Celebs & Money

By Eamon Murphy
Daily Finance

Somehow, Reuters published on Thursday evening an online obituary for Hungarian-born American financier George Soros, who remains alive.

It's not news that media organizations often keep obituaries of older famous people on file: In 2003, The New York Times ran an obituary of actor and comedian Bob Hope under the byline of Vincent Canby, the paper's former film critic, who died in 2000.

So the fact that Reuters let slip an obituary of someone who isn't dead, while remarkable, is not the strangest thing about this story; rather, what's so noteworthy is the wire service's harshly critical presentation of Soros's life, which doesn't seem in keeping with their usual style.

Here's a screenshot of the obit's first few paragraphs:

We love to hate them, but taxes, (introduced as a temporary measure after the First World War), are here to stay. Though Canadians are learning more and more about who's not paying them, most of us have no choice but to pay - as little as possible.

With that in mind, we're looking at the lighter side of taxes, with some of our favourite quotes from the powerful and the intelligent. Enjoy (and then pay up like the rest of us)!

There's probably nothing worse than being called a Money Moron by financial expert Gail Vaz-Oxlade while it's happening.

Just ask James and Deanna, this actor and actress couple received a rude awakening about the state of their finances when they were voluntarily ambushed by Vaz-Oxlade and her "tough love" approach to financial health on her new show of the same name (Premiering Friday April 19th at 9 p.m. EST/6 p.m. PST on Slice).

So, what exactly is a "Money Moron" and could you be one?

By Eamon Murphy
DailyFinance

The White House has released 2012 tax information for the President and Vice President.

The President and First Lady filed a joint return reporting adjusted gross income of $608,611. They paid $112,214 in taxes for an effective federal income tax rate of 18.4 percent and donated $150,034 to charity (about 24.6 percent of their earnings).

The White House press release took the opportunity to tout the so-called Buffett Rule, which it says "would ask the wealthiest Americas to pay their fair share while protecting families making under $250,000 from seeing their taxes go up." The President noted that he would pay more in taxes under his own proposals. The Obamas also paid $29,450 in Illinois state income tax.

The Bidens also filed a joint federal tax return, as well as a combined Delaware income tax return. In addition, Dr. Biden filed a separate non-resident Virginia tax return. The Vice President and his wife reported adjusted gross income of $385,072 and paid $87,851 in federal tax. They also paid $13,531 and $3,593 in state income tax to Delaware and Virginia, respectively, and gave $7,190 to charity.

To view the Obamas' and Bidens' tax returns in full, visit the White House website.

Daily Finance

After serving more than two years in jail for tax evasion, actor Wesley Snipes was released earlier this week, though he will remain under house confinement until July 19.

Snipes, 50, began his three-year sentence on Dec. 9, 2010 in northern Pennsylvania after he was charged for failing to file his tax returns from 1999 to 2001. However, he was acquitted of felony fraud and filing false tax claims. According to TMZ, he was released on Tuesday. Snipes -- who is famous for his roles in the "Blade" trilogy, "Rising Sun," and "White Men Can't Jump," among other films -- owes the government $7 million, as reported by the New York Daily News. In June 2011, he appealed his sentence arguing that it was too harsh, but the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal.

It is unclear where he will spend the remainder of his sentence. At the time of his arrest, he was living in a suburb of Orlando, Fla. Snipes has five children and is married to painter Nakyung "Nikki" Park.

%Gallery-184485%

The mid-eighties were a time of gargantuan mega-crossovers in comics. The first was DC Comics' Crisis on Infinite Earths.

At the time, the DC Universe was made up of parallel earths as a way of explaining why Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the rest of their iconic heroes never aged, despite dating back to the 30s and the 40s. The reason was the heroes you were reading about were the Silver Age versions of Superman, Batman and the rest who all lived on Earth One, while those Golden Age heroes from the 30s and 40s all had aged and were living out their lives on Earth Two.

