Taxes-tax deduction

In one of the great "Seinfeld" episodes of season nine, the character George Costanza has a wallet so filled with receipts, business cards and other things such as packets of Sweet'N Low that he sits on an incline when he puts it in his back pocket.

Eventually it all blows away onto a snowy and wet New York City street, leaving George to try to scurry after all of the little slips of paper that burst out of what he calls his "organizer, secretary and a friend."

If I were the folks at Shoeboxed.com I'd be doing all I could to get Jerry Seinfeld to allow commercial use of that scene in promoting its new free app for the iPhone or any cell phone with a camera.

Here's some of that "Seinfeld" episode, to refresh your memory:

If you live in Indiana and you're planning on buying or refinancing a home then you'll definitely want to file for you eligible property tax exemptions. And if you don't, then follow along and we'll explain some of the common exemptions as well as the impact it could make on your tax savings.
Ryan Minick and Steve DeLon are The 2 Mortgage Guys. Subscribe to their newsletter or visit them at www.The2MortgageGuys.com.

The New York Times reports on a new trend that seems to be sprouting up in the furniture business: Buy a new sofa and get a discount by "trading in" your old one, which is then donated to charity.

Here's where it might get just a little bit complicated. According to the Times, "At Pacific Manufacturing in Phoenix, which sells custom upholstered goods to interior designers, a used piece of furniture earns clients 10 percent off the purchase of any new furniture item or mattress and, after the clunker is delivered to a local charity, a tax-deduction receipt."

The problem? It could get you in hot water with the IRS. I asked forensic accountant Tracy Coenen to explain it: "You can only take a deduction for the amount in excess of the value you received. If the person donates a piece of used furniture with an estimated fair market value of $50, but receives a $125 discount on the purchase of new furniture under this deal, they should not take a deduction for a charitable contribution. If the person donated a piece of used furniture with a fair market value of $500, and receives a discount of $200 on the purchase of new furniture, they could take a deduction for a charitable contribution of $300."

Would you get caught donating it, getting the discount, and deducting it? Of course not: How will the IRS ever know about the discount you received? It's just a question of whether you really want to be a tax cheat, no matter how small the scale.

Coenen also notes that the "fair market value" for used furniture is extremely low -- meaning that it's highly unlikely that you'll be able to get a valuation that would leave you room for a tax deduction after taking the 10% discount.

Unless of course your clunker is an early Eames chair with the Brazilian rosewood veneer.

If you're bored with keeping track of where the money goes in your household, try out a relatively new government Web site that tracks where your tax dollars are spent.

USASpending.gov offers an easily digestible look into where the government is spending money, with current and historical spending broken down by grants, contracts and loans. It drills further down by breaking it down into congressional districts and by contractors.

For example, I was amazed to learn that the top government contractor so far in fiscal year 2009 -- Lockheed Martin Corp. at $20.36 billion -- has received more money from the federal government than the top assistance recipient -- $18.9 billion to the Department of Health Care Services.