Tax problems and a practical solution

With Daschle becoming the third Cabinet nominee to face surfacing tax issues, I find myself asking the simple question: why hasn't the IRS clamped down on this issue? There must be a senator tax loophole that the general public isn't aware about.

As far as whether this is egg on the face, I'm still sort of deferential - Obama's plans are to revamp Washington and obviously the roots of the problem are deeper than he thought. Change takes time - these blips are bringing awareness to a problem, which is part of the solution. It makes you wonder how many other senators aren't paying their fair share of taxes.

Obviously nobody likes paying taxes. Contrary to popular myths, most people do pay their taxes. It's just that the system helps those who know what they are doing. Times are changing though. Considering that a significant portion of commerce passes through the internet tax free, I suspect that there will be a closer look at how Uncle Sam can get his paws in on that action. In the meantime, and in an effort to put more people to work by professionally handling tax returns, I offer this unvetted suggestion.

Any certified accountant must handle a certain number of indigent or pro-bono cases a year. Easier said than done, but here are my thoughts as to why this may be a good long term idea. First, more people would be disposed to explore accounting as a career, whether at a private firm or for a public company like H&R block. This will put (at least in the longer term) more people to work. This can be paid for through tax credits for the accountant or accounting firm based on X number of cases taken. Second, there is a chance that with more people reporting their taxes, revenue will go up. I don't think it would be because people are necessarily paying more than they should, but I think that more people would be inclined to file (partly because of my third reason). Audit a higher percentage of people that do not have an accountant to pay their taxes. This would require more auditors to be hired. I'm not sure how this isn't done more with computer technology now but maybe it is and the auditing system is just underreporting. The increase in auditing would also generate income because those who are coming up short (or significantly short in the case of Daschle's $150,000 plus deficit) are going to pay the price.

I will have to give this idea more thought, but it can easily be done at the state level. If Delaware can come up with a good template, we certainly have a connection in the federal executive branch now that can pass our good suggestions along.

Tags: daschle withdraws name, tax suggestions, hiring an accountant

Obama's Wilmington Whistle Stop

I got a chance to go to President-elect Obama's whistle stop in Wilmington today. It was pretty cool (and very cold out). There was a nice presentation by the Kuumba Academy Charter school and introductions by Gov.-elect Markell, the mayor of Wilmington and even by Joe Biden himself. Obama's remarks took about 10 minutes, but it was a pretty cool experience. One thing that was pretty neat was when he started by saying it was (First Lady) Michelle's birthday, and people started singing happy birthday to her.



There is a video on YouTube with the first half of the speech, and the text is posted by the News Journal site. There are also a couple of videos of him arriving and also leaving the Wilmington Station.

Overall, it was pretty cool and something I'll remember for a long while. Right now, the majority of the country has a lot of optimism about things turning around - I hope that they are right.

Tags: obama visits wilmington, obama inauguration 2009

Using Facebook to stop crime

The state is always looking for ways to cut costs and save money, and often ideas come from the most unlikely sources. Take the text messaging tips for example. That probably came from some officer or higher up whose kid's text messaging habit resulted in a huge phone bill one day.

Here is a similar technological idea that could be used to identify potential threats: Use Facebook. The police in New Zealand are experimenting with the idea with some immediate success; it may be something the Wilmington or other city departments (or state) looks into. Cost to the budget: $0.

Tags: facebook, police using facebook

Drudge gives the button movie some much needed publicity

I think I may have been at the theater at the same time as Sen. Biden to try and watch the Benjamin Button movie. I got in; he did not. Of course, that theater holds like 70 people, so it's no wonder it sells out all the time. For $10.25/ticket, you're almost better off going to the Bridge in Philly for just a couple dollars more ($12.50) and get a much better experience in a much nicer theater. You can even pick out your seats in advance.

It was sort of funny to read the headline Drudge put out about this rather mundane story: "CURIOUS CASE OF JOE BIDEN: No one notices VP-elect at sold out movie; Refused entrance..." Well, I think "refused entrance" is a bit over the top - the movie was sold out and so he would have had to see another show, see the show at another time, or go and do something else. And this is Delaware, we see famous people all the time and nobody cares. This city is like the New York of the east coast, give me a break. I chalk this one up to the "who cares" category right along with that sketch of people who couldn't remember what year was September 11. FYI, the answer (even without the sketch) is sadly pretty low.

Actual population of Delaware and a bad idea about taxing mileage

Although the census is still a couple of years away, I saw that the Census Bureau released some estimates recently.

Delaware's population estimate from the census bureau is 873,092 on July 1, 2008, up from 783,595 on April 1, 2000, an increase of 89,497 or 11.4%. By comparison, my own estimate a couple months earlier was slightly higher, 876,688. Either way, I was pretty close.

So, Delaware's population of 873,092 in July 2008 remains well under 1 million. Now if only each of those people paid $1000 each in taxes and we'd have no budget problems.

Speaking of budget problems, I saw in the paper the other day that the state is again toying with various tax ideas, and threw out the fact that Oregon is experimenting with a mileage tax.

I tend to agree that this sort of approach, while outside of the box, is a bad idea, and many of the comments in this article explain why Delaware should not move in this direction. Apparently, Oregon is also rethinking this, and hopefully Delaware doesn't jump blindly into the foray just to realize how explosively bad this idea is.

Tags: population of delaware, taxing gas mileage, fuel surcharge taxes