More Joe the Plumber, More Tax Nonsense, More Fact Checking — And What to Do About Great Credit

Since he burst onto the national scene earlier this week, Joe the Plumber has become a symbol of how tax policy affects ordinary Americans. He’s the center of attention in today’s Taxosphere, but the debates also get some coverage as well. And of course, personal finance is in the news because of the continued market gyrations. Today’s Taxosphere goodness:

• Paul Caron, the TaxProf, has a comprehensive roundup of Joe the Plumber coverage. There’s bad news for Joe’s ambitions; he’s not quite a plumber (though he doesn’t need a license since he works for a licensed plumber), and he doesn’t quite pay his taxes.
• At Don’t Mess With Taxes, Kay Bell also covers Joe Wurzelbacher’s story, with more details about what the different tax policies mean for him. This entry includes a comprehensive list of other people named “Joe the Plumber,” who are doubtless seeing a boost in business thanks to their new brand name. I’m sure Inbev is, as we speak, scouting for an actual Joe Sixpack (whether he’s a bodybuilder or a couch potato is a matter for the focus groups).
• Via Answerbag, I found this bizarrely-headlined Reuters story about how many corporations don’t pay taxes. Tell me — does a headline like “Study says most corporations pay no U.S. income taxes” belong on an article with quotes like “72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one yearbetween 1998 and 2005… More than half of foreign companies and about 42 percent of U.S. companies paid no U.S. income taxes for two or more years in that period, the report said.”

  In other words, the survey says that 43% of US businesses paid income taxes every year from 1998 to 2005, and 58% paid income taxes for at least five of the seven years in question. In other words, the article’s headline was missing some crucial information: Most corporations paid no income taxes for one year out of a seven-year period that included a huge recession and a terrorist attack.

• Mr. Credit card, a guest blogger on The Digerati Life, gives a great list of ways you can take advantage of good credit. These range from small improvements (negotiate a better APR!) to daring moves (buy a house out of foreclosure!).
• A the Tax Policy Foundation’s Tax Policy Blog, Gerald Prante wearily corrects the persistent distortions from each Presidential contender.
  

  Finally, it’s over. It was painful and I would have rather been watching baseball, but honestly, it was not quite as bad as the previous two debates between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama in terms of abuse of the facts on tax issues. That being said, however, both candidates did make many of the same dishonest and misleading statements they’ve made in the past two debates and on the campaign trail. And given that these falsehoods have been debunked countless times not only here but by other organizations like CNN, CQ, and Factcheck.org, the fact that they continue to spout them suggests that they don’t really care about the truth and would rather just say what sounds good in front of a camera.

  Ouch! Most of the complaints are on economic issues that take a while to explain. But as long as “Greed” has a stronger resonance than “The incidence of taxation,” we’ll probably see more of the same — and people like Gerald Prante will still be rightfully annoyed.

• Five Cent Nickel explains how to compare taxable and tax-free yields. Many investors are dangerously indifferent to the tax consequences of the funds they invest in.
• Kay Bell returns, with news on the tax evasion case of Richard Hatch, the first Survivor winner. He gave up on outwitting long ago, and can’t even outlast: his attempt to appeal to the Supreme Court (he decided his million-dollar winnings weren’t income) has been rejected.