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	<title>Business &#38; MoneyCategory: Taxes &#124; Business &#38; Money &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Business &#38; MoneyCategory: Taxes &#124; Business &#38; Money &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>The Unspeakably Wonky Idea That Can Solve the Corporate Tax Debate</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/21/formulary-apportionment-the-unspeakably-wonky-idea-that-can-solve-the-corporate-tax-debate/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/21/formulary-apportionment-the-unspeakably-wonky-idea-that-can-solve-the-corporate-tax-debate/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 May 2013 19:12:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Christopher Matthews</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=80518</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Kentucky Senator Rand Paul isn&#8217;t happy that Apple executives are being questioned by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations today regarding their tax avoidance strategies. Apple is completely justified, Paul argued, in paying as little in taxes as is legally acceptable. &#8221;Instead of Apple executives we should have brought in here a giant mirror,&#8221; he said. &#8220;&#8221;Congress should be on trial here for creating a byzantine tax code.&#8221; Though committee chair Carl Levin would probably disagree with Paul&#8217;s characterization of today&#8217;s hearing as a politically motivated witch hunt, Paul&#8217;s analysis is at least correct in the sense that corporations will always pay the least amount of taxes they can within the bounds of the law &#8212; and if anybody is to blame for low effective corporate tax rates, it&#8217;s Congress. (MORE: The Corporate Tax Rate Is Lowest in Decades; Is Business Paying Its Fair Share?) So how can the law be crafted so that companies can&#8217;t engage in the sort of tactics that have allowed Apple to pay much lower tax rates that the law intends? One idea that&#8217;s been bandied about for many years, but which hasn&#8217;t made a lot of headway, goes by the not-so-glamorous name &#8220;formulary apportionment.&#8221; Under this system, the U.S. could tax companies based on what percentage of sales occur here. For instance, if Apple sold 30% of its products in America, then the U.S. government would tax 30% of Apple&#8217;s income at the statutory corporate tax rate of 35%. This sort of system would work best if it were implemented internationally, but as the Brookings Institute points out in its analysis of formulary apportionment, the U.S. could move to this sort of system unilaterally because the move would actually incentivize companies to report their profits in America. This is because we&#8217;d be taxing only a fraction of profits regardless of where they&#8217;re reported, and this dynamic would motivate other countries to jump aboard a formulary apportionment system as well. Some powerful, multinational corporations may oppose such a move for several reasons. The current system allows multinational corporations to play<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=80518&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Taxes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/taxes-economy-policy/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">christopherrmatthews</media:title>
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		<title>It’s Official: Tech Has Replaced Banking as the New Corporate Bad Guy</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/21/its-official-tech-has-replaced-banking-as-the-new-corporate-bad-guy/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/21/its-official-tech-has-replaced-banking-as-the-new-corporate-bad-guy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 May 2013 13:37:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rana Foroohar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tim Cook]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=80509</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[U.S. senators have accused Apple, the world’s most valuable company, of also being the world’s biggest tax avoider, as congressional investigators yesterday laid out how the technology giant has jumped through tax loophole after loophole in order to save some $44 billion of otherwise taxable income. Today they&#8217;ll follow up by grilling Apple CEO Tim Cook on Capitol Hill. Aside from the fact that Apple clearly has amazing tax lawyers, what does all this mean? Here are the four key things you need to know: 1. Corporate tax reform will be the big issue in Washington now that the deficit is off the front burner. As I wrote in back in January, American firms have some $2 trillion in cash on their balance sheets stashed abroad, in large part because they don’t want to bring that money home and pay America’s 35% corporate tax rate. (Ireland, where Apple apparently stashed much of its cash, has a 12.5% rate &#8212; though it appears Apple was able to negotiate an even lower one than that.) With unemployment still high, and wages still flat, the government wants companies to bring that cash back to the U.S. and put it work creating jobs at home – and the investigation into Apple’s finances is clearly a warning shot to other major U.S. multinationals. Tax reform is coming, not just in the U.S., but also in other major developed countries (more about that below). (MORE: Senate Panel Says Apple Uses Firms Outside the U.S. to Avoid Taxes) 2. Cash rich tech firms are replacing bankers as the new corporate bad guys. A year ago, I wrote a column called Learning To Hate Big Tech, which led with the investigation into Apple’s tax avoidance, but also laid out other Big Tech v. Government battles, like the push to get Amazon to pay local sales tax (which the government won) and the FTC’s anti-trust investigations into Google. The bottom line is that when you have a lot of cash and can move much of it abroad easily, as the biggest tech companies<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=80509&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Taxes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/taxes-economy-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/2013-05-21t161748z_1970799653_gm1e95m0.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Apple CEO Tim Cook appears before a Senate homeland security and governmental affairs investigations subcommittee hearing on offshore profit shifting and the U.S. tax code, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2013.</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">ranaforoohar</media:title>
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		<title>How Much Will a Legal Marijuana Habit Cost You?</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/20/how-much-will-a-legal-marijuana-habit-cost-you/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/20/how-much-will-a-legal-marijuana-habit-cost-you/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 20 May 2013 09:45:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Odd Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[colorado]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Colorado State University]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[legal marijuana]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marijuana]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[recreational marijuana]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[smoking pot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[washington]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[weed]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=80310</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you&#8217;re an average pot smoker in Colorado — paying average prices for average-quality marijuana — you can expect to spend around $650 on weed next year. A study conducted by the Colorado Futures Center at Colorado State University aimed to get to the bottom of how much the state can expect to collect in tax revenue, now that marijuana is legal. By doing a little extra math, we can get a rough estimate for what the average marijuana enthusiast will spend annually as well. Researchers estimate that in 2014, 642,772 Colorado residents, or about 12.5% of the state population, will take advantage of pot&#8217;s newly legal status. Analysts assumed each person would smoke or otherwise use 3.53 oz. (100 g) of marijuana annually, for a