It's November. You know what that means. Yes, the presidential election will be over next week. But November also means that we have two months to make some tax moves to ensure we don't encounter any tax turkeys. Don't be gobbled up by tax concerns. Make these November tax moves. (South Park/Comedy Central turkeys via GIPHY) Health care considerations: November kicked off with open season for Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, enrollment. If you don't get medical insurance at work, you should check out the Health Care Marketplace for coverage. You'll need minimal essential coverage or you'll owe a tax... Read more →
Elections
It's official. We will not see Donald J. Trump's tax returns before we vote on Nov. 8. During an interview Oct. 30 on NBC's Meet the Press, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump's running mate, reiterated that Trump will not release his returns until after an audit is completed. This Twitter image of Donald J. Trump signing his 2014 return on Oct. 15, 2015, is probably the closest we'll get to seeing the Republican presidential candidate's tax filings. "All right, so not before the election?" host Chuck Todd asked. "Yeah," Pence replied. Breaking election tradition, again: If the Republican presidential nominee... Read more →
I helped my mom vote today. She's 82 and has some vision issues that make voting in person difficult, so we filled out her ballot and dropped it in the mail. One of the local issues my mother had to vote on in this year's election. Yay civic participation! I am, however, a bit disappointed that we had to pay the postage for the over-sized envelope. Yes, two stamps instead of one is not big deal in the grand scheme of being a cog in the wheel of democracy. But really, shouldn't governments do things to make voting easier, like... Read more →
And we're done. With the 2016 presidential debates, not the election. The debates were supposed to help us voters make an informed decision as to whether we want Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump as our president for the next four years. Good luck with that. Click image to watch Fox News' "nasty woman" clip. Things got nasty last night (Oct. 19) in Las Vegas, and not in the fun Janet Jackson choreographed way. However, "Miss Jackson, if you're nasty," was a big beneficiary of the debate's ad lib. Trump called Clinton "such a nasty woman" during her closing... Read more →
The third and final presidential debate is tonight in Las Vegas, and it's a sure bet that most Americans will be delighted when this portion of the 2016 campaign is over. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will face off Oct. 19 on a stage at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with Fox News' Chris Wallace moderating. The previous face-to-face encounters between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican hopeful Donald J. Trump have been awkward, frustrating and annoying, and I'm just talking about the reactions of viewers! The debates also have been woefully short on policy specifics, especially taxes. But... Read more →
Forget all those disparate and confusing presidential election polls, online and more scientific. The Washington Redskins have decided who will be moving into the White House next year and the team has chosen Hillary Clinton. Washington Redskins defensive Chris Baker leads fans at FedExField in celebrating the home team's 27-20 win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, Oct. 16. Click image to watch the full NFL game highlights package on YouTube. (And yes, I selected this screenshot because it promos the Dallas Cowboys game!) Players and coaches of the National Capital Area's National Football League team didn't actually vote. But... Read more →
Donald Trump acknowledged during Sunday's second presidential debate that he had avoided paying federal income taxes for years thanks to a claim in 1995 of nearly $1 billion in business losses. Click image to watch Newsy video report on Warren Buffett's response to Donald Trump's tax charges. The Republican presidential nominee then pivoted from his 1040s, which we still haven't seen, to wealthy supporters of his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. Trump specifically accused his fellow billionaires of also using tax laws to their advantage. Duh! That's not unusual. Nor is it illegal. It's just a bit infuriating in many cases.... Read more →
Donald Trump kicked off his ultimately successful bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination with an attack on Mexicans who enter the United States without proper authorization. A small fence separates densely-populated Tijuana, Mexico (right), from the San Diego, California, sector of the U.S. Border Patrol. The building in the foreground on the San Diego side is a sewage treatment plant built to clean the Tijuana River. (Photo by U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Gordon Hyde via Wikipedia) Although he's vacillated at times as the campaign has progressed, many Trump supporters are still firmly behind his initial call for a... Read more →
Did you watch the vice presidential debate? Stephen Colbert took advantage of a live broadcast of his Late Show on Tuesday night to skewer the vice presidential candidates and some of their, uh, highlights during their lone debate. Click image to watch the YouTube video. Did it deliver? Or were you disconcerted by the Freaky Friday nature (your choice, the original Jodie Foster 1976 flick, or the 2003 remake with Lindsay Lohan) of the event, where Democratic VP candidate Sen. Tim Kaine was very Trumpian, on the offensive and interrupting a lot, while Republican VP candidate Gov. Mike Pence was... Read more →
Will taxes, specifically, Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump's still officially secret federal filings dominate tonight's vice presidential debate? It's showdown time tonight for Sen. Tim Kaine, above right, the Democrats' vice president choice, and Gov. Mike Pence, below right, who is the Republican veep candidate. Maybe. Debate directions for both VP candidates: You can be sure that Sen. Tim Kaine, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's running mate, will try to make it an issue. Kaine and the former secretary of state have released years of their federal and state filings. UPDATE, 9:37 p.m. ET: As expected, Kaine Hits Back... Read more →
