Comptroller applicant withdraws more than $34,000 federal tax lien
There is one city comptroller in Grand Rapids that is withdrawing from consideration following a MLive inquire about a federal tax lien for his property.
The comptroller applicant named Mark Pospiech disclosed delinquent city income taxes on his application. Supposedly, he also owns $34,813 in federal income tax for 2009-2011, according to a tax lien that was filed in November of 2012 with the Kent County register of deeds.
Jerry Czaja, the county’s chief deputy register, says that it looks pretty clear that Pospiech didn’t pay his 1040 tax. When a person doesn’t pay their 1040 tax, the federal government will file a lien in the office, and the lien will become attached to any interest they have in any property. Currently, it doesn’t seem like a discharge will be recorded to release the lien.
Pospiech was one of the three applicants for the position of comptroller that was vacated when Donijo DeJonge stepped down from the position in December. He responded to MLive calls about the talked about lien with a written statement that he is going to withdraw from consideration of the comptroller position.
Pospiech said that throughout the application and interview process for the comptroller position, he said that the focus of the Press was more on his situation, eclipsing his abilities for the position. He believes that there are a variety of factors that have led to his current tax issues, but those factors are personal, and shouldn’t be drawn out by public opinion.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax, State Tax, Tax Evasion, Tax Law Tags: avoiding taxes, corporate tax, federal tax, federal tax fraud, filing taxes, income tax, tax code, tax fraud
Federal taxes on airline tickets too high?
If you were to place airline tickets on a political scale, it would probably land near the bottom, simply because when you think about airline tickets you don’t think about controversy.
There are many supposedly controversial claims that have been made about plane tickets. For example, PolitiFact has stated that the federal government runs a background check on you whenever you buy an airline ticket. That’s more than likely false.
Gary Kelly, the chief executive officer of Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, has come up with a new claim for airplane tickets. Southwest airlines carry the most domestic passengers in the United States and a majority of the passengers at Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport.
Kelly made a bold statement in a column that he wrote on February 2013 in the in-flight magazine of Southwest and AirTran Airways. He said that federal taxes and fees turn out to be about 20% of a normal $300 round-trip domestic ticket. Kelly continues by saying that that’s higher than federal taxes on products like tobacco, alcohol and firearms.
Spring break is right around the corner, and alcohol, firearms and tobacco are always a factor, we shall see if Kelly’s claim is true or not.
Kelly’s claim is focused on federal taxes on airline tickets and other products. The source he used for the taxes on airline tickets is coming from Airlines for America, a trade group that advocates for the airline industry. Airlines for America announced in December of 2012 that they would put into effect a campaign to persuade lawmakers to reduce federal taxes on airlines.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax Tags: airline tax, federal tax, income tax, sales tax
FAFSA Tax Return Delays
The IRS seems to be causing more trouble than simply slowing down federal tax refunds, as there is a delay in processing forms 8863, Education Credits. The Department of Education formally addressed the delay this week, and it was referred to as a technical error due to a limited number of federal tax filing software. This delay affected hundreds of thousands of taxpayers that included many who have filed with H&R Block.
This glitch has added weeks onto the processing times for tax returns that are usually submitted and processed by mid-to-late February, making it rather difficult for some students to submit their FAFSA on time, which is Free Application for Free Student Aid.
Every year, millions of students submit a FAFSA, hoping to secure financing for college; this includes available grants and in many cases, loans. For the 2011-2012 FAFSA year, there were over 20,000,000 applications that were submitted, in which one third of them were submitted within the first quarter.
Students are not required to wait for their federal tax return to be processed by the IRS in order to complete and submit the FAFSA application. All of the information can be entered manually onto FAFSA, instead of using the FAFASA/ IRS Data Retrieval Tool that automatically populates the form with data from the IRS. The Department of Education is recommending that students file complete application as soon as possible. In addition, they can collect paper copies of those tax returns and make any FAFSA corrections.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax, State Tax Tags: corporate tax, federal income tax, federal tax, income tax