total of 2,268,985 oz. (about 64,320 kg) per year. All of these numbers may be underestimated, because they&#8217;re based on data compiled when recreational marijuana was illegal. In fact, there are so many unknowns in the realm of legal nonmedicinal pot that all of this math has a crude back-of-the-napkin quality to it. In any event, using the study&#8217;s numbers, the average marijuana enthusiast can expect to pay a retail price of $185 per oz. next year. Multiply that times 3.53 oz. — which no one can buy at once, mind you, because there&#8217;s a 1-oz. (28 g) purchase maximum for residents — and the total comes to $653 annually spent on pot. (MORE: This Exists: Medical Marijuana for Pets) How much the individual actually winds up spending on marijuana will depend on several factors, most obviously the quality (and price) of the pot and how much one smokes. Researchers used the crowdsourcing site Price of Weed to get the $185-per-oz. figure. As of early April, an ounce of marijuana was averaging $206 on the black market, and because the price is expected to drop once pot is legal, the study landed on $185. If the smoker is opting for higher-quality, $300-per-oz. marijuana, his annual pot bill would top $1,000. That&#8217;s for someone smoking the average of<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=80310&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Food and Beverage Industry</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/food-and-beverage-industry/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/6129-000104.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Marijuana Leaves</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<title>The IRS Was Wrong &#8212; But Many Political Groups Should Not Be Tax-Exempt</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/14/the-irs-was-wrong-but-many-political-groups-should-not-be-tax-exempt/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/14/the-irs-was-wrong-but-many-political-groups-should-not-be-tax-exempt/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 09:45:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Howard Gleckman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Tax Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[501(c)(4)]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tax exemptions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tea party]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79861</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Let’s start with the obvious. Those IRS employees who singled out conservative groups for scrutiny over their tax-exempt status were wrong, wrong, wrong.  Any whiff of politics at the agency is unacceptable, and this is far more than a whiff. In time, we shall see how far up the agency food chain the scandal goes. But this unsavory episode should also shine a light on the law that gives tax-exempt status to political groups of all ideological stripes, often described by the code section that grants their exemption—501(c)(4)s.  That is especially true since one outcome of this scandal will be to give these partisan groups even more freedom to operate outside of at least the spirit of the law. The only way to stop the proliferation what are often-secret campaign money laundries is for Congress to change the law that grants these groups this form of tax-exempt status. (JOE KLEIN: The IRS Mess—and the GOP&#8217;s Campaign to Paralyze Washington) As I wrote in a blog post back in 2010, the tax law is relatively clear about what a (c)(4) can and cannot do. The IRS defines these groups as “civic leagues, social welfare organizations, and local associations of employees.” Their net earnings are supposed to be used for charitable, educational, or recreational purposes. They may lobby and participate in political activities but their primary purpose must not be campaigning. Thanks to smart lawyers who have exploited an outdated law, the tax-exempt status of many groups may be perfectly legal. But others simply do not pass the smell test.  Does anybody really claim the primary activity of these organizations is anything other than getting their favorite candidates elected to political office, or defeating those they disagree with? If you have doubts, here is what one group, teaparty.org, says about itself on its website: We are going to build on the foundation of success we used to elect more governors, grab more seats in the House of Representatives and force the Washington establishment to respect the demands of “We The People.” In contrast to public charities organized as<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79861&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Taxes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/taxes-economy-policy/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">TIME.com</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<title>Please Don&#8217;t Use a &#8216;Best Places to Retire&#8217; List to Decide Where to Retire</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/13/please-dont-use-a-best-places-to-retire-list-to-decide-where-to-retire/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/13/please-dont-use-a-best-places-to-retire-list-to-decide-where-to-retire/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 12:00:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Decision Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Florida Real Estate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health Care]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Healthcare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AARP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[income taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[National Council on the Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Dakota]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oregon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[property taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[retirement community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sales taxes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79540</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It can be confusing making sense of the many “best places to retire” lists out there. In fact, it&#8217;s probably best to eye these lists with extreme skepticism &#8212; unless you really do want to spend your golden years in (gulp) frigid North Dakota. What with all the &#8220;best places to retire&#8221; lists in circulation, you&#8217;d think there would be some consensus about the top spots to kick back in retirement. Yet these lists are literally all over the map, and often contradictory. Bankrate.com&#8217;s new roundup ranking the &#8220;surprisingly best&#8221; states for retirement touts the Dakotas, West Virginia, and Mississippi — and ranks Oregon dead last in its corresponding &#8220;worst places&#8221; list. A Forbes list, on the other hand, included Medford, Ore., in its roundup of the best places to retire in 2013, and CNN/Money listed Portland, Ore., in a roundup published last fall. These discrepancies are the rule rather than the exception, partially because the rankings emphasize different criteria. Some lists emphasize college towns, whose populations tend to skew young, while others put a premium on communities with a lot of senior residents. Many publications advise looking at local tax rates, but they clash when it comes to deciding whether income, property or sales tax is most important. Here’s the good news: you can probably ignore them all. As Malcolm Gladwell pointed out two years ago in the New Yorker, rankings fail when they bite off more than they can chew. A “best of” list can aim to evaluate a broad set of criteria or a large number of contenders, but not both. “It’s an act of real audacity when a ranking system tries to be comprehensive and heterogeneous,” Gladwell wrote. Gladwell was critiquing the way college rankings are conducted, but the principle is the same when it comes to cars, restaurants and where to spend your retirement years. (MORE: Um, You&#8217;ve Actually Been Able to Order Authentic Viagra Online for Years) The way &#8220;best places to retire&#8221; lists are graded often misses the point: they don’t tell you much about<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79540&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retirement</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/retirement-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/retirement1.