Every year, the Justice League on Earth One would team up with the Justice Society of Earth Two in annual crossover events called Crisis on Earth One or Crisis on Earth Two, etc. nineteen eighty-five's Crisis on Infinite Earths was the first time all of the heroes from all of the parallel earths appeared together in one, 12 issue, mega-crossover event. The series was hugely successful and served to merge all of these parrallel earths into one single earth, which is how they would stay until 2006's Infinite Crisis.

It was thought that the planned Crisis on Infinite Earths inspired Marvel Comics' own mega-crossover -- Secret Wars, and Crisis may have played a role, but Secret Wars came out first and it was actually toymaker Mattel that set Marvel's beloved crossover story in motion.

By Eamon Murphy
Daily Finance

"Take, say, taxes. Everybody's against taxes. In a functioning democracy you'd be in favor of them. April 15th would be a day of celebration. You're getting together to fund the programs that you decided on." -- Noam Chomsky

"Stars -- they're just like US!" -- US Weekly

We're far from the ideal democracy described by Noam Chomsky, in which ordinary citizens feel involved in policy decisions and happily fund the society they've built together. We live, instead, in an US Weekly world, where the lives of celebrities command as much attention as the workings of government, if not more. But stars are indeed just like us, if their reluctance to pay taxes is any indication.

Stephen Baldwin is the latest famous person to end up in the news for neglecting his civic duty. The star of The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000) and Celebrity Big Brother 2010 was arrested in December 2012 and charged with failing to pay more than $350,000 in New York state income taxes; Baldwin apparently failed to file in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Baldwin did, however file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009, and also filed a lawsuit against Kevin Coster in 2010, alleging that he was cheated out of profits from oil-separating technology using during the BP Gulf spill cleanup. Baldwin sought $3.8 million; he lost the case and was awarded nothing.

By pleading guilty Friday morning to one count of repeated failure to file -- a class "E" felony -- Baldwin avoided prison time. He has already paid the state $100,000 in restitution and has agreed to shell out an additional $300,000 before his sentencing on July 19. Rockland County District Attorney Thomas P. Zugibe took a harsh view of the youngest Baldwin brother's actions: "Individuals who attempt to steal from the public are stealing from the pockets of every New Yorker. Regardless of social status or income level, my office is committed to pursuing criminals who purposefully cheat the government and law-abiding taxpayers."

A USA Today report, "Celebrities are often in debt to the tax man," was somewhat more sympathetic to the plight of famous tax delinquents, explaining that "celebrities and entertainers -- unlike most taxpayers -- often have huge incomes that vary wildly from year to year -- an easy recipe for tax trouble.

A review of famous names recently in the papers for owing the IRS turns up a few patterns. Tax scofflaw celebrities aren't usually the sort of figures known as "A-Listers" -- or, if they are, like Lil Wayne, they tend to be somewhere past their prime. Rap, reality television, and claims of financial mismanagement by others also recur. There's a significant amount of marital trouble in these lives as well.

(Hat tip to Accounting Today, which keeps a running tally of "Celebrity Tax Foibles.")

By Rich Smith
Daily Finance

Hedge funds. Everyone wants to invest in them, but if you want to get into one, you generally have to meet either one of two conditions, laid down by the Securities and Exchange Commission: Either you must earn $200,000 or more a year, or you must have net worth of more than $1 million.

That exclusivity has helped fuel explosive growth in America's hedge fund industry, which has expanded from $300 billion in assets under management 15 years ago, to $2.2 trillion today. Clearly, this is a popular investment party -- one that (statistically speaking) you probably aren't invited to..

By Claire Gordon
AOL Jobs

When the brash and beloved former mayor of New York City Edward Koch passed away last month, there was a question of who would inherit the lifelong bachelor's sizable wealth. News outlets are now reporting that Koch has left millions to his sister's three sons, and smaller but still generous gifts to his brother's widow, and his brother's children. But one non-family member also made the list of beneficiaries: Koch's secretary of nearly four decades, Mary Garrigan (pictured with Koch).

Garrigan, 63, who was hired to work as a secretary for Koch's Congressional office in 1975, will receive $100,000.

"He trusted her more than any single person on his staff," Koch's former press secretary George Arzt told The New York Times. "She knew everything and she never spoke about anything."