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Author: Dr. S.D. Gordon

Jim Thorn, chairman of the Louisiana Tax Commission, was in charge of making sure the property taxes in the state were all the on the up and up. There was only one problem. Mr. Thorn had not paid his own property taxes in 30 years. When the governor was asked about this he responded that Mr. Thorn had…

Les Bernal is the national director of the nonprofit organization, Stop Predatory Gambling. All but six states sponsor a state lottery with a goal that is often getting more people to play or extracting larger sums of money from dedicated fans. “An enormous amount of their profits comes from people who…

The city of Syracuse, New York found a unique way to motivate residents to pay their back taxes. Working with researchers from Syracuse University, city official wrote and signed thousands of notes by hands, rather than sending the standard legal demand notices. As a result, the city collected $1.5 million…

We choose strange ways to honor others. Steve Jenne believes he is honoring former president Richard Nixon. When he was 14 years old, in 1960, he was serving as a Boy Scout honor guard when Nixon visited his hometown of Sullivan, Illinois. Nixon took a few bites of a barbequed buffalo sandwich. When…

Based on a recent decision by Illinois’ Governor Pritzker, which remarkably Mayor Lightfoot verbally opposed, indoor restaurant service is again being suspended in the city of Chicago as a way of attempting to combat the deteriorating Coronavirus statistics. Many of the restaurants which are still open,…

Billionaire J.B. Pritzker removed five toilets from his second mansion so it would be classified as “uninhabitable,” and as a result the value dropped on “the 6,378-square-foot mansion's assessed value from $6.3 million to about $1.1 million,” which drastically dropped his property tax liability.—Jim…

A Pennsylvania township collected more income than authorities expected from an increase in property taxes, so they decided to give some of the million dollar surplus back to residents. In response, the Board of Supervisors decided to send everyone a dividend. They mailed over 14,000 checks for $68 to…

Piers Steel, a Canadian industrial psychologist, and professor from the University of Calgary concluded a ten-year study on procrastination that he published in the Bulletin of the American Psychological Association. According to Steel, procrastination “makes people poorer, fatter and unhappier.” Financially,…

The way a single mother from South Carolina used her tax refund inspired thousands of people across the country. Christian Knaack used social media to share the way she decided to use the money she received. Knaack said she received a $5,600 refund and decided to pay her rent for a year. She said that…

Nick Stafford, a Virginia man, used pennies to pay his sales tax on two automobiles to the Department of Motor Vehicles, because he could not find a direct phone number to their office. Stafford said he had to file a Freedom of Information Act request just to get the number. That prompted him to pay…

The old quote says that “nothing is certain except death and taxes.” Fair enough. Looks like there is something else that applies to all—even the powerful: jury duty. Former President Obama just got a summons to serve. And just like everyone else, he will rack up $17.25 a day for his service.—Jim L.…

Nick Stafford of Cedar Bluff, Virginia made headlines for making a $2,987.14 payment to the local DMV. Upset over the way they had handled a long disputed court battle concerning the sales tax he owed on two recently purchased vehicles, Mr. Stafford finally paid the bill in full … in pennies. Stafford…

ISIS is forcing many Christians to flee from their homes in the Middle East, and many are still being persecuted where they are. During one conflict, Bashir Estephanos lost two of his brothers, but his response to the killings of his family by ISIS is astonishing. During an interview about the incident,…

I am sure you have heard the saying, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” but what if I told you that sperm whale vomit can be worth millions of dollars, would you believe me? Three men in the small town of Oman, in the Arabian Peninsula, found a large, waxy substance floating near their fishing…

The kindness of a stranger helped 30 50 40 people keep their homes in Missoula, Montana. The county was planning to auction off the homes due to delinquent taxes when, one day before the auction, an anonymous donor paid the $9,600 in taxes, interest, and fees the homeowners owed. The tax Clerk said she…

Did you know that among the eight leading world democracies only Switzerland has a better tax compliance rate than the United States, and that is only by one tenth of one percent? In reporting The Lying Game, as Time magazine calls it, they credit the religiosity of Americans as the reason our cheating…

Michael Gerson, an opinion writer for the Washington Post wrote an expose of state sponsored gambling, mainly lotteries.. Instead of reigning in spending and or raising taxes, the hard choices, the government is in the business of treating its own citizens as marks and dupes. “The lottery is a particularly…

The courts convicted Cornealious Anderson of armed robbery and sentenced him to thirteen years in prison in 2000. The day he was sentenced, Anderson was told to wait for instructions on when and where to report to prison. When those instructions never came, Anderson went on with life and actually turned…

The President signed legislation that provides healthcare for its citizens through the Affordable Care Act. The basic cost of some plans starts from just $1. Yet, with the stroke of his pen, President Obama postponed the application deadline to March 31, 2014, but that was not the final deadline. The…

As the Internal Revenue Service has increased their efforts to track down and prosecute U.S. Citizens who are evading taxes, a growing number of people are resorting to a drastic step to avoid paying. The IRS says there has been a sharp increase in the numbers of Americans renouncing their citizenship…

Antonio Arias has a problem. Four years ago a hospital mistakenly declared him dead and a death certificate was filed that bears his name, Social Security number, and date of birth. Now no matter how much he persists, no government agency or bank will believe he is alive. His credit cards have all been…

The nation of Denmark has implemented the world’s first tax on fatty foods. The country’s leaders voted to apply a surcharge to food containing more than 2.3 percent saturated fats, in an effort to combat obesity and heart disease. Danes emptied grocery stores shelves before the tax went into effect,…

As we try to stay out of debt, society offers us more and more ways to get in over our heads. Researchers at George Washington University say one in four Americans has used “alternative financing” options such as payday loans, pawn shops, auto-title loans, and tax refund anticipation loans. Believers…

Salon.com reports that Americans spent $50.4 billion on lottery tickets. They further report that poor households spend a much greater portion of their income on lotteries—about 9 percent. While states continue to depend more on gambling income America’s couples continue to languish in poverty. Eleven…