When the IRS began using computers in the early 60s, there was national outrage: how could a machine be trusted to look after our finances? This 10-minute video, fresh from the archives, was an attempt to convince people that everything would be OK.
Happy Tax Day! Do you know where your tax dollars are going? No? Doesn’t that seem a little ridiculous? What if you could tell the government exactly how to spend your hard-earned money? Now you can—even if it is hypothetically.
The IRS isn’t exactly known for playing fast and loose with deadlines—your deadlines, that is. But when it comes to its own, its apparently a lot more willing to take their chances. In this case, that means paying millions of dollars to keep running Windows XP long after the deadline has come and gone.
Over the weekend, Ross Ulbricht’s lawyer, Joshua Dratel, filed a motion asking the court to dismiss all charges against the Silk Road kingpin. It’s largely what you’d expect from a bullish defense attorney. But here’s the twist: Dratel throws bitcoin under the bus.
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With April 15 looming, plenty of bitcoin barons have been wondering how to treat their newfound crypto-fortunes. Does it count as capital gains? Is it taxed like a currency? Is it taxed at all? Well, on Tuesday, the Internal Revenue Service announced definitively that Bitcoin is property and much be taxed as such.
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Taxpayers, the federal government just announced a new online tool that makes filing a wee bit easier: now you can download your past tax return documents directly from the IRS website. One small step. [WhiteHouse.gov via TheVerge]
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Our days of sales-taxless, free-love internet revelry may be numbered. Thursday afternoon, the Senate voted to open the floor to a bill that could end tax-free online shopping once and for all. More »
Ethics aside, espionage is an indispensable part of statecraft. The ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance] information gathered helps steer national policy decisions for everything from mundane trade negotiations to the blackest of ops. And nowhere is this more evident than in the development of the US spy satellite fleet during the Cold War. These orbital telescopes granted an unprecedented peek over the Iron Curtain—revealing Soviet military capabilities, supply reserves, industrial sites, and more—that no ground-based spook could hope to provide. More »
Everyone knows the IRS is our nation’s tax collector, but it is also a law enforcement organization tasked with investigating criminal violations of the tax laws. New documents released to the ACLU under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the IRS Criminal Tax Division has long taken the position that the IRS can read your emails without a warrant-a practice that one appeals court has said violates the Fourth Amendment (and we think most Americans would agree). More »
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
