Taxes are hard so hard

Jill Young reviews old tax returns she recently stored in her garage. Photo by Joe Proudman. Elizabeth Warren in a press release. This may not seem like a big deal; many Americans already use online services provided from tax companies, such as TurboTax.

Technically, it is a deduction in the new tax law , for Foreign-Derived Intangible Income, available to U. University of Michigan law and economics professor James R. Hines Jr. The tax world already ran on arcane jargon, a gumbo of abbreviations and numbered Internal Revenue Code sections that let tax experts share a common tongue. The new tax act scrambled much of that argot, and veteran lawyers say they sometimes feel as if they are back in law school, deciphering a new code even as they learn new rules and devise new strategies. Some call it a toll charge.

But situations in the 44 states that levy income tax are even more confusing. Some states are following federal rules, but others like New York have broken ranks. Some, like New Jersey, have never been on board. Virginia may be the winner for the most complicated taxes, according to Tynisa Gaines, an enrolled agent tax preparer based in Herndon, Virginia. It is among those states that say if you take the standard deduction on the federal return, you cannot itemize on your state return.

Masses of vehicles on November 22, in Chicago, Illinois. Economists love carbon taxes. According to polls, so do roughly two-thirds of Americans. Yet voters in one of the bluest states in the nation, Washington State, twice rejected a carbon levy in recent years.