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For Reasons Unknown, Some People Are Listening to Mike Huckabee Talk About Taxes

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

The House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee held a hearing yesterday to discuss how to best reform the Internal Revenue Code.

Oddly, former Republican Presidential Candidate and conservative stud of the Fox News stable, Mike Huckabee, was invited to give his thoughts on the matter which include eliminating the IRS and replacing it with the dead in the water FairTax:

[Huckabee] is urging Congress to eliminate the Internal Revenue Service, along with taxes on income, payrolls and estates, and replace them all with a single retail sales tax. Huckabee told the House Ways and Means Committee today that Congress should pass legislation to achieve those goals, dubbed the FairTax, which is popular with many Republican voters even as it makes little legislative progress.

Now maybe Huckabee secretly crammed in rigorous tax study during his one year at seminary but this is a guy who was convinced Donald Trump was going to run for President.

Huckabee Tells Congress to Scrap IRS for Single Retail Sales Tax [Bloomberg]

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Wednesday Addams’ $180,000 Tax Trouble

Go figure, Christina Ricci has been hit with an IRS lien to the tune of $179,568.30 for unpaid 2008 taxes. Though the lien news seems to have taken her quite by surprise, Ricci’s rep told TMZ that she is taking “immediate action to address it in a responsible manner.”

That’s funny, I thought a responsible manner would have meant paying the IRS $179,568.30 before April 15th, 2009 when it was due but maybe that’s just me.


Oddly enough, if you’ve ever been hit with an IRS lien (hello, Nic Cage) you know that the Service doesn’t just one day decide to slap a lien on you without first attempting to give you a hint that the proverbial shit is preparing to hit the fan. Generally this comes in the form of correspondence (lots of it) indicating that there is an issue.

Helpful bunch that they are, the IRS will almost always work with tax delinquents as long as said delinquents return their letters and get in touch to say “Hey, sorry, totally forgot to give you that $180,000 that I owe you.” In the case of Christina Ricci, we’re pretty sure her IRS letters must have gotten lost in the fan mail and creepy stalker packages. Yeah, that must it.

Christina Ricci — Ya Got $179k Layin’ Around? [TMZ]

L.A. Times: ‘Think of it as a forced, interest-free loan’

Starting Sunday, [November 1,] cash-strapped California will dig deeper into the pocketbooks of wage earners — holding back 10% more than it already does in state income taxes just as the biggest shopping season of the year kicks into gear.
Technically, it’s not a tax increase, even though it may feel like one when your next paycheck arrives. As part of a bundle of budget patches adopted in the summer, the state is taking more money now in withholding, even though workers’ annual tax bills won’t change.
Think of it as a forced, interest-free loan: You’ll be repaid any extra withholding in April. Those who would receive a refund anyway will receive a larger one, and those who owe taxes will owe less.

Californians, take it from here.
California to withhold a bigger chunk of paychecks [LAT]
See also: California Borrows from Peter to Pay Peter Then Robs Paul at Gunpoint [JDA]

GC Weekend: Take a Break, We Insist

Jon Hamm as Don Draper.jpgHere it is, Sunday evening so we thought we’d check on all you weekend warriors. Now that the day is over, you can relax and do whatever it is you do on Sunday evenings. Personally, we’d recommend watching some lady slaying courtesy of Don Draper but if reading up on more healthcare policy debate is your thing, knock yourselves out.
Even though lots of you are probably too exhausted to keep your eyes open to read this, we’ll kindly remind you that there’s only two more days to go. Yes, we realize you 1040 prep experts still have a month to go and we’ll give your recognition in due course.
As for the rest of you, give yourselves a pat on the back and have a drink, do a jay, whatever gets you in the mood for love or simply vegging out in front of the tube because you’ve earned it. You’re going to make it through another tax season despite all those times you considered quitting in the middle of it.
And if this is your first tax season, special congrats to you. You’re well on your way to becoming a glutton for punishment courtesy of tax deadlines for many years to come. Cheers.