April Fools day is a challenge for tax bloggers.  No matter how outlandish an idea you have for a joke story, chances are that the legislation has already been proposed.   Today’s challenge:  Real tax headlines are mixed with fake ones from today’s Tax Policy Blog.  Can you pick the real fakes without peeking?

A. Protecting Consumers by Eliminating the Business Deduction for Advertising

B. Could tax breaks keep psychiatrists in Iowa?

C. Proposal would give artists tax credit for fair market value of donated work.

D.President Obama Backs Proposal to Legalize Marijuana, Tax Junk Food

E. Could Taxing Violent Video Games Actually Save Lives?

F.  Senator backs off tax on condoms, contact  lenses

G. Following Cyprus Lead, Senator Proposes Tax on “Everyone Else”

H. Mexico Considers Border Fence to Halt Californians Fleeing High Taxes

I. California politician proposes tax on email

Answers at bottom of post.

 

In fact, the research activities credit is noteworthy for its excessive cost — more than $45 million each of the past three years — and the lack of any demonstration of a public benefit. This giveaway is so loosely managed that companies are not even required to disclose how many jobs are related to the taxpayer cost, let alone demonstrate that the jobs would go away without the subsidy.

Related:  Your tax dollars at work for somebody else.

 

David Brunori gets righteous on the “incentives” industry in today’s Tax Notes (unfortunately for subscribers only):

Incentives are inequitable. They’re unnecessary — and hence a waste of money. They distort markets. They breed cronyism. If the players involved weren’t establishment politicians, household name corporations, and prestigious law and accounting firms, we’d describe them as grifters.

Why wouldn’t we describe  ”establishment politicians, household name corporations, and prestigious law and accounting firms” as grifters?  Redundancy?

    Here’s a new one. A Pakistani company, the Fatima Group, would like to open a fertilizer plant in Indiana. The company, which for all I know makes the Cadillac of fertilizer, is seeking both federal and state incentives to build its factory. The twist is that the Fatima Group’s fertilizer has been used in 80 percent of roadside bombs in Afghanistan. That’s awkward.

Right now Iowa seems to lead the world in fertilizing fertilizer companies with tax money.  No doubt explosive growth is just down the road.

 

Lawrence Zelenak, Learning to Love Form 1040: Two Cheers for the Return-Based Mass Income Tax (via the TaxProf).  I’m ready to see if absence might make the heart grow fonder.

Don Beaudreax takes Mr. Zelenak’s thinking to its logical conclusion:

If spending time and effort connecting with tax collectors helpfully “draws our attention to our duties as citizens,” then tax withholding short-circuits that attention.  So why not eliminate withholding and oblige each income earner to pay every cent of his or her tax bill by writing personal checks to the IRS?  Not only would elimination of withholding make us even more attentive to our “duties as citizens,” we would also – as any behavioral economist would point out – gain a truer and more fully felt sense of the price we pay for Uncle Sam’s splendors.

Reading Don Beaudreax Cafe Hayek blog for one week will make you smarter than all of Iowa’s legislators combined.

 

Russ Fox begins his annual countown of bad tax ideas with  Bozo Tax Tip #10: Report Income That You Didn’t Earn

 

William Perez,  April 1st Deadline to Take Required Minimum Distributions for 2012

Kay Bell,  IRS loses latest round in tax preparer regulation lawsuit

Brian Strahle,  New York “Amazon Law” Ruled Constitutional:  But Wait, There’s More

Trish McIntire,  Return Is Done but you Owe.

Peter Reilly,  First Circuit Tells Tax Court To Look Harder For Fraudulent Transfer

TaxGrrrl, Taxes From A To Z (2013): P Is For Passive Activity Rules

David Cay Johnston, Spam and Taxes (Tax.com)

Howard Gleckman,  Is This a Good Time to Reform the Mortgage Interest Deduction? (TaxVox)

 

Zumba instructor finds way to draw men to her studio.  From RegisterCitizen.com:

The dance instructor who used her Zumba fitness  studio as a front for prostitution faces jail time after pleading guilty  in a case that captivated a quiet seaside town known for its beaches  and picturesque homes.

The plea agreement, which calls for a  10-month sentence, spares Alexis Wright from the prospect of a  high-profile trial featuring sex videos, exhibitionism and pornography.  She’s scheduled to be sentenced on May 31.

Wright quietly answered  “guilty” 20 times on Friday when the judge read the counts, which  include engaging in prostitution, promotion of prostitution, conspiracy,  tax evasion and theft by deception.

Remember, just because they pay in cash doesn’t make it tax-free.  

 

News you can use.  “Just Go Rob the H&R Block Instead, Their Computers Are Nicer” (Going Concern)

 

Fakes: A, D, G, H.