ahead of New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees. But in a surprise twist that NFL statisticians would love, Brees will actually take home more money than Flacco.

How can that be? Taxes, of course — why else would we be talking about it?