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Accounting News Roundup: Nightmare Travel; The Homer Simpson Effect on the Net Investment Income Tax; Settling a Tax Bill with Singles | 11.27.13

Wall of storms threatens to upend holiday travel [AP]
Thankfully, I just flew in from Boston last night, but boy, my arms are tired: "More than 43 million people are to travel over the long holiday weekend, according to AAA. The overwhelming majority — about 39 million people — will be on the roads. But more than 3 million people are expected to filter through airports, and the weather could snarl takeoffs and landings at some of the busiest hubs on the East Coast, including New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Boston and Charlotte, N.C."

IRS Issues Final Net Investment Income Tax Regulations: A First Look And More [Forbes]
Tony Nitti's plans for snoozing on the couch tomorrow have been ruined! "I’d like to issue a heartfelt thank you to the IRS for issuing these regulations today. Until 4:00 PM this afternoon, all I had on my docket for the next five days was parking myself on the couch and repeatedly eating myself into a tryptophan-induced coma. But then the IRS decides to publish 400 pages of regulations, and because my employer pays me to read and (hopefully) understand stuff like this, there goes the holiday." Of course, he does explain why Section 1411's 400 pages are overkill — using a parallel to The Simpsons and concludes: "The final regulations, in an attempt to address countless concerns voiced by a multitude of commenters, seem to have thrown in so many new caveats, exceptions, and exceptions to exceptions so as to lose any user-friendly characteristic that was evident in the proposed regulations."

Brazil Is Entranced by a Tale of Love, Taxes and Bribery [NYT]
Here's a common luxurious setting with an unlikely protagonist: "There were the boxes of Cuban cigars, which cost about $500 each at a shop in Vila Nova Conceição, one of the most exclusive districts of São Paulo, and the $2,260 bottles of Vega Sicilia Único, a legendary Spanish red. Throw in a Porsche Cayenne, speedboat jaunts to tropical islands and all-night soirees with high-end escorts, and what do you get? The unlikely lifestyle of a Brazilian tax inspector."

Pasco critic pays $11,000 tax bill in $1 bills [TBO]
And 44 pennies!
 
Pentagon’s bosses thwart accurate audit of DOD’s main accounting office [MWB]
Nothing to see here.
 
New York's Penn Station Is a Goddamn Nightmare Right Now [Gawker]
Happy Thanksgiving.
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