UAW President Shawn Fain on guest list for Biden's State of the Union address
Fain will attend the president’s annual speech before a joint Congress as one of several guests joining first lady Jill Biden.
‘Artificial paydown' fraud from customers can leave car dealers, auto lenders with losses
An Oklahoma man pleaded guilty to three counts related to duping dealers into paying or crediting him with funds based on what authorities called reports of phony former vehicle payoffs.
EVs can’t fix a global epidemic of ‘car harm,’ UK study finds
A comprehensive review published last month provides a litany of what the authors call “car harm,” in estimated global totals of death, injury, disease and other miseries, over the course of automotive history.
Terry Savage: IRS identifies 125,000 tax cheats who owe $100 billion in taxes
Have you filed your 2023 income tax return yet? Millions already have. The rest of us are now officially procrastinators. But we’ll get it done. Except for the 125,000 high-income earners who did not even file tax returns going back to 2017 — and who owe roughly $100 billion in back taxes.
It boggles the mind. How did the IRS even find these 100,000 people with incomes between $400,000 and $1 million who failed to pay their taxes between 2017 and 2021? Were they part of the underground economy, dealing strictly in cash? Were they drug dealers or con men (and women) scamming your bank account?
Nope. The IRS finally got around to matching W-2 forms and 1099 forms filed by their employers or investment firms denoting interest or other payouts. So while you were scrambling to find your 1099-INT form, reporting the interest on your money market fund and fearing an audit if you omitted those few dollars from your reported income, some extremely wealthy people slipped through the clutches of the IRS.
Ask a real estate pro: How do we get builder to deal with construction site eyesore?
Q: They have been building a house down the block for the last several months. Besides the trucks coming and going, the site is a mess, with debris in the yard and a porta-potty out along the street. While I understand the realities of construction, there is no reason for this ongoing eyesore. What should we do? — Alejandro
A: Constructing a new home can be lengthy and complex, involving different contractors working in stages. Some messiness and noise are unavoidable. That said, this does not mean that the builder can ignore the safety and aesthetic concerns of the neighbors. You have the right to expect that the construction site is kept as clean and orderly as possible and that the builder follows the local regulations.
The first step to resolving any issue with a construction site is to communicate with the builder directly. You should be able to find the builder’s contact information from the signs on the site or from the city’s building department.
Reach out and politely express your concerns and ask for cooperation in keeping the disturbance to a minimum. For example, you can request that they remove the debris, clean the porta-potty regularly, set it back from the street, and limit the hours of operation to avoid disturbing the neighbors. You should also ask for a project timeline.