Valleywag
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Posts Tagged “
Taxes
”
Tax tips for bloggers from my dad
Californians have another 7 and a half hours to file their taxes. If you haven't started yet, it's time to jump on TurboTax.com and get cracking. This will be my first year filing taxes without a W-2. As a freelancer, I've been looking for tips on deductions and tax filing in general. MORE
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deathwatch
Red Herring owes the taxman $2 million, ex-employees say
The longevity of troubled tech publisher Red Herring was a mystery until one ex-employee enlightened me: Publisher Alex Vieux simply doesn't pay his bills. What a brilliant way to achieve positive cash flow! Alas, Vieux has encountered a creditor who won't be stiffed: the IRS. The agency is looking into Vieux's Herring for what may be $2 million in unpaid payroll taxes, ex-employees who have been contacted by investigators have told me. Vieux is experienced at dodging the taxman: Farley Duvall, a longtime lieutenant, told colleagues he'd fled French police seeking to seize company documents in Paris, and drove in the middle of the night to Switzerland, where he rebuilt the Herring's European operations. Now Swiss authorities are asking questions about — you guessed it — unpaid taxes. But it's the American taxman who may put Vieux behind bars. More »
great moments in pr
FedEx tries to bury scary IRS story
FedEx was hit with a $319 million tax bill over the job classification of FedEx ground employees. A number of lawsuits have been filed by FedEx ground drivers who believed the company was responsible for their taxes; FedEx maintained that they were independent contractors. That's not the interesting part, though. FedEx, in a tried and true public relations move, "took out the trash" and released the bad news late Friday on a holiday weekend. The earliest story we could find on the IRS charge was released at 6:34 pm Eastern, well beyond when most people were reading news stories. Very clever, FedEx. (Photo by Brosner)
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Al Gore's Tennessee tax trick
Does Al Gore's accountant choose the site of his magazine photo shoots? As we noted, Gore should be making much more use of his San Francisco condo now that he's a partner at Kleiner Perkins. But the Fortune article which broke the news of his hire lensed him in his Nashville, Tennessee home. Granted, I'm sure the Nashville manse is more filled with greenery than the St. Regis highrise, making it a better backdrop for Gore's new career as an environmental profiteer. That's not the only reason it's good for his image, though. More »
The U.S. Senate has passed a 7-year extension of the ban on state and local taxes on Internet access. The House previously passed a bill with a 4-year extension. The bill will now be sent to committee to hammer out a compromise before heading to the president's desk, where he's likely to sign it. Read his lips: no Net taxes. [Reuters]
The House of Representatives has approved a four-year extension to a ban on Internet taxation (it still has to make it through the Senate). Since 1998, Americans have enjoyed tax-free access to the Internet and its brick-and-mortar-less stores — at least when the latter are based out of state. A plea to the Senate: Please don't reinstate taxes that have yet to exist. Instead, work on rationalizing the nation's insane sales-tax structure. [News.com]
Boston-based VC Jeff Bussgang explains the proposed private equity tax change. "In practice, my VC friends cynically tell me the whole debate is moot. If Congress passes the contemplated law, an army of lawyers and accountants will begin advising us on intricate loopholes to structurally avoid the whole thing!" [Seeing Both Sides]
