taxes

Google contest winner shows where our taxes go

With the deadline to pay our taxes ticking away, many of us wonder just how and where Uncle Sam spends our hard-earned dough. The winner of a recent Google contest reveals the answer.

In February, Google launched a contest designed to shed some light into the U.S. government's often perplexing spending habits. Dubbed the Data Viz challenge, the contest asked developers to create online applications that could show us visually where our income tax dollars are spent.

After receiving more than 40 entries, the Google jury has crowned its $5,000 Grand Prize winner. Created by developer Anil … Read more

Internet's taxing times (week in review)

We may be basking in the waning sunlight of tax-free Internet shopping.

A senator is preparing to introduce legislation that would rewrite the ground rules for Internet and mail order sales by eliminating the ability of Americans to shop at Web sites like Amazon.com and Overstock.com without paying state sales taxes.

"Why should out-of-state companies that sell their products online have an unfair advantage over Main Street bricks-and-mortar businesses?" Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in a speech in Collinsville, Ill., in February.

Durbin, the second most senior Senate Democrat, will introduce the bill after the Easter … Read more

SF gives boost to Twitter tax break

Correction at 10:04 a.m. PT on April 15: This story initially mischaracterized the vote that occurred Tuesday. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to pass the payroll tax legislation on first reading, but a second reading and vote is required. That is scheduled for April 19. The story's headline and text have been rewritten to reflect that reality.

SAN FRANCISCO--As expected, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors today moved closer to approving a payroll tax cap for some businesses willing to move to the city's Mid-Market neighborhood.

The legislation and subsequent amendments passed on first … Read more

A Google a Day

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Amazon.com offers a cheaper. ad-supported Kindle

Google launches a trivia page called A Google a Day

A U.S. Court of Appeals rules that the Winklevoss twins who sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg

must accept their settlement of $65 million and just be quiet already

Google plans to invest $168 million in a solar power plant in the Mojave Desert

New legislation may propose a sales tax on all online transactions

Sony introduces two new OLED monitors

Democratic senator wants Internet sales taxes

A Democratic senator is preparing to introduce legislation that aims to end the golden era of tax-free Internet shopping.

The proposal--expected to be made public soon after Tax Day--would rewrite the ground rules for Internet and mail order sales by eliminating the ability of Americans to shop at Web sites like Amazon.com and Overstock.com without paying state sales taxes.

Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second most senior Senate Democrat, will introduce the bill after the Easter recess, a Democratic aide told CNET.

"Why should out-of-state companies that sell their products online have an unfair advantage over … Read more

Save time by filing your taxes online (video)

If you're like a lot of Americans, you probably dread doing your taxes. And if you're like 70 percent of Americans, you try to make tax season a little less painful by filing them online. This story is geared more toward the other 30 percent--the people who still pick up a pencil and punch out figures on a calculator, the people who still line up at a post office or April 15, awaiting their receipt for registered mail.

Filing taxes online is quick, and it guarantees your refund will arrive faster, says CNET editor Jessica Dolcourt. And if … Read more

The 404 791: Where we're rolling with the homies (podcast)

Happy 404 Day! To celebrate the second most popular day in April, we've kicked Wilson off the show and replaced him with Mark Licea. Happy Monday! Today we're chatting about an immersive new take on Shakespeare's "Macbeth" story, nude therapists working in New York, an Android bootleg that publicly embarrasses pirates, and Web vigilantes Anonymous joining hackers GeoHot and Graf_Chokolo in their fight against Sony.

The 404 Digest for Episode 791

"Sleep No More" offers a modern take on classic theater. Pirates beware: a bootleg Android app punishes with public shaming. A therapist in NYC meets with clients with clothes on, then slowly takes them off. Speaking of nudes, a Web developer site is looking to recruit nude female Web coders. .01% of Wikipedia is equivalent to 952 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica...and it's for sale.

Episode 791 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Car Tech Live 209: Your next smartphone: An Aston Martin (podcast)

Tax by the mile to drive your car: ready for it? Tesla says Top Gear is a bunch of liars. Your next smartphone could be an Aston Martin. And we drive the Cayenne Hybrid's sister: the Touareg Hybrid.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 209 SHOW NOTES

? Taxing driving by the mile instead of the gallon.

? Tesla sues Top Gear

? Survey says buyers are intrigued by EVs, unrealistic about their abilities

? Aston Martin smartphone concept

? VW Touareg Supercharged Hybrid

? CNET's LOLCars gallery!

Tax per gallon, or per mile?

A report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), requested by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), looks at the feasibility of taxing drivers based on miles driven. To implement the tax, the CBO found that technology exists to seamlessly record and transmit mileage.

Conrad requested the report to explore means of raising money to fund a $556 billion budget request by the Obama administration to maintain highways. Currently, funds are raised from an 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal tax on gasoline and a 24.4-cent-per-gallon federal tax on diesel. Conrad suggested an alternate per-mile tax due to lower revenues from … Read more

Amazon ends affiliate program in Illinois

Amazon.com is ending another affiliates program over states' efforts to collect sales tax.

The Internet retailer notified its affiliates in Illinois yesterday that it would sever their business relationships after Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law a bill that would require in-state affiliates to collect state sales tax on purchases made by Illinois residents. Affiliates place ads for retailers on their Web sites and get paid when customers make purchases via the ads.

Amazon, which has opposed similar efforts in other states, informed its some 9,000 Illinois affiliates in a letter that it would terminate the program … Read more