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Bad tax advice is not a new phenomenon. Years ago, I can remember hearing a small business owner explaining that making a single comment about his business before dessert allowed him to deduct a dinner out with his wife. According to his logic, his one-sentence remark about work made the meal a business expense. But this kind of spurious tax advice used to only come from your divorced uncle or sweaty strangers at parties. Then along came social media, offering a vast platform to people who have no idea what theyre talking about. Reasonable-sounding tax tips can go viral, leaving taxpayers who follow them vulnerable to some serious consequences. No matter where youre getting your tax guidance, its important to know how to recognize bad advice. Heres how to identify crappy advice before you follow it all the way to an audit. Go straight to the source You probably dont feel superconfident about your understanding of taxes because they are so complex. The U.S. federal tax code is 6,871 pages long (single-spaced, 11-point font, and mostly likely printed in Comic Sans because irritating is as irritating does). There are probably a significant number of tax attorneys who dont know everything in the legislation, which is a great reason why you should be leery of any random TikToker giving tax advice. Since youre not going to be taking the tax code on your next vacation for some light reading, you need to know where to go for credible information about your taxes. Believe it or not, the IRS.gov website is an excellent resource for regular taxpayers. Not only does the IRS website provide an annual list of the Dirty Dozen most common tax scams to be aware of, it also offers a list of trusted partners for tax preparation and filing, as well as step-by-step instructions on how to file your taxes. You can also use the IRS.gov search tool to look up any dodgy tax advice to see if it passes the sniff test. Uncle Sam has provided us with a valuable tool in creating and maintaining the IRS website. We should make use of itwhile we still can. Beware of conspiratorial thinking A lot of bad tax advice starts by suggesting that the adviser will be letting you in on a secret that only the smartest and richest people know. The implication is that the vast majority of sheep-like taxpayers dont know about these tips and pay the IRS far too much of their hard-earned money every April. But you, random person scrolling TikTok on the toilet, are much too smart to fall victim to that! While it is certainly true that rich people successfully avoid paying income tax, thats because theyre rich and not because they know something you dont. A billionaire can afford to have a team of CPAs and attorneys working year-round to identify and exploit inconsistencies in the tax code. Theres a reason this kind of appeal is so seductive: we love feeling like were part of an exclusive group of intelligent people, especially when we feel helpless against larger forces (like the U.S. tax code). This is the same reason why conspiracy theories feel so satisfying. They allow us to feel superior to those who arent in the know. But there are no secret hacks that normal people can use to avoid paying taxes. Any tax advice that implies otherwise is basically a conspiracy theory. Reject urgency While some bad advice is just evidence of the advisers ignorance, theres also a thriving cottage industry of tax scammers who use the stress of tax season to line their pockets. The 2024 tax season saw an estimated $5.5 billion in tax fraud, usually through phishing, among other identity theft tools. One of the best ways to avoid falling victim to tax scams (or any other type of scam) is to slow down. Most scams use a sense of urgency to get their victims to abandon their skepticism. Were all a little nervous about getting our taxes done accurately and on time, so were vulnerable to a demanding email, text, or phone call from someone purporting to be from the IRS. We feel time pressure, so we hand over our personal information. Similarly, an offer to do your taxes for youbut only if you ACT NOW!!!can activate our financial FOMO. Its easy to comply without thinking because the ticking clock makes you feel like you have no choice but to act quickly. If you find yourself hurrying to do something tax-related because of an unknown third party, force yourself to stop and take 24 hours before you act. That gives you time to research the adviser, phone call, or other contact who set off your all-fired rushand it gives your prefrontal cortex the time to override your lizard brain. Dont make taxes any harder for yourself Filing your taxes is difficult enough without adding audits, fraud, and scams. You can avoid bad tax advice by familiarizing yourself with the IRS.gov website, recognizing when advice sounds conspiratorial, and just saying no to someone insisting that you have to hurry. Doing that may not make tax season any more pleasantbut at least it will protect you from even bigger problems down the road.
