Tax tidbits

This guy has a job in these tough times. He's trying to attract passers-by to a tax preparation service in San Francisco's Mission district.

This afternoon I spent an unedifying couple of hours getting bits of paper organized for my taxes. If I kept better records all year, this would not be such a painful chore. But I don't.

Meanwhile we're being warned that President Obama plans to increase our taxes. This is false -- just about all of us will get a (small) tax cut if his proposed budget survives the Congressional meat grinder.

The folks at Media Matters provide a simple explanation of why we might be confused about this.

When is a tax cut for 98 percent of taxpayers portrayed as a tax increase? When some of the small handful of people whose taxes will go up happen to control the nation's news media. ... The media's tendency to behave as though the top tax bracket is the only one that matters badly skews tax policy debates.

Well worth reading the whole thing.