I will be traveling this week, so posting will be light to non-existent until next weekend.

While Governor Brown and others in the Bronze Golden State continue to debate how to increase taxes, perhaps they’ll look at yet another survey which shows that California is at the bottom for business (among US states). With thanks to the TaxProfBlog for noting this, Thumbtack.com, in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation released [...]

Politicians and anyone else in the public eye are far more likely than others to find themselves audited than others. Take Richard Rober and his wife Averill. Mrs. Rober owned Gator Water and Wastewater Management, Inc. The business was sold, and payments came in. The Robers skimmed money off of each payment and kept it [...]

It seems we’re stuck in the football motif. Freddie Mitchell played for the Philadelphia Eagles and is most remembered for this play: Earlier this year, he found himself indicted for tax fraud along with two others, Jamie Russ-Walls and Richard Walls. The alleged scheme involved phony tax refunds; Mr. Mitchell is alleged to have recruited [...]

Pity the poor football fans in Los Angeles. They’re stuck watching the NFL on television, or watching USC at the L.A. Coliseum. The latest team that was looking at possibly heading west was the Minnesota Vikings. Earlier today, the Minnesota State Senate approved the Vikings new stadium; Governor Mark Dayton has promised to sign the [...]

I can’t answer the question I just posed: As far as I know they have nothing to do with each other. Of course, I’m often wrong, and this is one of those times. Here, the connection is that the owner of B & B Weaving Shop in Montgomery, Alabama has a daughter who owns B [...]

Holly Damiani was married to real estate developer Jeffrey Wirth. They were divorced and then the roof fell in: Mr. Wirth, Ms. Damiani and their accountant, Michale Murry, are accused of various tax evasion charges. Ms. Damiani pleaded guilty in a plea bargain on Friday. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: [She] admitted that from “at [...]

One of the recurring themes of this blog is that a business owner must pay his payroll taxes. The government considers Trust Fund taxes to be their money and they will always investigate payroll tax crimes. Similarly, workers compensation is sometimes run through government and pseudo-government agencies. In California, there is the State Compensation Insurance [...]

Another week, another survey of which state is best for business. For the eighth straight year, Chief Executive magazine ranked Texas as the best state in the union as to where to conduct business. Unsurprisingly, California is at the bottom. My state, Nevada, is at #12; Aaron’s home of Maryland is #40. Here are the [...]

The storefront in North Miami cashed checks. There’s nothing that unusual in that. However, there were two major differences between the storefront in Miami and most check cashing locations: The store charged very high fees (35%-45%) but didn’t ask questions about the checks that were cashed and it was operated as a sting operation by [...]