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">retirement</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>Viewpoint: Ben Bernanke, Enabler of America&#8217;s Fiscal Dysfunction</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/08/viewpoint-ben-bernanke-enabler-of-americas-fiscal-dysfunction/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/08/viewpoint-ben-bernanke-enabler-of-americas-fiscal-dysfunction/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 May 2013 09:45:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Sivy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Austerity]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Wall Street & Markets]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79402</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke doesn’t get much respect. PIMCO’s Bill Gross, who oversees some of the country’s biggest bond portfolios, has warned that Bernanke risks rousing inflationary dragons.  NYU professor Nouriel Roubini, who correctly anticipated the 2008 financial crisis, has argued that Bernanke’s policies are failing to help the economy and are instead fueling a stock market bubble that will end in a financial crisis. Even experts who are sympathetic have been cutting at times. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has acknowledged that the Fed chairman is a fine economist.  But his long-running disputes with Bernanke – known in some quarters as the Battle of the Beards – have included charges that Bernanke was assimilated by the Fed Borg, a reference to Star Trek’s collective alien intelligence that overwhelms individuality and personal will. Renowned investor and business magnate Warren Buffett has described Bernanke as &#8220;a gutsy guy,&#8221; but he has also criticized the Fed&#8217;s policies as brutal toward retirees, who depend on interest payments from their investments. Indeed, Bernanke himself acknowledged as much in a 2011 press conference: &#8221;We are quite aware that very low interest rates, particularly for a protracted period, do have costs for a lot of people. They have costs for savers. We have complaints from banks that their net interest margins are affected by low interest rates. Pension funds will be affected if low interest rates for a protracted period require them to make larger contributions. So we are aware of those concerns, and we take them very seriously. I think the response is, though, that there is a greater good here, which is the health and recovery of the U.S. economy.&#8221; (MORE: How Silicon Valley is Hollowing out the Economy) It’s understandable that a public official would feel obliged to do whatever is best for the country at any given moment. If the lack of sound long-term fiscal policies is holding back growth, then up to a point the Fed can justify pumping large quantities of money into the banking system as additional stimulus. But there is a limit. In the long run, excessive money creation may engender<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79402&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://business.time.com/2013/05/08/viewpoint-ben-bernanke-enabler-of-americas-fiscal-dysfunction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Federal Reserve</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/federal-reserve-economy-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/162795895.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/162795895.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, during a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 27, 2013.</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/b8875a12f713f52ecc28fe72efed7fd4?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">michaelsivy</media:title>
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		<title>Senate Bill Lets States Tax Internet Purchases</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/06/senate-bill-lets-states-tax-internet-purchases/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/06/senate-bill-lets-states-tax-internet-purchases/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2013 15:17:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / Stephen Ohlemacher</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79348</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON — Attention online shoppers: The days of tax-free shopping on the Internet may soon end for many of you. The Senate is scheduled to vote Monday on a bill that would empower states to collect sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. The measure is expected to pass because it has already survived three procedural votes. But it faces opposition in the House, where some Republicans regard it as a tax increase. A broad coalition of retailers is lobbying in favor of it. Under current law, states can only require retailers to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state. That means big retailers with stores all over the country like Walmart, Best Buy and Target collect sales taxes when they sell goods over the Internet. But online retailers like eBay and Amazon don&#8217;t have to collect sales taxes, except in states where they have offices or distribution centers. As a result, many online sales are tax-free, giving Internet retailers an advantage over brick-and-mortar stores. The bill would empower states to require businesses to collect taxes for products they sell on the Internet, in catalogs and through radio and TV ads. Under the legislation, the sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives. (MORE: This New Short Film Will Scare You into Paying Your Debt) The measure pits brick-and-mortar stores against online services. As Internet sales have grown, &#8220;It&#8217;s putting pressure on the brick-and-mortar competitors and it&#8217;s putting pressure on state and local sales tax revenues,&#8221; said David French, senior vice president of government relations for the National Retail Federation. &#8220;It&#8217;s time for Congress to create a level playing field so that all retailers are treated fairly.&#8221; On the other side, eBay says the bill doesn&#8217;t do enough to protect small businesses. Businesses with less than $1 million in online sales would be exempt. EBay wants to exempt businesses with up to $10 million in sales or fewer than 50 employees. &#8220;Complying and living under the tax laws of<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79348&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Taxes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/taxes-economy-policy/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>Too Cold for a Cold One? Big Beer Companies Blame Mother Nature for Slumping Sales</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/03/too-cold-for-a-cold-one-big-beer-companies-blame-mother-nature-for-slumping-sales/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/03/too-cold-for-a-cold-one-big-beer-companies-blame-mother-nature-for-slumping-sales/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2013 09:45:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Austerity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[alcohol]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anheuser-Busch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anheuser-Busch InBev]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bud Light]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Budweiser]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[craft beer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heineken]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Miller Lite]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spirits]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[weather]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wine]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79178</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Does bad weather correlate with less drinking? Well, perhaps it does with certain kinds of drinking. Unseasonably cold weather in Brazil, Europe and the U.S. is being blamed as one of the reasons sales are down in early 2013 for Bud Light, Miller Lite, Heineken and other mass-produced brews favored at picnics and tailgates. As more drinkers turn to craft beer, spirits and wine, they&#8217;ve been snubbing the ubiquitous brews that have been featured in TV ads for decades. Budweiser, the &#8220;king of beers,&#8221; saw sales decline 4.4% in 2011, for example, followed by another dip of around 6% last