Taxes

Apple Saves Billions by Creatively Exploiting Loopholes of International Tax System

Think different, Apple tells the world. The Cupertino company, whose creations have defined our technological age, apparently applies the same innovative thinking to its tax evasion strategies. Stuffing revenue in some low-tax, high-privacy bank in the Caribbean? 'Bout as forward-thinking as a Bla ... More >>

Tax Day Is Here, Go Get All Your Free Crap While Hating on the 1 Percent

We can't really blame you for spending the weekend hiking or drinking in the sun instead of indoors crunching numbers for your taxes -- that's what accountants are for, right? But sadly, your fun in the sun has come to an end, and so has your time to procrastinate paying the government. Fortunatel ... More >>

Cup of Merde: News of the City Being “Fucking Played” Reaches France

California Has No Clue How Much Money It's Making From Marijuana Sales

Most government agencies in California prefer to pretend that the state's medical cannabis industry doesn't exist. The state Board of Equalization is an exception -- and with good reason. State sales taxes are due on every medical marijuana transaction, and the BOE has spent time over the past few ... More >>

Tax "Cheat" Or Hero? Medical Marijuana Tax Revolt Brewing.

Taxes are never far from Dave Hodges's mind. According to the state, Hodges, the founder and operator of the All American Cannabis Club in San Jose, owes almost a quarter million in back taxes. According to Hodges, the state owes him -- about $11,000, in taxes he "mistakenly" paid.Like every other m ... More >>

Watch This Hilarious Olympic Tax-Dodger Dash

Just like not-so-good folks in corporate America manipulated the California tax code to give rich people a boost, the good folks at Portal A manipulated technology help us understand just how bad things are for us and how great things are for the 1 percent. Riffing off all things current -- the Olym ... More >>

Proposition 29 Results Are Close Enough to Make You Want to Chain Smoke

It's all gotta be part of Big Tobacco's plan. Tobacco companies pumped more than $46 million into the campaign against Proposition 29, which would increase the tax on cigarette packs by $1.Perhaps they could have donated more money. Instead, they might have struck the exact minimum amount necessary ... More >>

New Legislation to Force Residents Who Rent Out Parking Spots to Pay Taxes

We all know that San Francisco is an agonizing place to park, so it's understandable that some property owners would want to capitalize on their much-coveted parking spots by renting them out for some extra cash. But what these amateur entrepreneurs might not know is that they are and have been vi ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

OccupySF: Politicians Crash the Party

Hey, I support the movement, too! Solidarity!​Those grumbling about the caliber of people camping out at Justin Herman plaza can't be thrilled about the latest wave of demonstrators drawn to OccupySF: politicians. Last night a near-quorum of the Board of Supervisors squatted along with the squatte ... More >>

Congressman Pete Stark Aims to Save Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Big Bucks

You've got a friend in high places​As if raids from gun-toting Drug Enforcement Agency agents weren't enough to make stoners paranoid, California's medical marijuana clubs can also be shut down real fast by the IRS. That's because the Internal Revenue Service has declared that California's legal m ... More >>

Forget Your Tax Blues at National Painkiller Day at Smuggler's Cove

Caroline on Crack/Flickr​National Painkiller Day Where: Smuggler's Cove, 650 Gough (at McAllister), 869-1900 When: Mon., Apr. 18, 5 p.m.-2 a.m. Cost: $9-$22 per Painkiller (2-8 oz. of rum) The rundown: Tax day can be painful -- at least for those with less inventive tax lawyers on the payroll ... More >>

San Jose: How Deep Does the Inferiority Complex Go?

Do you know the way to San Jose?Greg Dewar/Flickr​In its never-ending quest to be San Francisco, it's so clear that San Jose will go to great lengths to take away anything or anyone that makes the City by the Bay, well, the City by the Bay. Funny as this faux rivalry might seem, there are two poli ... More >>

Twitter Tax Break Sails Through, Corporate Blackmail Does Work

A done deal ​As Supervisor John Avalos so bluntly put it: "The big boys won out today."Needless to say, Avalos ain't happy that his fellow supervisors approved a controversial tax-break deal that would surely keep Twitter from bolting San Francisco.  SF Weekly previously reported on the deal, ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Bay Area Pot Clubs Audited as State Goes on Fiscal 'Witch Hunt'

Balancing the state budget with marijuana​It was big news for taxpayers and medical cannabis advocates alike when the Board of Equalization informed mega-dispensary Berkeley Patients Group that it owed some $6.4 million in back taxes. And now it appears that BPG's run-in with the taxman is not an ... More >>

See Jane Kim Run -- to the Right

Wesley Snipes Tax Evasion Sentence Outrages Libertarian Party

Wesley Snipes: Tax protester and vampire hunter​The leader of the nation's Libertarian Party said today he's outraged that Wesley Snipes has been sentenced to three years in prison, citing it as an example of the IRS' unfair "selective enforcement," and of the fact evaders evade because "THE TAX I ... More >>

Whose Dole Is It, Anyway?

