Billionaire hedge fund manager Julian Robertson won a $27 million tax case after convincing a a judge that he wasn't a resident of New York City in the year 2000 -- and it all came down to four days.

The way the law works is that anyone who spends more than half the year living in New York City is subject to the jurisdiction's taxes -- in 2000, the top tax rate was 3.78%, meaning that Mr. Robertson must have earned around $700 million in the year 2000.

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance argued that because he couldn't provide proof that he didn't spend more than half the year in New York City, he had to pay the tax. Robertson and his lawyers, family, and his assistants spent countless hours pouring over schedules, calendars, tickets, etc. to convince a judge that he spent less than half the year in NYC proper -- with a good chunk of the rest of his time spent on Long Island.

Like H1N1, the notion of taxing text messages and other new electronic forms of communication has taken root and is threatening to go pandemic.

The city of Vallejo, Calif. is voting today on expanding utility taxes to include text messages, pager messages and VOIP calls. The measure would lump these together with gas, electricity, water and other utilities, while lowering the overall utility tax rate from 7.5% to 7.3%.

This follows the example set by Sacramento and 40 other towns in California which have added electronic communications to their taxable utilities, both to reduce the burden on those clinging to land-lines and to increase city revenue.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Vallejo's general fund has lost $18 million in the past two years. It declared bankruptcy in 2008.

While officials contend that the change will have only a minimal impact on a typical resident's utility bill, some locals are concerned that the measure opens up the door for taxes on other forms of communication not presently taxed. I'm wondering about passenger pigeons.

As more and more people abandon land-lines, many communities will be looking to replace lost tax revenue by charging for text messages, voice-over-Internet calls, e-mails, and IM conversations. If they could, some would probably charge by the syllable for face-to-face coffee house conversations. If so, we'd probably learn to abbrev wht we sed 2 sv $.

As if you don't already have enough money worries. This is the year to double, no, triple-check, your taxes before filing. The IRS is looking for the money it's owed with renewed vigor, and that means a lot more people can expect to be audited. Why now? It's not hard to guess.

We've been hearing for months that the economy is finally on its way up, but the numbers don't actually bear that out.

As of last month, the federal deficit weighed in at a record $1.42 trillion and, depending on what Congress does, could double within the year. Estimates are that within the next ten years, the deficit will hit $9.1 trillion. Increases in the budget have been tapped for bailouts, CASH for clunkers, the first time homebuyer's credit and the controversial new health care plan. The problem? There's no money to pay for all of these programs.

Californians like me will see less money in their next paycheck because, like it or not, we're being forced to give an interest-free loan to the financial basket-case of a state we live in. As of November 1, California is withholding 10% more in income taxes from residents' paychecks. The move is expected to reap $1.7 billion that will be used to plug the holes in the state deficit and keep some money in its rapidly-dwindling coffers.

So officially it's not a tax increase. California will repay the extra withholding in April when it calculates tax refunds -- those getting a refund will get a larger one while those who owe taxes will owe less. And state tax officials who say the increase will hardly be felt by workers. A worker earning $51,000 with no dependents and one withholding allowance will see his weekly withholding rate go up $4. (The Sacramento Bee has a chart of withholding increase scenarios for some single and married taxpayers.) Still, with nine weeks left to go in 2009, that $36 could come in handy for a holiday present or a utility bill.

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:

Less than two weeks after the official amnesty program ended for taxpayers who had previously failed to disclose income from offshore accounts, the first high profile criminal case involving a taxpayer has been resolved.

Steven Michael Rubinstein, of Boca Raton, an accountant and US client of UBS AG, the Swiss Bank that caused an international uproar when it was implicated in a wide-ranging scheme to assist foreign account holders in hiding income, was successfully prosecuted in the U.S. government's offshore tax-evasion probe. Rubinstein received three years of probation and a year of home-confinement, and was fined $40,000, on charges of filing a false tax return. The sentence was much lighter than expected.

The IRS charged that Rubinstein deposited more than $2 million in gold coins into his UBS accounts and used the funds to buy and sell securities. Rubinstein did not disclose the account on his tax return, as required by U.S. law, nor did he report the income generated by the accounts. You can read the official complaint here (downloads as a pdf). Rubinstein was arrested in April of this year, and has the unhappy distinction of being the first taxpayer associated with the case to be officially charged.

Homebuyers did not have to truly be first-timers in order to qualify for the "first time homebuyer" tax credit, expiring Nov. 30; they only had to meet the limitation of not having owned a primary residence for the past three years, with income limits of $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for married taxpayers.

According to the Treasury Department, however, 4-year-olds (and other individuals incapable of legally signing a purchase agreement) don't count.