year. So the recent reports indicating that Anheuser-Busch InBev&#8217;s sales volume in the U.S. declined 5% in the first quarter of 2013 don&#8217;t come as much of a surprise. Neither does the news, highlighted in an AdAge story, that A-B InBev&#8217;s flagship Bud and Bud Light brands were down 7.7% and 6%, respectively, for the four-week sales period ending April 13. Miller Lite sales, meanwhile, declined 8.8% during that same four-week span, and Coors Light and Heineken experienced sales decreases as well. (MORE: Trouble Brewing? The Craft Beer vs. &#8216;Crafty&#8217; Beer Catfight) Yet even as diminishing sales for these well-known brands clearly seem to be part of a larger trend that&#8217;s been in the works for years as consumer tastes change, beer manufacturers are pointing to poor weather, higher taxes and rising gas prices as reasons why sales are down. In late April, Heineken CFO Rene Hooft Graafland told analysts that bad weather in Europe and North America was partially to blame for the brand suffering a 4.7% global sales slump at the end of last year. This week, Carlos Brito, CEO of A-B InBev, the world&#8217;s largest beer company, said sales were down thanks to poor weather and food inflation in Brazil, as well as higher gas prices and weather in early 2013 that was considerably colder in the U.S. than the previous year. Indeed, weather does seem to play a factor in sales of certain beers. &#8220;Light lagers [like Bud<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79178&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Food and Beverage Industry</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/food-and-beverage-industry/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/sb10070109j-001-e13437518721551.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/sb10070109j-001-e13437518721551.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">beer</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>10 Steps to Spring Clean Your Finances</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/29/10-steps-to-spring-clean-your-finances/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/29/10-steps-to-spring-clean-your-finances/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:45:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[401(k) Savings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Banking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Decision Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health Insurance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Insurance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Investing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[401k]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[budgeting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[credit cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[insurance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IRS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[saving money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[savings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78144</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When it comes to spring cleaning, you probably haul the junk out of your garage, scrub your fridge, and wash the rugs and drapes. But don&#8217;t forget about your personal finances. Just after tax season is the perfect time to perform an annual evaluation and tidying up of your budget, bank accounts, debts, and investments. Here are ten steps for straightening up your finances: Evaluate your debt load. How much do you owe, and how much are you paying the lenders in interest? Comparison shop what you&#8217;re paying in interest with what&#8217;s available now, and consider refinancing your mortgage or asking your credit card company for a lower interest rate. If you want to take advantage of the 0% balance transfer offers that are all over the place, make sure you’ll be able to pay off the transferred balance in full before the promotional period expires — and resist the temptation to run up new debt on the old card. Chip away at that debt. The question has always been whether you should you start paying off the balance with the highest interest or knock out the smallest bills first. Although starting with the highest interest rate makes the most sense mathematically, researchers found that people are more motivated to continue with a debt-reduction plan if they knock out a small debt in its entirety rather than merely a chunk of a bigger one. Also known as the &#8220;snowball approach&#8221; as advocated by personal finance expert Dave Ramsey, paying off one debt gives you the momentum to keep chipping away until that debt is history. Update your budget. If you’ve undergone a major job-related change like getting a big promotion or switching from two incomes to one, revisit your household budget. If you&#8217;d like to have one partner stay home with a child or go back to school full-time in 2013, the best way to adjust to being a single-breadwinner family is to start living like one six months beforehand. This will expose any weak spots in your budget or expenses you’ve<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78144&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Personal Finance</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/personal-finance-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/145629365-copy.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Piggy Bank</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/9a5a9e4f28beb5afb59b1202632d219a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>More Booze Please! The National Drive to Lift Restrictions on Alcohol-preneurs</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/24/more-booze-please-the-national-drive-to-lift-restrictions-on-alcohol-preneurs/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/24/more-booze-please-the-national-drive-to-lift-restrictions-on-alcohol-preneurs/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Apr 2013 09:45:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Entrepreneurship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Small Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[alcohol]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[beer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brewpub]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[craft beer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[craft breweries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[liquor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[local]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michigan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nanobreweries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nanobrewery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New Hampshire]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[restaurant]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spirits]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[texas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wine]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78354</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The craft beer industry has been on a tear, boasting a 17% rise in sales last year and continued growth expected going forward. Lately, it looks like a big surge is on tap not only for craft breweries, but small businesses that make wine and spirits as well. Like elected officials in virtually every state, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has been an outspoken proponent of local businesses. Snyder even created something called the Office of Regulatory Reinvention a couple of years ago. It may sound like just another bureaucracy, but in fact its goal is to eliminate the red tape that snags entrepreneurs. In early 2013, a government newsletter was circulated boasting that the ORR had successfully helped to eliminate 1,000 regulations in Michigan since the office was opened. Apparently, most of these regulations were obsolete or pointless, and they were eliminated because they were burdens to local businesses. Lately, Governor Snyder and the Michigan Liquor Control Commission are pushing for reforms that would make it easier for local businesses to make and sell craft beer and other alcoholic beverages. The Detroit News listed a few of the ways that small businesses could be helped by the proposed changes: Allowing small wineries to offer tastings and sell their creations at farmers&#8217; markets through special permits. Letting microbreweries making up to 30,000 barrels of beer a year sell to wholesalers, to retailers and directly to customers in limited amounts. Permitting smaller distilleries to sell limited amounts of their liquor directly to bars, stores or restaurants. (MORE: Trouble Brewing? The Craft Beer Vs. &#8216;Crafty Beer&#8217; Catfight) Elsewhere in the country, Prohibition-era laws that affect mom-and-pop alcohol manufacturers—and perhaps scare some aspiring entrepreneurs from starting up businesses—are also being targeted as outdated and overly burdensome. In Texas, which welcomed 25 new craft breweries last year, state officials are currently considering legislation that would allow breweries to sell beer directly to the public (rather than through a distributor), and also allow brewpubs to work with distributors that would help sell their products in liquor<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78354&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Small Business</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/small-business/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<item>
