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Five Facts About the Trump Tax Return Disclosure | Tax Foundation

If a business makes $50 in June but loses $100 in July, we call that a $50 loss. A business that makes $50 in December but loses $100 in January is fundamentally the same thing, but straddles the tax year. Net operating losses (NOLs) allow businesses that lose money in one year and make money in another to smooth those ups and downs. We tax income (profits) not losses, and do so somewhat arbitrarily based on the calendar year. Otherwise, a taxpayer would have to pay income taxes despite not earning income, and would have an incentive to manipulate gains and losses to make them happen in the same year. Any taxpayer with business losses can take NOLs, and in 2014, 1.2 million taxpayers reported NOLs on their federal income tax form.

Europe's robots to become 'electronic persons' under draft plan

Europe's growing army of robot workers could be classed as "electronic persons" and their owners liable to paying social security for them if the European Union adopts a draft plan to address the realities of a new industrial revolution.

Ban Tax Day

Withholding was originally mandated as a wartime step, but its continuation since then disguises the property rights involved, essentially offers the government an interest free loan, and shields taxpayers from the ramifications of federal spending. The country would be better off if everyone experienced what entrepreneurs and business owners do: writing the most sizable checks every year to the government, and watching that hard-earned money walk out the door.