Could you pass an IRS audit?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
If you're scrambling to do some end-of-the-year tax planning, you might want to consider this:
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The Internal Revenue Service increased the number of returns it audited by 11 percent this year - that's according to the Associated Press.
The tax agency was most likely to target wealthy taxpayers and big businesses; but it also audited more charities and other tax-exempt groups.
In total - the IRS audited more than 1.58 million individual returns; up from 1.43 million the year before. Officials say it's the highest rate of individual audits in the last decade.
And, that translates to more than one percent of individual returns that were audited. But the richer you are, the more likely you are to get audited:
Those making more than $1 million had an audit rate of more than eight percent; and people making more than $200,000 had an audit rate of more than three percent.
As the country struggles to come up with a solution for our skyrocketing national debt, "tax reform" is a phrase we hear more and more often.
Undergoing an IRS audit is only a slightly bigger nightmare than making your way through our ridiculously complex tax code.
The problem with tax reform is there's a powerful lobby in Washington representing tax lawyers, accountants and money managers who will probably fight any effort at reform tooth and nail.
So for this year, you better get it right the way it is.
Here’s my question to you: Could you pass an IRS audit?
Tune in to the Situation Room at 6pm to see if Jack reads your answer on air.
And, we love to know where you’re writing from, so please include your city and state with your comment.
What will you remember most about Larry King?
(PHOTO CREDIT: LOU ROCCO/CNN)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Tonight night marks the end of an era - not just at CNN but in cable television.
Larry King will do his final live, nightly broadcast for CNN at 9 p.m. ET tonight. And when he walks out of the building, there will be a space that will never be filled quite the same way again.
In fact, if it weren't for King, it's entirely possible I wouldn't be doing this job right now. And a lot of the rest of us in this business wouldn't be either.
When CNN was in its infancy and the rest of television was laughing at Ted Turner's idea, King came along and put this network on his back and carried it until its credentials as a viable news organization were accepted by the viewing public.
And along the way, he became the gold standard for talk television. So many of his interviews made the news elsewhere.
There wasn't anyone in the last 25 years he didn't talk to on CNN - including Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George H.W. and George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.
Entertainers such as Marlon Brando, Johnny Cash, Paul McCartney and Barbra Streisand - virtually everyone from the world of show business - and foreign leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela and Vladimir Putin. Impressive doesn't do justice to his resume.
He also was very kind to a first-time author when something called "It's Getting Ugly Out There" was published.
I have known Larry since my days at WNBC-TV in New York when he would occasionally be a guest on my program there, "Live at Five."
He's a class act. He's my friend. And I, along with millions of television viewers, will miss him.
Here’s my question to you: What will you remember most about Larry King?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
@jackcafferty on Twitter
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