		<title>The Real Reason Wall Street Is Fighting the Online Sales Tax</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/23/why-is-wall-street-fighting-the-online-sales-tax/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/23/why-is-wall-street-fighting-the-online-sales-tax/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:35:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Christopher Matthews</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wall Street & Markets]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78218</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s rare these days to find a bill that garners bipartisan support, but members of both parties in the U.S. Senate are getting behind the Marketplace Fairness Act, which will enable states to collect sales taxes on products sold by online, out-of-state vendors. The goal of the bill is to level the playing field between online retailers — which don&#8217;t have to collect sales taxes on items sold to customers in states where they have no physical presence — and brick-and-mortar vendors. (MORE: Why Pension Funds Are Hooked on Private Equity) Predictably, the bill has the support of big brick-and-mortar retailers like Walmart, and is being fought by online outfits like eBay. More surprisingly, Wall Street jumped into the fray yesterday, with one industry group — the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) — coming out against the measure. Needless to say, SIFMA probably isn&#8217;t concerned about you paying sales tax the next time you buy a blender on Amazon. Here&#8217;s what SIFMA had to say: We believe the impact of this legislation on trade in services has not been adequately explored by Congress. The bill could lead to unexpected costs being passed on to consumers of financial services, including sales taxes on services or state-level stock-transaction taxes. So while the bill&#8217;s stated goal is simply to force online retailers to collect sales tax that is now going uncollected by states, Wall Street sees it as a Trojan horse that will allow state governments far away from New York City to soak the financial-services industry with new sales taxes on financial transactions. This strikes me as a rational fear given Wall Street&#8217;s unpopularity, and the fact that, though it has the ear of Washington and Albany, its lobbyists are far less influential in most state governments across the country. And if there&#8217;s anything the financial-services industry is opposed to, it&#8217;s a financial-transaction tax. The industry is currently trying to beat back a European financial-transaction tax that is being implemented in 11 countries in the E.U. The E.U. tax would charge a 0.1% tax on transactions involving equity or debt<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78218&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Wall Street &amp; Markets</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/wall-street-markets/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">christopherrmatthews</media:title>
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		<title>Tax Day Freebies 2013: April 15 Is for Filing Taxes and Snagging Handouts</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/15/tax-day-freebies-2013-april-15-is-for-filing-taxes-and-snagging-handouts/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/15/tax-day-freebies-2013-april-15-is-for-filing-taxes-and-snagging-handouts/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AMC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AMC Theatres]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[april 15]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Arby's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[California Tortilla]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cinnabon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fast food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freebies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[giveaways]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Great American Cookies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[income taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[movies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[popcorn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[promotions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tax Day]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tax refund]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77687</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A new Pew survey has it that one-third of Americans actually like doing their taxes. Perhaps more surprisingly, the prospect of free cinnabons and free curly fries on Tax Day has nothing to do with it. Among fans of filing income taxes, the most popular reason cited for not hating the process is the likelihood of getting a refund. Some folks also like doing their taxes because they &#8220;just don&#8217;t mind or are good at it,&#8221; because it gives them a sense of control, or because they enjoy the feeling of doing their duty and paying their fair share. Marketers have come to like Tax Day for very different reasons—because it gives them yet another opportunity to generate publicity and goodwill among consumers. In recent years, April 15 has become a popular day for freebies and deals from all sorts of restaurants and retailers. The filing of income taxes is now an annual event that marketers use to get on the good side of consumers with promotional giveaways, alongside Valentine&#8217;s Day, free ice cream cone day, and other random freebie days. This year is no exception. Here are some of the best deals offered in honor of Tax Day 2013: AMC Theatres: Concessions stands at theaters are giving away free orders of small popcorn from April 12 to 15. (MORE: Your 6 Biggest Tax Time What-Ifs &#8212; Answered) Arby&#8217;s: Use the linked coupon for a free order of curly fries or potato cakes on April 15. Cinnabon: Two free Cinnabon Bites offered per customer on April 15, while supplies last. California Tortilla: Give the password (&#8220;1040&#8243;) for a free order of chips and queso (with any purchase) on April 15. Great American Cookies: Each customer gets a free Birthday Cake Cookie on April 15. Office Depot: Make copies of up to 25 pages of your income taxes (in black and white, single-sided) free of charge on April 15. (MORE: The Hidden Cost of Tax Refunds) For more Tax Day deals, check out the lists rounded up by sources such as<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77687&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://business.time.com/2013/04/15/tax-day-freebies-2013-april-15-is-for-filing-taxes-and-snagging-handouts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Taxes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/taxes-economy-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/a0003-000110-e1365784872746.