Wealthy Cheney

All I've heard about Cheney lately is how he got some $1.8 million back from the IRS this year. Never mind that the only reason he did is that he overpaid. (No, the IRS is not paying the Cheneys extra money.)

However, much less reported is the fact that it seems the Cheneys actually gave $7 million to charity last year.

(via)

The IRS is satisfied

I finally filed my taxes. It's late, I'm tired, but they're done.

In the past, I've always filed my taxes on my own, on paper, and sent them in snail-mail.

This year, I did something I've never done before: I e-filed. On top of that, I filed them through eSmart Tax. I did it because I didn't want the hassle. Last year, I worked in two states 2,000 miles apart. I'm sure I could have figured everything out, but it was much easier to just punch the numbers in to the computer and let it figure out the rest.

Total cost: just under $35. ($10 for the federal and one state return, $15 for the other state return.)

Total refund: $144. But then, I didn't have either employer withhold federal taxes this time around.

Can anyone say "flat tax"?

Get rid of property taxes (and income taxes), institute a 23.5% flat sales tax (some even say 16 or 17 percent would work), and this whole problem would never have happened.

A house erroneously valued at $400 million is being blamed for budget shortfalls and possible layoffs in municipalities and school districts in northwest Indiana.

An outside user of Porter County's computer system may have triggered the mess by accidentally changing the value of the Valparaiso house, said Sharon Lippens, director of the county's information technologies and service department. The house had been valued at $121,900 before the glitch.

County Treasurer Jim Murphy said the home usually carried about $1,500 in property taxes; this year, it was billed $8 million.

...the $400 million value ended up on documents that were used to calculate tax rates.

Most local officials did not learn about the mistake until Tuesday, when 18 government taxing units were asked to return a total of $3.1 million of tax money. The city of Valparaiso and the Valparaiso Community School Corp. were asked to return $2.7 million. As a result, the school system has a $200,000 budget shortfall, and the city loses $900,000.

Officials struggled to figure out how the mistake got into the system and how it could have been prevented. City leaders said Thursday the error could cause layoffs and cost-cutting measures.

The flat tax may do away with CPA's, but that may not be all that bad. Besides, it works in Iraq.