taxes

Save time by filing your taxes online (video)

If you're like a lot of Americans, you probably dread doing your taxes. And if you're like 70 percent of Americans, you try to make tax season a little less painful by filing them online. This story is geared more toward the other 30 percent--the people who still pick up a pencil and punch out figures on a calculator, the people who still line up at a post office or April 15, awaiting their receipt for registered mail.

Filing taxes online is quick, and it guarantees your refund will arrive faster, says CNET editor Jessica Dolcourt. And if … Read more

The 404 791: Where we're rolling with the homies (podcast)

Happy 404 Day! To celebrate the second most popular day in April, we've kicked Wilson off the show and replaced him with Mark Licea. Happy Monday! Today we're chatting about an immersive new take on Shakespeare's "Macbeth" story, nude therapists working in New York, an Android bootleg that publicly embarrasses pirates, and Web vigilantes Anonymous joining hackers GeoHot and Graf_Chokolo in their fight against Sony.

The 404 Digest for Episode 791

"Sleep No More" offers a modern take on classic theater. Pirates beware: a bootleg Android app punishes with public shaming. A therapist in NYC meets with clients with clothes on, then slowly takes them off. Speaking of nudes, a Web developer site is looking to recruit nude female Web coders. .01% of Wikipedia is equivalent to 952 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica...and it's for sale.

Episode 791 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Car Tech Live 209: Your next smartphone: An Aston Martin (podcast)

Tax by the mile to drive your car: ready for it? Tesla says Top Gear is a bunch of liars. Your next smartphone could be an Aston Martin. And we drive the Cayenne Hybrid's sister: the Touareg Hybrid.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 209 SHOW NOTES

? Taxing driving by the mile instead of the gallon.

? Tesla sues Top Gear

? Survey says buyers are intrigued by EVs, unrealistic about their abilities

? Aston Martin smartphone concept

? VW Touareg Supercharged Hybrid

? CNET's LOLCars gallery!

Tax per gallon, or per mile?

A report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), requested by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), looks at the feasibility of taxing drivers based on miles driven. To implement the tax, the CBO found that technology exists to seamlessly record and transmit mileage.

Conrad requested the report to explore means of raising money to fund a $556 billion budget request by the Obama administration to maintain highways. Currently, funds are raised from an 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal tax on gasoline and a 24.4-cent-per-gallon federal tax on diesel. Conrad suggested an alternate per-mile tax due to lower revenues from … Read more

Amazon ends affiliate program in Illinois

Amazon.com is ending another affiliates program over states' efforts to collect sales tax.

The Internet retailer notified its affiliates in Illinois yesterday that it would sever their business relationships after Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law a bill that would require in-state affiliates to collect state sales tax on purchases made by Illinois residents. Affiliates place ads for retailers on their Web sites and get paid when customers make purchases via the ads.

Amazon, which has opposed similar efforts in other states, informed its some 9,000 Illinois affiliates in a letter that it would terminate the program … Read more

Bill to ban new wireless taxes rises again

For the third consecutive Congressional session, a bipartisan bill is aiming to limit new taxes on your cell phone bill. Introduced today in the House of Representatives by Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) and in the Senate by Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Olympia Snow (R-Maine), the Wireless Tax Fairness Act of 2011 would prohibit state and local governments from imposing discriminatory or redundant taxes on mobile services, providers, or mobile technology for a period of five years.

"The current landscape of excessive and discriminatory taxes on wireless services discourages its adoption and use, especially with … Read more

Republicans launch bill to ax EPA carbon rules

Republicans in the House of Representatives introduced a bill today that would permanently stop the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating emissions blamed for warming the planet.

President Barack Obama would veto a bill that permanently blocks the agency from tackling climate change, administration officials have said. Obama has pledged to the world the United States will cut greenhouse gases to about 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, introduced the bill, called the Energy Tax Prevention Act.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), a climate skeptic who is writing … Read more

The 404 769: Where Jill has a microphone and you don't (podcast)

The 404 Podcast has a symbiotic relationship with "Aunt" Jill Schlesinger aka The Financial Decoder for CBS Moneywatch: she helps our listeners create a foundation for their financial future, and we answer her tech questions about her Twitter account and yesterday's Apple iPad 2 announcement.

And sometimes she brings us cookies...giant, half-pound cookies from Levain Bakery!

You'll have to hold your breath for the iPad 2 discussion, though, because first we want to tell you guys about Jill's new podcast on the radio, appropriately called Jill On Money!

Episode 1 is already posted on the Moneywatch.com Web site; it's an hour-and-a-half broadcast where Jill answers plenty of questions about paying off mortgages, rising gas prices, and tips on how to maintain a good credit score. Plus, a little Cheryl Dunn in the morning ain't hurting anyone.

If you have a financial question for Jill, make sure you give her a call at 855-411-JILL (855-411-5455) and she'll schedule time to ask it live on the show, or you can also send her an e-mail at askjill(at)moneywatch.com or tweet her.

With Jill getting more involved in the tech side of broadcasting, she asks us for advice on whether she should buy the new Apple iPad 2. The way we see it, her buying decision depends on what she'll ultimately do with the tablet.

Since she already has a MacBook, she can either dish out $350 on a refurbished iPad 1 or spend $150 more for the 16GB iPad 2. Tune in to hear our advice, and as usual, we don't all agree on one path to take.… Read more

A camera you can sit on

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

The iPad 2 has a faster processor and updated specs.

RIM's BlackBerry Playbook is rumored to come out next month.

Nintendo 3DS gets Netflix.

Mobile editing in Google Docs now supports 45 languages.

The Olympus TOUGH TG-810 is crushproof at up to 220 pounds.