Income Tax

First of three parts Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments. But as a single mother with three children, bad credit and a $27,000-a-year salary, she couldn't find a bank or dealership willing to give her a loan. Then a friend steered her to Repossess Auto Sales in Hawthorne. Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered.

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown defends his soak-the-rich tax proposal as just. And besides, he says, it's popular with the non-rich. Never mind that it's the opposite of reform, that it would make California's roller-coaster tax system even more volatile. But maybe things do have to get worse before they get better. The state treasury is starved for more revenue. The governor is trying to avoid massive cuts to K-12 schools and more swats at the universities. It's probably not practical to wait for reform.

On the eve of our worst financial crisis since the Depression, the United States was -- from an economic standpoint, at least -- a less equal nation than at any time since the Gilded Age. The sputtering recovery now underway is producing few, if any, jobs to replace those that have been lost. Meanwhile, a variety of factors continues to push wages and most salaries lower. Thus, we're likely to emerge from this downturn with even greater disparities in income, wealth and effective tax rates, and the forces pushing us in that direction are particularly strong in Los Angeles County.

In March, when I wrote that the tax increase proposals by Gov. Jerry Brown and civil rights attorney Molly Munger were unimaginative if not doomed, I got an email from Munger. She did not agree, at least with regard to her initiative. "Unimaginative?" she wrote, inviting me to meet with her. This week, I decided to take her up on her offer after watching Brown admit that the financial mess he told us about in January was nothing compared to the mess we're in now. Frankly, I don't know how the January estimates were so far off the mark, with a $9-billion hole turning into a $16-billion hole in less time than it takes to grow tomatoes.

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney asked for an extension Friday to file his 2011 tax return. The former Massachusetts governor and his wife, Ann, expect not to owe any further taxes, having estimated $3.2 million in liability and made $3.4 million in payments, according to the documents filed. Romney will file his return prior to the November election, according to a spokeswoman. Romney's taxes have been a continual cause of controversy in the 2012 presidential campaign because of his reluctance to release details.

SACRAMENTO -- Halsey M. Minor, the CNet co-founder and high-tech business pioneer of the 1990s, tops the state of California's latest list of its 500 biggest income tax delinquents. Minor and his wife, Shannon Minor, both of San Francisco, owe California $10.5 million, according to a Friday morning release from state tax officials. The taxes have been owed since at least June, 26, 2009, when a tax lien was filed against the Minors, the California Franchise Tax Board reported.

Among the things I wonder about: Did Einstein figure out his own income tax? ART STANLOW Costa Mesa

The Grenadan government will scrap the Caribbean island nation's income tax and replace it with four other levies, including a value-added and a property tax, Prime Minister Herbert Blaize said.

In Steve Forbes' article, "Make Them Give Back Our Money" (Commentary, Aug. 7), he lists 10 things Congress should do to modify the income tax and ends with a "pro-growth, pro-family, single rate system." Does anyone really believe that Congress won't find amendments that will give special treatment for their friends? The only way to resolve this problem is to eliminate the income tax completely. It can be done, as I have written previously, by imposing a 0.15% tax on international monetary transactions, which would yield over a trillion dollars per year.

Re "Who's really rich, and why does it matter?" Opinion, Oct. 26 It appears that Mitchell Rofsky's wandering arguments are meant to imply that we might as well vote Republican on tax issues. I would like to point out one of the many flaws in his discussion. The purpose of an income tax is not to correct any potential "maldistribution of income," it is simply to pay for our federal government. The question is how to do this fairly. Clearly, having every individual pay an equal share is not fair to families of four with low incomes, so individuals earning more are asked to pay more to help cover for the less fortunate.

Republicans and Democrats agree that the federal tax system is broken, but they couldn't disagree more strongly about how to fix it. That's true largely because each side clings to a different set of theories about how taxes affect the country, only some of which bear much relationship to reality. Hoping to dispel a few of the myths pervading the debate, a Washington think tank offered a report this week laying out a dozen facts about tax reform. The bottom line: Good fiscal policy comes at a steep political cost.

WASHINGTON -- People who still haven't filed their income taxes probably shouldn't get distracted watching YouTube videos. But the Internal Revenue Service is pointing last-minute filers to the site for tips on how to avoid busting Tuesday night's filing deadline. The IRS said it has several videos on its YouTube channel to help people scrambling to file their taxes. One titled "Last-minute tax tips -- 2012," narrated by an IRS employee named Eric, calmly tells procrastinators, "Please, don't worry, you still have options.

Sean Larkin was a Cal State Northridge accounting grad trying to break into the entertainment industry when he met a hip-hop act that performed in local clubs. The Black Eyed Peas didn't need high-level financial advising in the mid-1990s, when they were often broke and handed out fliers to fill their shows. Larkin signed on as their business manager anyway and remained at their side as they became international superstars who routinely pulled in $1 million a night. What seemed a rare story of loyalty rewarded in the music industry has revealed itself as a cautionary tale in recent years.

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney asked for an extension Friday to file his 2011 tax return. The former Massachusetts governor and his wife Ann expect not to owe any further taxes, having estimated $3.2 million in liability and made $3.4 million in payments, according the documents filed. Romney will file his return prior to the November election, according to a spokeswoman. Romney's taxes have been a continual cause of controversy in the 2012 presidential campaign because of his reluctance to release details.

SACRAMENTO -- Halsey M. Minor, the CNet co-founder and high-tech business pioneer of the 1990s, tops the state of California's latest list of its 500 biggest income tax delinquents. Minor and his wife, Shannon Minor, both of San Francisco, owe California $10.5 million, according to a Friday morning release from state tax officials. The taxes have been owed since at least June, 26, 2009, when a tax lien was filed against the Minors, the California Franchise Tax Board reported.

Here's the good news: Even if you didn't file your taxes today, you're not late. Even if you don't file Monday, you're not late. Tax day this year is April 17. So stop rushing! Here's the bad news: Californians may have to file four or more times. First, of course, with the Internal Revenue Service, and then for state taxes with the Franchise Tax Board. But do you owe sales taxes on Internet purchases? Do you run a business and are required to collect and remit sales taxes? Then you must deal with the Board of Equalization.