taxes

Congress should pass a federal gas tax on consumers instead of continuing to impose CAFE regulations on automakers, says the CEO of Edmunds.

Jeremy Anwyl, who heads the iconic source of auto information, again raised the idea he has long advocated via his blog Tuesday and in conjunction with his attendance at the 2011 Government/Industry Meeting of the Society of Automotive Engineers taking place this week in Washington, D.C.

CAFE, or Corporate Average Fuel Economy, regulations are designed to promote fuel efficiency and require an automaker's fleet to meet a specific average gas mileage.

Anwyl said that … Read more

Everyone's favorite government agency, the Internal Revenue Service, has launched its own mobile application.

Released last week to iPhone and Android users, the free IRS2Go provides a few tidbits of information that could make April 15 a bit less stressful.

Those of us fortunate enough to qualify for a refund can find out exactly when Uncle Sam will be sending out that check. Entering your Social Security number (which the IRS says is masked and encrypted), filing status, and expected refund amount delivers the due date for your payment.

People who file their federal taxes electronically can check their … Read more

Geeks will always tell you to get the latest and greatest product on the market, but sometimes choosing a previous generation product will satisfy your needs without breaking the bank.

In this week's column I answer a question from a reader who needs a new iPhone and can't decide whether to get the older-generation iPhone 3GS or the iPhone 4. Most technophiles would scoff at such a question. Who actually buys last year's model when this year's model is available? What do you think? I outline the pros and cons below. Feel free to add to … Read more

The U.K. government should offer tax credits to businesses that upgrade their networking equipment to support IPv6, according to Vint Cerf, who is widely regarded as one of the founders of the internet.

Cerf, who co-invented TCP/IP, said on Thursday that businesses in the U.K. and the rest of Europe risked being cut off from customers in parts of the world that do have widespread IPv6 support. There will be no more IPv4 addresses available within two years' time, meaning no new people or devices will be able to be added to the Internet using this legacy … Read more

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer plans to sell up to 75 million Microsoft shares to help "gain financial diversification" and to "assist in tax planning before the end of the year," the company announced today.

Before taking into account recent sales, Ballmer held 408 million shares, the company said, citing the latest Microsoft proxy report.

"Even though this is a personal financial matter, I want to be clear about this to avoid any confusion," Ballmer said. "I am excited about our new products and the potential for our technology to change people's lives, … Read more

A mobile phone bill may be one of the most confusing documents for a consumer to understand. With all the different federal, state, and local taxes tacked on at the end of your monthly bill, it's difficult to know what exactly you're paying for.

And now wireless subscribers who hold onto their old phone numbers when they relocate around the country may want to double check that they're being charged the appropriate rate. In some cases, some wireless subscribers may be paying the wrong rate. This means that some subscribers may be getting overcharged. While in other … Read more

In a long-awaited decision that could shape the debate over Internet taxes, a New York appeals court today reinstated Amazon.com and Overstock.com's lawsuit claiming a state law forcing them to collect sales taxes is unconstitutional.

A New York appeals court ruled 5-0 that the "dismissal of the entire complaint was premature" and that the lawsuit should continue.

The legal actions, filed a few weeks apart in early 2008, claimed that the state law was "invalid, illegal, and unconstitutional." Amazon has, however, been collecting sales taxes on shipments to Empire State customers while the … Read more

In a victory for the free speech and privacy rights of Amazon.com customers, a federal judge ruled today that the company would not have to turn over detailed records on nearly 50 million purchases to North Carolina tax collectors.

The state had demanded sensitive information including names and addresses of North Carolina customers--and information about exactly what they had purchased between 2003 and 2010.

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman in Washington state said that request went too far and "runs afoul of the First Amendment." She granted Amazon summary judgment.

The Tar Heel State's tax … Read more

Usually when you order a Double Irish you wind up with a healthy slug of Jameson, not a complicated tax-reduction scheme on the Emerald Isle.

But turns out Google and many other companies are taking advantage of legal tax maneuvers to dramatically reduce the amount of taxes they have to pay on money earned outside the U.S., according to a report today from Bloomberg Businessweek. The report said Google has employed the "Double Irish" technique with such aplomb as to lower the tax rate it pays on income generated outside the U.S. to 2.4 percent, … Read more