…I will pay a boatload in taxes.

The Mega Millions jackpot has reached a record high of of $640 million, shattering the previous U.S. record of $390.

Coworkers are pooling money to buy tickets on their lunch breaks, local liquor stores and bodegas are crowded with anyone feeling even remotely lucky, and Twitter users are fantasizing about blowing the money on everything from classic cars to cupcakes to AK-47s.

But no matter who is lucky enough to win the money, there’s one sure thing they’ll be spending it on: taxes. Before you start training those baby snakes to kill Congressmen, you’ll have to pony up to Uncle Sam a pretty hefty chunk of change.

The federal tax rate … Read more...

Trying to combat budget deficits made worse by the recession, many states raised income taxes by as much as 5%.

Here’s some bad news for tax haters: in 2010 state taxes soared as never before.

Thanks to the Great Recession, state governments are cash strapped as they haven’t been since World War II. In 2010 a record-breaking 43 states faced budget deficits.

Unlike the federal government, states can’t really borrow their way out of budget deficits so they have to make the hard choices our President and Congressmen routinely put off: cutting government programs and, you guessed it, raising taxes.

2010 witnessed the largest outright increase in state taxes ever, with combined revenues rising by a total of $24 billion.… Read more...

How the tax code stupidly prevents companies like Apple from spending $1.2 trillion in the U.S.

The death of Steve Jobs last October hasn’t slowed down Apple very much: sales for the new third generation iPad have already broken records, the company has debuted a (possibly) new logo featuring a groovy, retro-flecked rainbow apple, and CEO Tim Cook announced plans to spend almost half of its $100 billion cash hoard on issuing its first dividend since 1995 and buying back up to $10 billion in shares.

Though Apple has consistently proven a bright spot amid the generally gloomy economic news of recent years, even it is not immune to the havoc so often wreaked by our labyrinthine and … Read more...

A fraudulent tax preparer orders a hit on two former clients to protect his tax scam

The glory age of tax gangsters like Al Capone is long gone. These days it’s very rare that tax-related crime involves anything more exciting than some fraudulent paperwork – which makes this story of a California tax preparer who ordered a hit on two of his former clients all the more extraordinary.

Tax preparer and former IRS agent Steven Martinez allegedly promised a hit man $100,000 to a hit former customers – including an 86 year old woman – who were set to testify against him on charges of fraud.

During his years as a tax preparer Martinez allegedly scammed the IRS out of … Read more...