Tax Delinquent List Posted -- 'Target' Owes What?

​The state of California has, once again, updated its list of California's biggest sales tax delinquents -- and the No. 1 target is, well, Target. But not the Target you're thinking of. The big-box retailer with the checkered record regarding gay rights that has San Franciscans enraged has, ostens ... More >>

California Has a Budget -- Only 100 Days Late

The lady and the bear have been waiting a long time...​Following an all-night session of wheeling and dealing -- and a record 100-day impasse -- the state senate moments ago approved a budget for California. Details on the budget -- and the most recent impasse -- are forthcoming; it closes a $19 b ... More >>

Tom Ammiano Tries, Tries Again With Marijuana Bill

Will Tom Ammiano's latest marijuana legislation puff, puff, pass? ​Everybody knows California is broke, and those same everybodies know that thar's a gold mine waiting to be unearthed -- when and if the state starts taxing adult-use recreational marijuana (everybody *could* also be wrong, but ... More >>

S.F. Taxpayer-Funded Poll Reveals S.F. Taxpayers Don't Want to Pay Taxes

San Francisco voters say 'Bah Humbug' to new taxes, poll claims...​A poll commissioned by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority revealed that city voters are in no mood to pay the taxes the Board of Supervisors will likely today move to place on the ballot -- where voters will eventual ... More >>

Your E-Filed Taxes Saved IRS $195M (and Counting). But Post Office Not Thrilled.

​Yesterday we reported that nearly eight of every 10 tax forms received by the IRS by early April was sent electronically. This put members of the United States Postal Service in the position of another blue-uniformed figure with little to do: The Maytag repairman. With the late-evening Tax Night ... More >>

Stimulating Debate

S.F.'s employment rate is relatively good, but city leaders can still create more jobs. Here's how.

New York Times Debuts Bay Area Section Today. Our Verdict: Meh.

Not a disaster, no -- but not 'King of the World' either...​The nation's paper of record launched its new Bay Area section today to compete with San Francisco's paper of record. So how does the Times' San Francentric coverage measure up? Well, let's just say the Times is no Chronicle. And, bel ... More >>

Obama's stimulus money will increase traffic, but not bridge safety

Chronic City: Marijuana, Money, and the Media

Compassion Family MinistriesYes, Grasshopper... Money grows on killa trees.Things are smoking on the marijuana front, and I'm not just talking about the ringing cash registers at newly emboldened dispensaries statewide. Time after time this week, the media brought together money and marijuana in pub ... More >>

S.F. Treasurer Admits City Goofed on Payroll Taxes, Hit Up Companies That Don't Owe Any

Treasurer Jose Cisneros: Sorry, our badYesterday we reported that it appeared the city's tax collectors forgot about an overwhelmingly approved ballot proposition that raised the payroll a business must pay out in order to to owe San Francisco payroll taxes. City Treasurer Jose Cisneros today confir ... More >>

S.F. Assessor Phil Ting Takes on the Catholic Church Tomorrow Morning

Nobody expects Phil Ting!Tomorrow morning, assessor Phil Ting will be arguing in front of the San Francisco Appeals Board that the Catholic Church owes San Francisco up to $15 million in transfer taxes -- one of the largest tax bills in the city's history. The hearing will be held at 1 South Van Nes ... More >>

Election Night Storylines

Mad As A Wet Haine

Double Bogey

Muni's bogus tax shelter and theGuardian's bogus lawsuit.

SF Weekly Letters

IRS Goes After Examiner Owner

SF Gov InAction: Same Old Shit Gets Bigger Tax Breaks; Jake McGoldrick's Charter Amendment Retirement Tour Heats Up, and Did Somebody Say "Peaker Plants?"

EFF, ACLU Go to Bat for Wikileaks

Make A Few Deductions and Some Tricks For Tax Day

Week of September 26-October 2, 2007

Hopefully Our Last Post re: Michael Moore's New "Comedy," SiCKO

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Building Up California

A high-rise condo boom in San Diego may show the way out of a statewide housing and sprawl problem

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, February 11, 2004

The Tax Man Cometh

The federal government looks to eliminate abusive tax shelters, and it may cost San Francisco tens of millions of dollars

A Moving Experience

Delays and mismanagement endangered a $20 million federal reconstruction grant for North Beach Place. So the Housing Authority tried to speed the project up -- by tricking longtime, elderly residents into leaving.

Paying the Price: Why Are S.F. Gas Prices So High?

Bay Area motorists pay the highest gas prices in the state

Opening Pandora's Box

Once-secret documents reveal the tobacco industry's battle to gut anti-smoking education in California. Former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and former Gov. Pete Wilson helped.

Falling Through The Gap

Welcome to S.F. Give Us Your Money

Dollars Without Sense

For 25 years, Harvey Ross has rooted out the waste and lies of politicians and bureaucrats. But some say he's too lost in the line items to see the big picture