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E-Commerce
Green tears were flowing when Lencia Kebede made history this week on Broadway, becoming the first Black actor to assume the role of Elphaba full time in the Broadway company of Wicked. Its hard to even pinpoint a single emotion because I feel that it changes like every five minutes, she told The Associated Press, still buzzing a day after her debut. I woke up and I still sort of felt in the world of Oz. Kebede, a first-generation Ethiopian American from Los Angeles, spent five years touring with Hamilton, most recently in the role of Angelica Schuyler. Stepping into Wicked on Tuesday marked her Broadway debut. Defying Gravity Kebede had already gone through an emotional wringer by the time the curtain finally came down. She sings the Act 1 showstopper Defying Gravity, shooting into the air and the power of the moment ripped through her. When the lights went off at the end of the song, I started sobbing. Not like just a gentle tear. Viscerally, I had to release, she says. “I really felt like I was flying, is the simplest way to put it. I felt like Im doing it myself, though my own power my vocal power, my emotional power, the power of all of my African ancestors.” If Im flying solo/At least Im flying free/To those who ground me, take a message back from me/Tell them how I am defying gravity, she sang. Everyone deserves a chance to fly, says Kebede. I’m projecting this message that no matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you deserve liberation and you deserve empowerment in the way that the character feels in that moment. It just feels like Im taking the entire audience in my arms. Thank goodness it was intermission. I needed to regroup, she says, laughing. “My makeup artist was like, Just let it out, just cry, and then we can clean it up. Who was watching Kebede’s “Wicked” debut? In the audience were some 60 family and friends mom and her aunts and uncles, her many cousins, her boyfriend, pals from other shows, her agent and casting directors, even her college choir director. My whole family was in the audience just everyone who Ive ever loved, with everyone who has loved me and supported me through my life is just like under me, lifting me and holding me, she says. It was just so important to me to have people there that I could share this moment with, so I could say to their faces, I couldnt be here without a piece of your heart that you gave me.’ A sisterhood of Elphabas The popularity of the Cynthia Erivo-led movie hasn’t dampened the appetite for the Broadway version, which opened in 2003 with songs by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. Over Christmas, it took in a staggering $5 million over nine performances, marking the highest weekly gross in history for any Broadway show. Kebede joins a sisterhood of green-clad Black women who have played Elphaba, a list that includes Saycon Sengbloh and Lilli Cooper, both Broadway standbys; Brandi Chavonne Massey, a Broadway understudy; and Alexia Khadime, a full-time West End Elphaba. Others who have played the role over the years include Shoshana Bean, Stephanie J. Block, Jessica Vosk, Eden Espinosa, Ana Gasteyer and, of course, Idina Menzel, who won a Tony Award in the role in 2004. A career takes a turn Kebede graduated from Occidental College in 2016 with a double major of diplomacy & world affairs and politics, intending on a career in law or public policy. By her senior year, she had an itch she needed to scratch. I just had this creative craving in terms of storytelling in the theatrical way that I was missing, she says. So I sat my mother down and I was like, Look, I think I need just a couple years to explore this creative endeavor. Her first professional job was a production of Memphis at Musical Theatre West and then a stint at Tokyo Disney and touring in Rent. In addition to years on the road with Hamilton, Kebede also sang backup for Beyoncé during her Coachella rehearsals. The rigorous nature of touring, I think, prepared me immensely for this, she says. I do feel very equipped physically, vocally, emotionally. I feel like I know how to take care of my body and my mind, how I need to cool down emotionally after such an intense experience for three hours. A magical night On debut night, Kebede tried to keep a set of mental screenshots, a reel of faces and feelings. As she turned to get backstage, she was feeling the love. My grandmother and my father passed when I was in high school and I just took a moment to connect with my angels, she says. It was, oh God, it was electric. Family came backstage after the show for photos and a tour, she was toasted at a nearby bar by friends, she finally ate something and then got home to try to sleep. My battery was dead. I mean, I couldnt even move. I couldnt move my face. I was just drinking my tea, playing calming jazz. I had to just turn it off, she says. And then she had to do it all over again the next night. Mark Kennedy, AP entertainment writer
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E-Commerce
President Donald Trumps declaration of a national energy emergency on his first day in officeand which he reiterated during his address to Congress on March 4, 2025might have seemed to echo other national emergencies, like those presidents declared in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. But there has never before been a national energy emergency. During the energy crises of the 1970s, President Jimmy Carter declared local or regional energy emergencies in a handful of states. These actions suspended some environmental regulations, such as air-pollution limits for coal-fired power plants, for very short periods to make sure those states residents had enough electricity. When a president declares a national emergency, he claims significant powers under the National Emergencies Act, which allow him to take steps to solve the emergency. In this situation, Trump might seek to override environmental regulations, order utility companies to buy power from particular power plants, or invoke the Defense Production Act to secure materials needed for power plant construction. Six weeks into his presidency, Trump had not taken any action to address this emergency, though during his speech to Congress he said he wants to increase drilling and build a new natural gas pipeline in Alaska. And Trumps discussion of energy policy has not directly