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Handout, People with Open Hands</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>The Real Significance of the Bitcoin Boom (and Bust)</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/12/the-real-significance-of-the-bitcoin-boom-and-bust/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/12/the-real-significance-of-the-bitcoin-boom-and-bust/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:45:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Sivy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Banking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Currency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[E-commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Federal Reserve]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Privacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Regulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Information Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology & Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wall Street & Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wealth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[World Finance]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77371</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The volatile rise-and-fall of Bitcoin has prompted lots of stories explaining why the online virtual currency is a classic bubble. Many compare it to tulip mania in 17th century Holland, where prices of rare tulip bulbs soared to absurd heights and then crashed, ruining the speculative investors who had bought them. But the Bitcoin phenomenon is more than a bubble. It says something important about the current and future state of the global economy. The scale of the recent boom-and-bust has been staggering indeed. At the start of the year, a Bitcoin was worth $13.51. Earlier this week, it traded as high as $266. And on Thursday, it plummeted to less than $100, as one of the exchanges where Bitcoins are traded closed temporarily. This would be comparable to the exchange rate for the British pound soaring from $1.62 (where it was on Jan. 1) to $31.90 and then falling back to $12. Such monumental appreciation and volatility are clearly the result of speculation — people buying the online currency just because they think its value will rise, not because they want to use it to purchase goods and services. But Bitcoins’ gains are not the result of speculation alone. They partly reflect the fact that the Bitcoin system is much better designed than previous online currencies. And more significantly, the run-up also reflects anxiety about the safety of the global banking system and the stability of major international currencies. (MORE: No Money, No Problems: Canada Considers Completely Digital Currency) The technicalities of the Bitcoin system are complex, but to make this online currency more successful than previous versions, the designers overcame two key challenges. First, to prevent counterfeiting, they attached a history of transactions to each currency unit — but allowed users to keep their transactions nearly anonymous. Counterfeiting is hard because fake Bitcoins would need an authenticated history to pass muster. Second, they strictly controlled the supply of Bitcoins outstanding — thereby saving it from the disastrous fate of, for example, the paper currency known as assignats that were issued during<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77371&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>World Finance</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/world-finance/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/biz-bitcoin-130412.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Bitcoin Value Soars And Drops</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/b8875a12f713f52ecc28fe72efed7fd4?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">michaelsivy</media:title>
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		<title>The 6 Most Common Tax Time What-Ifs, Answered</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/12/your-6-biggest-tax-time-what-ifs-answered/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/12/your-6-biggest-tax-time-what-ifs-answered/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:45:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77506</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[April 15 is just around the corner &#8212; Monday, to be exact. For many people, it can be a time fraught with anxiety. Here&#8217;s how to handle six of the what-ifs most likely to keep you up at night.  What if I need more time? File an extension. It&#8217;s IRS form 4868, and you can do it online. That gives you until Oct. 15 to file your federal income taxes. If you don&#8217;t, a failure-to-file penalty kicks in, which is 5% per month of any taxes you owe. But (yes, there is a &#8220;but&#8221;), it’s only an extension of time to send in your paperwork, says Mark Steber, chief tax officer at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service. If you&#8217;re getting a refund, you don&#8217;t need to worry. But if you owe or even if you think you might owe, you&#8217;ll have to do some number-crunching now, because 90% of your estimated tax liability has to be paid by April 15. Just taking a guess isn&#8217;t really a good idea, Steber says. &#8220;You can guess, and many people do, but you have to guess in the IRS’s favor. You have to overestimate, not underestimate.&#8221; If the IRS doesn&#8217;t get paid what you owe them by the 15th, a late-payment penalty is applied. This is 1/2% per month on your outstanding tax bill. If you&#8217;re self-employed or in another situation where you pay estimated quarterly taxes, you could also get dinged with an additional 1/2% per month penalty fee for underpaying those. (MORE: The Hidden Cost of Tax Refunds) What if I owe more than I can pay? The IRS has a few options for people who are surprised by a big-ticket tax bill. You have to be pro-active, though. Reaching out to the IRS, even if it&#8217;s to say, &#8220;Hey, I can&#8217;t pay you right now,&#8221; is much better than waiting for them to initiate contact. One option is a short term extension. You get up to 120 days, and you&#8217;ll have to pay the late payment penalty plus interest. The IRS ties<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77506&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Taxes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/taxes-economy-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/2100_biz_taxforms_0713.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">2100_biz_taxforms_0713</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>Is the Global Economy Slowly Falling Apart?</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/05/is-the-global-economy-slowly-falling-apart/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/05/is-the-global-economy-slowly-falling-apart/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Apr 2013 12:00:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Sivy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Austerity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bonds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Federal Reserve]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Information Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Investing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oil]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Portfolio Strategy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stocks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology & Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wall Street & Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[World Finance]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=76345</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s conventional wisdom that the U.S. economy is steadily recovering from the recession, even if progress is slow and disappointing. But there’s also a widespread sense that long-term economic prospects are deteriorating all around the world. Young people can’t find jobs. Budgets keep being cut in both the public and the private sectors. And the projected increase in debt over the next decade figures to be a huge burden for the most highly developed economies. Political systems seem unable to cope with problems that ought to be fairly easy to solve, or at least contain. As the recent crisis in Cyprus demonstrates, a minor dislocation can become a threat to the entire global financial system overnight. The U.S. is deeply troubled too. Deficits remain enormous, and the checks and balances of the political system have turned into a logjam. In a new book, David Stockman, President Ronald Reagan’s budget director, chronicles the relentless downward spiral of America’s political and financial systems. He concludes: “The future is bleak &#8230; When