New York, California in a Horse Race for Sending Most People to States with God-Awful Heat, No Income Tax

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

Hot off the Twitter, New York Times' Catherine Rampell shares some interesting data about movers in 2012:

Okay maybe that's not so interesting, but this helps: 

The question of motive surely varies although I can't imagine that many New Yorkers wanting to increase their chances of ending up on The Smoking Gun or Californians that want a better chance of getting shot.

[via @crampell]

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Inventor of Veg-O-Matic, Pocket Fisherman Said ‘Forget it’ to Company’s Tax Bill

When I was in college I had a roommate who had an odd taste in television. Sure, he liked some sports, Adam Sandler movies and free soft-core porn like the rest of us but what he really enjoyed, what he absolutely relished in, was infomercials.

He recited Ron Popeil demonstrations like he wrote the script. He even took the human interaction down to the psych level (it was his major, after all), telling me that he thought Ron was belittling Nancy for her perpetual doubt about the capabilities of any invention that Ron’s brain could muster. I always thought that Ron was simply too passionate about his products and was simply bringing that passion out in responding to Nancy. That, plus his machines have the noise-making capability of a bulldozer, so he had to yell over them. This usually resulted in a shouting match between myself and my roommate and then we probably got blind drunk.


Anyway, I bring all this up because ol’ Ronny has himself a tax issue in California with Ronco Inventions, LLC and it’s Robert Snell’s tax delinquent scoop du jour:

According to public records, Ronco Inventions LLC owes the state $170,392 in delinquent taxes — or three easy payments of $56,797. Ronco is famed for products such as the parody-worthy Veg-O-Matic, the Pocket Fisherman, and rotisserie ovens. Popeil has turned the infomercial into an art form thanks to catch phrases — “Set it, and forget it!”, “But wait, there’s more!” — and studio audience members who clap like their lives depend on it.

Since Ron is the brains of Ronco, it’s likely that he treats tax issues much like he treated Nancy: with spirited indifference. Which now leads me to wonder if she’s the one in charge of the accounting department. Judge for yourself:

Did Anthony Weiner Pump Up His Itemized Deductions?

The Post reports that Anthony Weiner’s “2010 tax return shows he took $40,521 in unspecified itemized deductions on an income of $156,117.”

It quotes “Manhattan CPA” Jonathan Medows as saying “It’s definitely a very large deduction,” and “[they] appeared to include more than the standard writeoffs for state and local taxes and Weiner’s mortgage.” If you were to guess to where the “unspecified itemized deductions” of $40k were located, they are probably included on line 28 of Schedule A for “Other Miscellaneous Deductions.” Of course what exactly the deductions are, is a mystery. But if you’ve got some ideas, we’d love to hear them. [NYP]