Tax Carnival #21: Dog Days of Summer

First things first: I'm a cat person. To me, the phrase really should be the Cat Days of Summer instead of the Dog Days.

Cats, as anyone who's ever been owned by one knows, love long summer days. Despite their nocturnal abilities, or maybe because they're so active at night, felines luxuriate in sunshine. They stretch out on rugs or couches or anywhere they can to catch a ray, and they follow it across the room as it moves.

That said, we are stuck with the term Dog Days of Summer. And we're stuck with taxes.

So in this, our 21st Carnival of Taxes, we've combined the two, at least visually.

All you canine fans, enjoy the various dogs pictured below; nothing is implied by the choices or their placement.

And all you tax fans enjoy the many breeds tax tidbits collected for your enjoyment and information this month.

Since we've got a decent-sized tax litter, let's get started.

FMF found that his post on charitable giving raised some tax issues. So in Taxes are Paid, Not Given at Free Money Finance, FMF wants to make sure we don't think of our taxes as a gift.

Larry at The Skilled Investor has created a hypothetical couple, Fran and Fred, to help determine whether Roth IRA Contributions or Traditional IRA Contributions work best for renters. In conjunction with that question he offers a Summary Table of Traditional IRA and Roth IRA Tax Rules.

We get more retirement tax info from Nina at Queercents, who tells us how tax law changes last year might affect IRAs in a few years.

Marc, another blogger at the multimember Queercents, presents Investing obstacles: inflation and taxes.

More on investing, with Robert at The Wandering Tax Pro looking at mutual funds and taxes in Back to Basics.

All that investment income probably means you need to file estimated taxes. That filing is just one reason a mid-year tax review is important, according to Allison, also a Queercents blogger.

Last month was tax time in India, and two bloggers from there visit this month's carnival.

Vaibhav from Habitually Good assures us that, at least in his country, filing your taxes can be easy.

And Lubna reminds us that taxes are a powerful tool, frequently used in today's business world to induce global companies to set up shop in a particular country or steer clear of another. Get the details in her look at transfer pricing posted at Talking Tax.

Staying global, Gavin at Gavonomics gives us the Australian perspective on getting sustainably high pre-tax and after-tax returns for property investors.

Back in North America, if you don't pay your taxes, your property might end up in the hands of someone like Chris at Youthful Real Estate Investor who tells us he's foreclosing on a tax lien on a house in Bisbee, Ariz.

From the business tax ledger, Kirk gives us the Anatomy of Bad Tax Policy: The Michigan Business Tax, posted at his eponymous blog Kirk Walsh.

Kristine tells us how hiring your kids can help your business save on taxes, over at Financial Tips for WAHMs.

For kids in college instead of working, Teri at Saving Advice Blog tells us The Student Loan Tax Break Information Loan Brokers Won't Tell.

David at The Picket Line notes that there have been many unsuccessful attempts to get U.S. courts to recognize a constitutional or implied statutory right to conscientious objection to military taxation. But Daniel Jenkins is trying again.

Another look at politics and taxes comes from Steve, who presents Can a President Buy Popularity? at Debt Free.

Eric at My Estate Planning Career Blog presents the tale of Ned, who almost lost his family's farm because of an estate planning mistake. 

Finally, we have a cautionary tail tale. Tricia at Blogging Away Debt tells us how a tax miscalculation led to more debt.

And so concludes the 21st Tax Carnival. We'll let sleeping dogs lie for another month. But we'll be back on Sept. 3 with more tax carnival kibbles and bits tidbits.

You can be a part of it by submitting your blog article via our carnival submission form. Also be sure to check out our carnival guidelines, as well as our archives.

Cat photo courtesy of rollingroscoe and morgueFile;
Dog images courtesy of American Kennel Club.

Comments

[Lubna Kably]

Hi Kay,
I love the snoozing cat, is she your pet? Thanks for hosting this wonderful carnival month after month and for selecting my article. I am thrilled and have bragged about it, on my blog.
Best
Lubna