the latest bubble pops, there will be nothing to stop the collapse.” This view may be extreme, but there’s hard evidence to substantiate the idea that the global economy is becoming more rickety. Although the developed world today is considerably richer overall than it was when Stockman worked in the Reagan Administration, creditworthiness has been steadily declining. The global supply of AAA-rated government bonds has shrunk by more than 60% since the financial crisis began. And while dozens of big U.S. corporations had top bond ratings 30 years ago, today that group has dwindled to four: Automatic Data Processing, Exxon Mobil, Johnson &#38; Johnson and Microsoft. How seriously should we take these bellwethers? Although there are real problems that need to be solved, the long-term picture doesn&#8217;t look entirely bleak. Four major trends will determine global economy stability in the long run: (MORE: Marx&#8217;s Revenge: How Class Struggle Is Shaping the World) Demographics Populations develop bulges because of changing birthrates. In the most simplistic terms, a bulge of high-spirited young people correlates with<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=76345&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Economy &amp; Policy</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/b8875a12f713f52ecc28fe72efed7fd4?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">michaelsivy</media:title>
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		<title>The Next Big Thing In Corporate-Tax Avoidance</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/03/the-next-big-thing-in-corporate-tax-avoidance/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/03/the-next-big-thing-in-corporate-tax-avoidance/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Apr 2013 09:45:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Christopher Matthews</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=76312</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s no secret that big corporations are adept at paying as little in taxes as possible, and that one of the most commonly used strategies for tax avoidance is keeping profits earned at foreign subsidiaries abroad in order to escape the U.S.&#8217;s relatively high corporate tax rate on those earnings. But according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, it turns out that these firms are actually able to tap this cash after all, simply by taking out loans and using foreign cash as collateral. According to the Journal:  &#8220;U.S. multinational companies routinely set up units in low-tax jurisdictions to pool cash from their global operations and lend to other parts of the business, tax lawyers and corporate treasurers say. These units operate as internal banks or captive commercial-paper markets, they say, facilitating intracompany lending and charging and paying interest rates along the way.&#8221; The IRS sets strict rules governing this behavior, however. The loans must be short term. Their maturities cannot remain outstanding for more than 30 days after the fiscal quarter in which the loan was issued ends, but companies are generally able to borrow liberally from subsidiaries if the loan terms are restricted to one fiscal quarter, according to the Journal. (MORE: The Corporate Tax Rate Is Lowest in Decades; Is Business Paying Its Fair Share?) Companies engaging in these tactics surely can&#8217;t be blamed for attempting to minimize taxes, but this sort of behavior just underscores the absurd incentives that are written into our corporate tax code, which is badly in need of reform. The share of the federal government&#8217;s revenue that comes from corporate taxes has been steadily declining for years, and much of that has to do with large firms&#8217; increasingly global presence and ability to manipulate their operations across different tax jurisdictions to pay as little as possible. Some economists have proposed that we should do away with the corporate tax altogether, and shift the tax burden onto the owners of corporations, i.e. the shareholders. After all, it doesn&#8217;t make a lot of sense to tax corporate profits<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=76312&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Taxes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/taxes-economy-policy/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/8f9a71742e964af96ca58c01a0577a0d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">christopherrmatthews</media:title>
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		<title>The $600 Billion the IRS Can&#8217;t Collect</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/03/27/the-600-billion-the-i-r-s-cant-collect/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/03/27/the-600-billion-the-i-r-s-cant-collect/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 27 Mar 2013 09:45:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Christopher Matthews</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=75711</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Although you wouldn&#8217;t know it by the weather, April is fast approaching. And that means in the coming weeks, millions of Americans will be breaking out their W-2s and their favorite tax software to figure out exactly how much money they owe their government. Of course, in an economy as large and complex as America&#8217;s there are plenty of folks who don&#8217;t pay exactly what they owe. These people can range from those engaged in illicit activities like drug dealing to legitimate service industry workers, like babysitters, who are paid in cash. The difference between what is legally owed the federal government and what it actually collects in taxes each year is called the &#8220;tax gap,&#8221; which the IRS recently estimated reached $385 billion in 2006. Other studies have placed that figure higher &#8212; at upwards of $600 billion. So who owes this money and why? The single biggest contributor to the tax gap &#8212; accounting for 84% of it &#8212; are people who simply under-report their income. This doesn&#8217;t usually happen to folks whose employers withholds taxes from their paychecks, as 99% of people in that position end up paying their income taxes in full and on time. The biggest headache for the IRS is collecting business income from the self employed, who must voluntarily report their earnings, and may &#8212; accidentally or on purpose &#8211; omit items such as income received through bartering, debt cancellation, or kickbacks. The IRS says only 44% of taxes owed on such business income end up getting collected by the agency. (MORE: Don’t Let Identity Thieves Steal Your Tax Refund) Actually recouping much of this money, however, may be tougher than it sounds. Often the resources needed to collect unpaid taxes outweigh the extra revenue that would be collected. But many believe that merely simplifying the tax code would enable the IRS to collect a greater percentage of taxes owed. This is the approach advocated by Susan Striz in a 2010 West Virginia Law Review article. She points to a 2002 study by the Government Accountability<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=75711&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Taxes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/taxes-economy-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/a94582113.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/a94582113.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/a94582113.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">IRS</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/8f9a71742e964af96ca58c01a0577a0d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">christopherrmatthews</media:title>
