In the first installment of our virtual book club, Emily Oster answered your questions about her research (co-authored with Rob Jensen) which argues that the lives of rural women in India improved on several dimensions thanks to the widespread adoption of television. That story appeared in our book' ... Read more

We are trapped in a world with far too few IRS audits. Law abiding tax payers hate being audited and their representatives in Congress have heard the message loud and clear - strangling the ability of the IRS to conduct field examinations. The problem with the current state of affairs is that non-la ... Read more

Police in Hunan province, China, raided a workshop said to be producing counterfeit condoms. According to the (U.K.) Times : Bare-chested employees were found using vegetable oil to lubricate the condoms to make them smooth and shiny before placing them directly in fiber bags without bothering ... Read more

Federal investigators are feeling pretty darn good about themselves right now.  After a persistent effort to get info on taxpayers they believe hid money subject to U.S. taxes in offshore accounts, the Department of Justice and IRS announced yesterday that more than 14,700 taxpayers have ... Read more

Mary O'Keeffe thinks maybe so ; Peter Pappas thinks not . It probably is unwise to compensate for normal audits. They're a cost of doing business. If the IRS audits you twice in a short period with no changes, I would argue otherwise. The strongest case for paying audit victims is when the IRS do ... Read more

This is something I always wanted to try but haven't-- Put a half page ad in the local paper saying sincere, hard working entrepreneur wants to buy existing business.  Any industry considered.  Please call ---. I've looked at a lot of businesses and almost bought one once but did ... Read more

Worker productivity is up dramatically, despite the release of photographer Andrew Zuckerman's mind-blowing book - and totally engrossing website - Bird. ... Read the full post ... Read more

A Polk County judge told Iowa that it will have to give up to $6.5 million to a Canadian film company . Iowa Eye will get the credits for its film "Clean Out," whick is one of 23 films with "recognized" contracts that were put on hold when Iowa's film credit program ground to a halt in scandal ... Read more

Headline in today's Des Moines Register: Could local-option tax give Des Moines metro area a lift? The Des Moines City Manager, Rick Clark , "wants to explore whether a 1-cent sales tax could help reduce property taxes in the capital and complement other fees the city charges to financ ... ... Read more

There's a new roundup of tax blog posts at Robert D. Flach's place. Meanwhile, Kay Bell has a new " Tax Twitter Tuesday " up, with tax tweets from all over. ... Read the full post ... Read more