It cites a case pending in New York that would close the loophole, and garner the state $50 million in possible revenue. Instead, Pennsylvania is giving the book-business behemoth — or its customers, rather — a $1,750,000 tax break. And here I wondered how Carnegie Mellon was able to convince Bezos to fly to Pittsburgh for a commencement address.

Thanks to a 1992 Supreme Court ruling, that means Texas can collect sales tax. It's unclear how much more Amazon.com customers will have to pay, but in New York, Comptroller Susan Combs says the state would have picked up $541 million from Amazon in 2006 if it collected sales tax on orders shipped to New York residents. (Photo by Robert Scoble)

This comment thread over on Gawker is useful and so is this Wired column. Lifehacker has more tips, including this important one: If you haven't finished your taxes by now, just file an extension. Most of the rest of the advice amounts to "keep records," which is a bit late now. Here's what my dad, self-employed for 20+ years had to say:

If you are really a freelancer, then you are self-employed and you don't use Form 8829. Instead all your expenses (and income) show up on Schedule C. Sweet!

How to tell: if you receive a W-2 then you are an employee. If you receive a 1099-MISC then you are self-employed. (If you get nothing then your client is a bozo and you are self-employed.)

Like many of the responders said, get really creative with your expenses. Not illegal, just... creative. Keep track of EVERY expense in a diary or DayTimer (nothing keeps IRS at bay like contemporary written records). Keep track of business mileage ($.405 per mile or something).

Don't depreciate. Computers, books, software, can all be expensed in the first year (up to $19k or some such limit).

File fed and state quarterly payments.

You can lose money (have much more expenses than income) for a while. 2 out of 5 years, say. Eventually you'd better make some money. But those first few years, yowza, you can deduct all those cool computers and phones you use to write your columns.

Hope this helps...

The IRS has stepped up efforts to crack down on unpaid payroll taxes in recent years. This form of fraud hurts both employees, who may be on the hook for monies withheld from their paychecks but never sent to the government, as well as taxpayers. The IRS can press charges against not just the company but top officials as well; the corporate veil, a legal concept which protects officers and directors from the actions of a corporation, does not apply here, I'm told.

That likely explains why Red Herring reported last year that half its board members had quit. David Chao, the cofounder of VC firm Doll Capital Management, still serves on the board, according to his online biography. Is his reputation worth a continued association with the Herring? Vieux can be charming and persuasive. Perhaps he kept Chao and other board members in the dark.

If the IRS investigation concludes that the Herring didn't pay its taxes, its directors have an unpleasant choice: Confess to complicity in the fraud, or admit that they were among the many Vieux has duped. Embarrassing as it would be, I'd suggest they go with the latter. They'd have plenty of company.

Tennessee has no state income tax on wages, while California's levy tops out at 9.3 percent. To minimize his tax bill, Gore has every interest in minimizing the appearance that he's spending a lot of time in California. I'm sure that we'll be hearing lots of convenient reports about Gore videconferencing his way through weekly partner meetings. (Photo by Sarah A. Friedman/Fortune)