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		<title>Don&#8217;t Let Identity Thieves Steal Your Tax Refund</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/03/26/dont-let-identity-thieves-steal-your-tax-refund/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/03/26/dont-let-identity-thieves-steal-your-tax-refund/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Mar 2013 09:45:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=75513</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[More than a million Americans have their tax refunds stolen by identity thieves every year — and that number is skyrocketing. National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson told Congress in a January report that the number of tax-related identity theft cases surged 650% since 2008. A CNN article last year says tax returns have become a popular target for crime rings who decide drugs are too risky. Whereas refund scams of generations past would involve setting up a physical storefront to rip people off, the rise of the Internet has made it much easier for criminals. Our reliance on electronic communication and transactions — specifically, the popularity of e-filing and prepaid debit cards — make it easy for a criminal to assume someone else’s identity and steal their refund in a way that’s nearly untraceable. Generally, an identity thief obtains the victim&#8217;s information, files a false return in the victim&#8217;s name, and has the refund loaded onto a prepaid debit card, after which the crook and the money both vanish. (MORE: 7 Tax Breaks You Probably Overlooked) Other scam artists pretend to be legitimate tax preparers or companies that help people settle back taxes &#8212; usually by setting up virtual &#8220;storefronts&#8221; on the Web &#8212; and then make off with taxpayers&#8217; refunds or personal information. The IRS calls identity theft and refund fraud a “top priority,” and says it’s devoting more resources to addressing the problem as it grows. As of last September, it was working on 650,000 such cases, according to Olson’s report. It more than doubled the number of staffers working on identity-theft crimes to more than 3,000. Even so, critics say they are still not keeping up with the surge of thefts. &#8220;They are making an attempt to improve the experience of taxpayers who are victims,&#8221; Raul Vargas, manager of fraud operations at IDTheft911, told Accounting Today in November. &#8220;But the IRS has always been a tax season or two behind the problem.&#8221; Olson’s January report agrees that the agency isn’t doing enough or acting fast enough to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=75513&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://business.time.com/2013/03/26/dont-let-identity-thieves-steal-your-tax-refund/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Taxes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/taxes-economy-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/600_biz_tax_10151.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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		<media:content url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/600_biz_tax_10151.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Who Should Pay More in Tax</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>What You Need to Know As Tax Time Rolls Around</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/03/25/what-you-need-to-know-as-tax-time-rolls-around/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/03/25/what-you-need-to-know-as-tax-time-rolls-around/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:00:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=75030</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Every year the tax code changes, at least slightly, and last year was no exception. Here are the most significant recent developments that should figure into your thinking as you prepare your 2012 tax returns and begin to think about tax planning for the current calendar year.  The biggest tax-related news affecting filers today was the passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act at the beginning of this year. In addition to changing how the Alternative Minimum Tax is calculated on 2012 taxes, it preserved the status quo for a number of temporary tax breaks, extending some retroactively and others into the 2013 tax year. Marginal tax brackets also rose a little bit, so even if you made a couple thousand dollars more last year, you&#8217;ll probably owe the same percentage as you did last year. Deductions for 2012 The standard deduction for those who don&#8217;t itemize rose by $150 for single filers and $300 for joint filers &#8212; to $5,950 if you&#8217;re filing solo and $11,900 if you&#8217;re filing with your spouse. And the amount you get to deduct for both you and your dependents increased by $100 to $3,800. In addition, several specific deductions were added, increased, or preserved: Joint filers who earn up to $130,000 can get a deduction of up to $4,000 on qualifying college tuition and fees; those who earn up to $160,000 can deduct up to $2,000. People who live in states where there is no income tax are allowed to deduct sales taxes they paid over the past year. Homeowners paying private mortgage insurance may deduct the amount of those payments on their 2012 taxes. Because this is a two-year extension, PMI can be deducted when tax time rolls around next year, too. Teachers: A deduction of up to $250 in out-of-pocket classroom expenses expired &#8212; but was retroactively extended for filing year 2012. Business travelers who pay their own way may be able to deduct the cost of hotel stays, provided that their lodging expenses meet certain criteria. &#8220;For example, an employer<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=75030&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Taxes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/taxes-economy-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/taxes.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">taxe forms</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>Why We&#8217;re So Irrational When It Comes to Tax Refunds</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/03/18/why-were-so-irrational-when-it-comes-to-tax-refunds/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/03/18/why-were-so-irrational-when-it-comes-to-tax-refunds/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:00:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kit Yarrow</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economics & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Odd Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tax Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[irrational]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IRS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tax refund]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[withholding]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=74722</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Think about it: A tax refund is just that &#8212; a refund of your own hard-earned money. It&#8217;s not a gift or a stroke of good fortune. The problem is that most people don&#8217;t look at tax refunds this way. Most Americans—a full 75%—receive refunds after filing their taxes. In other words, most Americans have too much money withheld from their paychecks. More than half of Americans—58%, to be exact—say they intentionally plan to receive a refund each year. Understandably, people do so to avoid an unexpected tax payment come April 15, with the idea that it&#8217;s better to withhold a bit more to be on the safe side. But the average tax refund will be over $2,800 this year &#8212; well beyond “a bit more.” Clearly people have other motives for over withholding, or they just don&#8217;t put much thought into it. Here are the four ways we&#8217;re irrational when it comes to tax refunds, and arguments for why it&#8217;s better to approach the topic far more logically: 1. Mistaking Uncle Sam for Your Rich Uncle Wouldn’t it be great to have a wealthy relative who sends you a fat check every spring? That’s how many view their tax refunds: as gifts from the government. On Facebook, Trish, 36, posted a photo of her new juicer along with a caption that read, “Thanks Uncle Sam!” (MORE: Do We Really Need Another Credit Score? Maybe.) In the course of my research, I spoke with many consumers like Trish, who seem to think that tax refunds pretty much appear out of the blue. Max, 55, told me that he knows he’ll get back at least $1,000 every year. He generously earmarks $1,000 for his church, but anything above that is what Max calls “free money.” When people view their tax refund as a gift or some kind of reward or bonus, they spend it differently. They’re more likely to splurge, and it’s easier to rationalize purchases. For example, Nancy, 48, normally prides herself on her frugality, but when it comes to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=74722&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Taxes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/taxes-economy-policy/</primary_category_link>
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