tax

Time for an audit of Microsoft's 'Apple Tax'

Microsoft is back touting the "Apple Tax" that it says Mac buyers are paying, this time filling out a fake tax return listing all of what it claims are the extra costs of opting for Windows' leading rival. But I'd argue that this time Microsoft is in danger of being audited.

The document, posted on Microsoft's Windows Blog on Thursday, compares the cost of a PC and Mac purchase, making the case that buyers can save more than $3,000 in buying two Windows PCs as opposed to two Macs. The "tax return" is … Read more

Webware Radar: March Madness reaches the sky

Aircell, the company that offers Gogo Inflight Internet service to airline passengers, announced on Thursday that based on internal research, Gogo customer visits to NCAA-focused sites increased 953 percent during the first and second rounds of NCAA Tournament play.

Visits to sports-focused sites in general were up 123 percent from February. The most visited NCAA site on Gogo was CBSSports.com (Disclosure: CBSSports.com is a part of CBS Interactive, which also publishes CNET News.)

Real-estate search site Trulia announced Thursday that it set new records for site traffic in the first quarter of 2009. According to the company, visits … Read more

Bill for moratorium on cell phone taxes gets bipartisan support

Cell phone taxes emerged yet again in Congress this week when Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) introduced the Cell Phone Tax Fairness Act of 2009 (HR 1521).

The bill, which has 20 additional cosponsors, would ban state or local jurisdictions from imposing "a new discriminatory tax on or with respect to mobile services, mobile service providers, or mobile service property, during the five-year period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act."

The legislation would not affect current state and local taxes, nor would it affect federal taxes, like the FCC Universal Charge. … Read more

U.S. taxpayers funding Microsoft campus bridge

With $20 billion in the bank, one would think that Microsoft could afford to build out its own campus. But in a sign of just how "porky" the U.S. federal stimulus bill has become, the city of Redmond, Wash., will be spending $11 million to build a bridge connecting two areas of Microsoft's Redmond campus, as Bloomberg reports.

That's right. One of the richest companies on the planet is using taxpayer money to fund a bridge that arguably benefits no one except its own employees (and visitors). Company spokesman Lou Gellos told Bloomberg that the … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 916: Fiber to the butt

Natali opens with some rage against Verizon Fios over a billing problem after she canceled the service. She feels somehow, well...Jason explains it best in the show. We also get a Molly rant over Ireland's new content filtering on the Internet and TechCrunch's reporting that Last.FM was giving data to the RIAA. Which it was not.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 916

Microsoft asks for severance back from laid off employees http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10169119-75.html

Workers ’stealing company data’ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7902989.stm

Xbox Live denial … Read more

Intuit's chief on economy: Welcome to the 'new normal'

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Intuit delivered second-quarter results that illustrate that it is recession-resistant, but a lot of the game plan revolves around cost cutting and innovating in a downturn. The rub: Intuit CEO Brad Smith doesn't consider the economic landscape a downturn per se, but a "new normal."

On the company's earnings conference call (statement), Smith said:

Now clearly we have seen some fundamental changes in the economy in the recent months. These changes have only bolstered my confidence that we are on the right path. We don't … Read more

Why desktop tax prep beats online tax prep

Preparing your taxes online offers some advantages over doing them on the desktop--you don't have to wait around for installations and updates, for one--but for taxpayers like me, there are certain rewards to desktop tax apps like TaxCut (review) and TurboTax (review). As part of CNET's tax coverage this year, we wanted to compare not just TaxCut and TurboTax, but also the benefits of filing taxes online versus filing with desktop software.

The benefit of desktop tax software boils down to two points: the number of e-files you get for your money and where the software stores your … Read more

How to throw your own tax party

"Taxes" and "fun" clearly don't belong in the same sentence--unless you have a little imagination and a sense of humor as warped as ours (here's a hint: deductible bingo).

From tech tips on how to set up a room for massive tax filing to the perfect stress-relieving games and yummy tax-themed snacks, our party guide will help you make the most out of the necessary evil of preparing your yearly tax return.

See also: Photos: TaxCut versus TurboTax TaxCut in-depth review TurboTax in-depth review

First Look video: TurboTax vs. TaxCut

Finding your way to the right tax-prep program is almost as complicated as doing the taxes themselves.

In this First Look video, we'll walk you through the pros and cons of the superpopular tax-prep programs TaxCut (by H&R Block) and TurboTax (by Intuit.) The differences between them add up to more than just looks and cost.