Ah, tax season

2008 inches closer and closer, meaning that once again wage earners will have to file their income taxes.  And since IRS publications can be hard to understand for native English speakers, just imagine how difficult it can be for all of those ESL citizens!  The IRS has tried to make that a little easier for 2008: recently they issued several new glossaries of tax terminology for taxpayers in the Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Russian communities.

From the news release:

“The Virtual Translation Office of the IRS helped create these glossaries of tax terminology to help taxpayers and the professionals who assist them. The publications were developed in cooperation with professional translators and editors to establish uniformity in language usage in IRS tax products and to function as reference materials for these products.

Although the publications are not legal documents, the IRS hopes that these glossaries will be useful to members of the U.S. Chinese, Korean, Russian and Vietnamese communities in understanding IRS documents and clarifying tax-related issues.”

A Spanish glossary has been available since 2003.

I was unable to find similar information on the Alabama Department of Revenue’s web site.

GameDay Condos & GO Zone

In today’s Tuscaloosa News, there’s an article about how real estate developers and investors are benefitting from the ‘GameDay Condos’ being built around the city of Tuscaloosa. The Gulf Zone Opportunity Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-135) was enacted in order to give tax incentives to builders, investors, etc., in the areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Tuscaloosa was included in the boundaries of the GO Zone, and thus the condominiums currently being built around the city (including those close to Bryant-Denny Stadium) qualify.

More information on the tax incentives available to small businesses and employers in the Gulf region is available from the IRS web site.  A backgrounder on the bill itself is available from gulfcoastopportunity.gov

* Please note that the tax breaks do NOT apply to those individuals who build or purchase land for their own use.

State Government Tax Collection

I recently discovered a wealth of data on the Census Bureau’s web site related to tax collection.  From the site,

“The State Government Tax Collections (STC) report provides a summary of taxes collected by state for up to 25 tax categories.  These tables and data files present the details on tax collections by type of tax imposed and collected by state governments.”

Data is available from 1992 to 2006 - and the taxes are broken down pretty specifically.  For instance, you can see how much the state of Alabama has collected in taxes on motor fuels, alcoholic beverages and tobacco products.  Or see where a particular state ranks in terms of total taxes collected.  [In 2006, Alabama ranked #25.  California was #1 and South Dakota was #50.]  Some of the data is available for download in an excel spreadsheet.