referred to the consumer price hikes expected as a result of the 10% tariffs he imposed on Canadian oil, gas and electricity starting on March 4, 2025. Critics of the presidents declaration have described it as a giveaway to the fossil fuel industry in the form of looser regulations and measures to make it easier to drill for oil on government-owned land. In fact, the executive orders definition of energy excludes energy generated from wind and solar, as well as efforts to conserve energyall of which were major parts of the Biden administrations energy strategy. As someone who has studied energy markets for decades, I have seen several events that might qualify as energy-related emergencies, such as meltdowns at nuclear power plants around the world, shortages of electricity and natural gas, and massive power blackouts. But over the past 15 years, the United States has become a global energy superpower even without any emergency declarations. The advent of hydraulic fracturing unleashed a wave of oil and gas production, even as U.S. energy demand barely budged. In a time of such energy abundance, there is no clear emergency on the scale of the energy crises of the 1970s. But there are some causes for concern. Big increases in domestic production One goal Trumps declaration sets out is to increase what the executive order calls the nations energy security. Usually that phrase refers to an ability to operate using energy produced within the U.S. rather than overseasparticularly from countries that have long-standing conflicts or disagreements with the U.S. Based on raw numbers, however, the U.S. is already quite energy secure. In 2023, the nation produced nearly 13 million barrels of oil per day, which is more than any country has ever produced in the history of the oil business. Since 2015, when a federal ban on oil exports was lifted, the U.S. has been increasing the amount of oil it exports every year. And for the past several years, the U.S. has been the worlds leading exporter of gasoline, sending 10% of its total annual production to other countries. Since the start of the shale-fracking boom in the mid-2000s, U.S. production of natural gas has also been increasing. The countrys natural gas exports have also risen over the past 10 years, though they have been limited by the number of ports that can handle liquefied natural gas cargo. Still a net importer of oil The U.S. produces plenty of oil to meet its demands, but not the kinds of oil that American refineries are designed to process into useful fuels. Therefore, despite the increases in domestic production, the U.S. is still a net importer of crude oil. In 2023, the U.S. imported almost twice as much oil as it exported. And U.S. refineries output of gasoline and heating oil depends on imported oil. Most oil refineries in the U.S. are quite old and were engineered to process heavy crude oil produced in countries such as Canada, which is historically the U.S.s biggest source of imported oil. Most of the recent increase in U.S. oil production comes from hydraulic fracturing of shale andis so-called light crude oil. Refining light crude would require new refineries or a major reengineering of existing refineries, with new equipment, expanded capacity, or both. Making those changes would be very expensive. So refinery owners are hesitant to make these kinds of investments because there is a risk that the investments wont pay off. Because U.S. refineries produce so much gasoline and have limited capacity, the U.S. also continues to import some refined petroleum fuels such as jet fuel. A fragile power grid Concern over the nations aging electric power grid is another focus of Trumps energy emergency declaration. Experts have been issuing warnings for years. A 2024 study on the national transmission grid commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy has concluded the U.S. needs to double the size of the grid in the next couple of decades. For the first time in nearly half a century, the U.S. is facing the prospect of rapidly increasing electricity demand. The demand for power has always gone up and down a bit with population and the health of the economy, but this time is different. Growth in electricity demand is now driven by the construction of massive data centers and by electrification of cars and heating and cooling systems. The DOE reports that data center electricity use in particular has tripled in the past 10 years and could easily double in the next few years. At that rate, data centers could account for more than 10% of all electricity demand in the country before 2030. The U.S. supply of power generation in many regions is not ready for this surge in demand. Many power plantsparticularly the older ones and those that burn coalhave shut down in the past several years, driven by a combination of economic pressures and environmental regulations. Building new power plants in many parts of the U.S. has become bogged down in regulatory red tape, public opposition, and economic uncertainty. The North American Electric Reliability Corp., which develops standards for grid reliability, has placed over half of U.S. states at some level of risk for not having enough power generation to meet anticipated future demand. Will declaring an emergency help? Under Trumps energy emergency declaration, the administration seems likely to take actions that will make it easier to drill for more oil and gas. And the federal government may also make it easier to build power plants that run on coal, natural gas, and possibly nuclear fuel. But expanded fracking, in and of itself, will probably not address any energy security issues in the U.S., unless there are major investments in refineries to handle the increased oil production. Reducing the barriers to building power plants addresses a much more pressing problem, but the country would still need to expand the transmission grid itself, which does not get as much attention in the presidents declaration. Time will tell whether the energy emergency declaration will be used to solve real problems in the nations energy supplies, or whether it will be used to further bolster oil and gas producers that have already made the U.S. a global energy powerhouse. Seth Blumsack is a professor of energy and environmental economics and international affairs at Penn State. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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