In an Internal Audit Report meant to assess the 2008 filings in anticipation of a surge in claims for the 2009 tax season, as many as 90,000 claims were determined to be potentially ineligible, and 528 of those were to homebuyers under 18.

The federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers is $8,000.

This Halloween, the state of Illinois is offering more trick than treat.

In an effort to meet expenses, the state has recharacterized the way that it taxes candy for purposes of sales tax.

The state previously characterized candy as food, which meant that it was subject to a lower sales tax. The new tax rules, which took effect Sept. 1, however, redefined candy as, well, candy, and subjected it to the full state and local sales tax.

That means that in Chicago, which currently bears the not so desirable title of "highest taxed city in the nation," you can expect to pay 10.25% in sales tax for a candy bar.

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.

Imagine being able to flip on your computer and find out the annual income of your neighbor. Or your favorite teacher. Or the guy that serves you coffee every morning. If you lived in Norway, it's quite possible that you could.

Tax authorities in Norway have issued the "skatteliste," or "tax list," for 2008 under a law designed to uphold the country's tradition of transparency. The list includes personal income and tax burden -- as well as where that individual ranks on a list of national averages. The list is made available to the media and can be found online (though be warned that it is written in Norwegian).

The law which makes the information available is not without controversy. Unlike in the U.S., personal tax returns have been available to the public in Norway since 1863, but the process for viewing the records was quite burdensome.

New legislation introduced by, among others, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), would cut off the federal tax deduction for drug companies that make those "direct-to-consumer" ads, the ones on TV convincing you to pop prescription drugs like candy.

There's plenty to hate about those ads. They're ubiquitous, for one thing. They manage to be misleading without being downright untrue. They play into the "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" category, because you've got people self-diagnosing without understanding that, in some cases, the side effects can be worse than the underlying condition. ("Death" is one of those annoying side effects.)

Controversial rapper Nas has another battle to fight these days. In addition to a very public divorce with soon to be ex-Kelis, Nas has landed himself in hot water with the IRS.

Nas, who has already been ordered to pay Kelis $44,000 per month in child and spousal support, plus attorney's fees and other costs, has apparently not been making payments to the IRS. The result, according to gossip site, TMZ, is that a federal tax lien has been filed against Nas for an astonishing $2,584,206.31. Reportedly, Nas, born Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, has not paid his federal income taxes for 2006 and 2007.

On June 30, 2002, Daryl Strenke paid his ex-girlfriend, Samantha Verby, a visit at her home. He told her that he wanted to talk. When she invited him in, he aimed a 12-gauge shotgun at her and fired, killing her instantly. Verby's 7-year-old daughter was just a few feet away.

Strenke then turned the gun on himself, in an apparent suicide effort. He failed. He did, however, manage to blow off half of his face. The disfigured Strenke is now serving a 30-year prison sentence for intentional homicide. Normally, that would be the end of the story.

However, Strenke's bungled suicide attempt left him with significant injuries that make it nearly impossible for him to eat or speak normally. According to Strenke's mother, Darlene, he has no teeth and only part of a nose. He is, she says, in constant pain.

As a result, this month, the Columbia Correctional Institute will begin a series of expensive surgeries to repair his face. Who is fitting the bill for the surgeries? Wisconsin taxpayers.

Strenke will have the surgeries in prison, free of charge to him. A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections explained that there is a legal responsibility "to deliver adequate health care to inmates under its custody." That apparently includes health care issues caused by the individual inmate.

Republican Congressman Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan has introduced a bill that would allow pet owners to deduct up to $3,500 per year in pet care expenses.

The bill also has the distinction of being one of the most poorly-named pieces of legislation in U.S. history: the Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years Act, or "HAPPY Act."

In a video for DoggyTV on YouTube, he explained that "Well, we've had reports of people having to turn in pets because of the economic recession. And when you think about the relationship between people and pets and the humane way that it helps people think, it seemed to me to be a good idea, and we dropped it in."

U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) must feel like Superman. Despite an ongoing ethics probe, the Ways and Means Committee chairman has managed to fend off three votes to have him removed from his position. For awhile, it has seemed that he was invincible.

Last week, however, the bipartisan House ethics committee signaled that might be changing. After 150 subpoenas, 34 witnesses and more than 12,000 pages of documents, the committee clearly believes that it's making some headway: the committee has publicly announced that it will expand its investigation into Rangel's finances.

The timing couldn't be worse for the Rangel -- or better for the committee. After a few years of taxpayer apathy, a dismal economy may be changing public opinion. And an intensified scrutiny of Rangel's finances certainly won't attract the kind of attention that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wants as the 2010 elections draw near.