Monthly Archives: March 2010

In recently years, some of my favorite April Fool’s jokes have been internet pranks. They’re fun and generally harmless. No one gets hurt, unless your ego’s a bit bruised when you fall for one of these jokes. But too often people think that April Fool’s Day gives them a license to pull any prank, regardless of the consequences. And each year people get hurt and pranksters get arrested. So when does an April Fool’s joke cross the line from clever …

After a natural disaster—including the earthquakes in Haiti in January, in China in 2008 and in the Indian Ocean countries in 2004—there is usually a spike in interest from people offering to adopt a newly orphaned child. While the intentions are good intentions, government agencies and adoption experts say speedy adoptions are not in the best interests of the orphaned children. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: The international standard among adoption professionals in a crisis is to keep …

Last week Netflix announced that it settled a privacy lawsuit after releasing "anonymous" customer data that turned out to be not so anonymous. The data was published as part of a contest intended to help the company provide better movie recommendations for its clients. To help contestants, Netflix released customer data that included customer’s age, gender, zip code and rental history. Researchers quickly demonstrated that the data wasn’t so anonymous after all, and could be used to discern the identities …

In Tuesday’s post, I shared some commonly overlooked tax deductions and credits. While writing the article, I realized that there are tons of deductions and credits available to small-business owners and self-employed people—enough to fill an entire column. So here it is! Financial Expenses As the saying goes, sometimes you have to spend money to make money. Those little expenses can add up—and they’re deductible. Remember to deduct: Bank charges, including monthly fees and overdraft charges Credit cards or PayPal …

If you haven’t yet filed your taxes, you’re not alone. Millions of Americans wait until the last minute to file, particularly if they owe money to the government. If you’re just starting to think about preparing your taxes, here’s a compilation of commonly overlooked tax deductions and credits. (And if you’re one of those people who has already filed but forgot to take one of these deductions and credits, don’t fear! You can always file an amended tax return with …