No, we still haven't seen Donald Trump's federal tax returns. Donald Trump shared this photo on his Twitter account last October of him signing what he said was his 2015 federal tax return. However, it was old state returns that have given us a glimpse into the Republican presidential candidate's tax bills. The information about his $916 million business loss in 1995 comes from state tax returns filed with New York, New Jersey and Connecticut for that year and which were obtained by the New York Times. While that yuge loss could have, as the Times notes, served as a... Read more →
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton finally went toe-to-toe last night in the first debate of the 2016 presidential election campaign and taxes were discussed. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton discuss taxes and emails on the first debate of the 2016 presidential election campaign. Click the image to view The Guardian's video clip of the candidates discussing Trump's still hidden tax returns. UPDATE/MORE COVERAGE: You can see more about Trump's taxes and the debate, complete with video of the Hillary Shimmy, in my tumblr blog Tumbling Taxes item on this topic. Unfortunately, there really wasn't much tax talk about policy direction... Read more →
Whether Donald J. Trump's admiration of Russian President Vladimir Putin is simply a one-sided man crush on Trump's part or a full-fledged bromance between the two is debatable. Click screenshot to watch the full Jimmy Fallon piece on YouTube. But one thing is certain. It's great fodder for late-night television comedy skits. On last night's The Tonight Show, host Jimmy Fallon looked at the pros and cons of the relationship between the Republican presidential nominee and the divisive Russian autocrat. Of course, The Donald's taxes were part of the presentation. As Trump might phrase it, some people say that one... Read more →
$10,162. That's how much of a federal tax refund that Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence and his wife Karen received on their 2015 tax return. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, GOP vice presidential candidate, campaigning among Ohio State tailgaters during a stop earlier this month in the key Nov. 8 election state. (Photo via @mikepence Twitter account) Since the Pences' refund is almost four times the amount of the average tax refund of $2,732 (per Internal Revenue Service filing data through May 13), the $10,162 that the Pences are getting back from Uncle Sam also earns this week's By the... Read more →
Donald Trump is still refusing to release any of his tax returns, but word is that we could get a look today at some of his running mate's tax filings. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his veep choice Mike Pence do many things together as they campaign for the White House, but they diverge when it comes to releasing their personal tax returns. Click image for a video report of their recent visit to Ohio. "Donald Trump and I are both going to release our tax returns,” said GOP vice presidential nominee Indiana Gov. Mike Pence during an interview... Read more →
Not to pile on Donald Trump, even though he makes himself such an easy target so often, but there's another person saying he should show us his tax returns. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, during his Aug. 24 appearance on CNN's The Lead, joined the chorus of Republicans calling on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump to be more transparent about his wealth and health. And it's another member of his own political party (again) . Oversight chief sets sights on Trump: Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) is used to going after high-profile folks. The chairman of the House Oversight Committee has been seeking... Read more →
Hillary Clinton's 2015 tax bill was $3.6 million. We know this because today she released last year's tax return. Donald Trump's tax bill last year was, who knows? What, me worry about letting voters see my tax returns? Nah. Well, some folks know. The Donald and his phalanx of tax attorneys and accounts know. So does the Internal Revenue Service since, as the Republican presidential candidate tells us every time the tax return question comes up, the agency is auditing him. But we, the voters who in November will choose the next White House occupant, haven't had a chance to... Read more →
Donald J. Trump has rewritten a lot of rules so far this presidential election season. Today, however, he learned one of the old ones when it comes to taxes. Sometimes you have to compromise. Donald J. Trump, the 2016 Republican presidential nominee, presents his economic policies and revised tax plan to the Detroit Economic Club on Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. Click image to watch the C-SPAN video of the full speech. Zero tax rate zeroed out: In a speech today at a packed Detroit Economic Club, the Republican presidential nominee presented a glimpse of his economic plan, including some changes... Read more →
If you need further evidence of how the 2016 presidential election has become a political Bizarro World, check out the list of billionaires who have disavowed one of their ostensible peers, self-proclaimed -- we're still waiting for the tax return proof -- billionaire Donald J. Trump, and opted instead to support Hillary Clinton. Bizarro World DC Comic panel courtesy DC-Wikia Meg Whitman, former Hewlett Packard executive and one-time California gubernatorial GOP candidate, says she's with her, meaning Clinton. Beaucoup billionaires: She joins fellow billionaires Michael Bloomberg (former New York City mayor and news/investment media mogul), Mark Cuban (owner of the... Read more →
Warren Buffett is the third richest man in the world. He's also like a lot of us who are a whole lot poorer. Buffett wants to know what's on Donald J. Trump's tax returns. Warren Buffett challenges Donald Trump to a tax return face-off during a rally for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in Omaha, Nebraska, on Aug. 1, Click image to watch the full CNN Money video. He's the third billionaire within a week to call on Trump to release his returns. Former New York City mayor and media mogul Michael Bloomberg and Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's... Read more →