Every September, Americans fire up their grills, crack open a cold one, and celebrate Labor Day. But it didn’t start as an excuse to party, or buy mattresses at 30% off. It was born in the late 1800s, when workers sweated 12-hour days just to keep food on the table. Strikes turned bloody — most famously in Chicago at the Haymarket Riot — and demands for fair pay, safe conditions, and reasonable hours grew too loud to ignore.
Archives for August 2025
Mailing Checks to the IRS? That Ends Sept 30, 2025
Big changes from the IRS: starting Sept 30, 2025, no more refund checks and no more mailing tax payments. Here’s how to get ready before this digital transition hits your wallet.
Houston, We Have No Taxes
You know how you sometimes hear about highflying companies sending miserly tax checks to Uncle Sam? Well, buckle up — SpaceX might just be the star of that show. According to a New York Times exposé, SpaceX has privately told investors that because of a 2017 tweak to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, it may never have to pay federal income tax, even if they do succeed in helping mankind colonize Mars.
Houston, We Have a Tax Problem
The law has always had a problem with altitude. Here on Earth, we can draw neat little lines on a map and call them borders. We can assign them to taxing authorities and know who collects what. But the higher you go, the fuzzier things get. Airspace law is still a little like a neighborhood feud about where the fence belongs, except the “fence” is somewhere above the clouds. And if we can’t agree on who controls the sky, how do we decide who gets to tax outer space?
Donor Advised Fraud
Matthew Christopher Pietras played his part like a maestro in a Tom Ford tuxedo. He floated through New York’s glittering gala circuit, sponsoring opening nights at the Metropolitan Opera and the newly renovated Frick Collection, booking private jets like they were yellow cabs, and sprinkling six-figure “donations”as if he had an endless trust fund. To anyone watching, he was the charming young patron who had cracked the code to effortless wealth. He traveled in high society like he was born to it: with 60 friends in tow for opera night and a knack for name-dropping that would make a PR flack blush.