IRS Tells Single Mom She's Too Poor, Must Be Lying

 

 

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IRS Tells Single Mom She's Too Poor, Must Be Lying

via The Consumerist by Laura Northrup on 12/6/09

A single mom in Seattle thought she was playing by the rules. She earned under $19,000 per year as a hairdresser, supported her two children, and shared a home with her parents. Then the IRS audited her, claiming that she simply didn't earn enough money to be able to live in Seattle, and must be hiding something. Two years and $10,000 in accountant bills later, the IRS has determined that she isn't trying to run a scam, but can't figure out who her children are dependents of.

At the root of the IRS's issue is the family's inter-generational living arrangement. To a rational person, this is a good way to get by when you're experiencing hard times. To the IRS, this raises red flags as to who really supports the children

In the end, the parents were cleared. The IRS also backed off trying to reclaim Rachel's earned income tax credit.

But the agency insisted Rachel couldn't prove she was supporting her children — she didn't have enough receipts — so she had to stop claiming them as dependents. A few weeks ago she paid back $1,438 (plus penalties and interest!) on that issue.

...

Legally, Rachel's kids now are in tax limbo. I met them at the Porcaros' house and they seemed real enough, jostling and pleading to play video games. But as far as the IRS is concerned, they don't exist. Neither Rachel nor her parents can claim them as dependents.

"I tell you, we don't buy a roll of toilet paper anymore without keeping the receipt," Rob said.

Nicely done, IRS, for taking something rather straightforward--making sure a low-income person receiving the Earned Income Credit is entitled to it--and turning it into a bureaucratic nightmare for a whole extended family.

$10 an hour with 2 kids? IRS pounces [Seattle Times]

(Thanks, David!)

 

 

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An Open Letter to NYC Mayor Bloomberg on Domestic Violence

 

 

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An Open Letter to NYC Mayor Bloomberg on Domestic Violence

via Raven's Eye by maia on 12/6/09

This summer, I first wrote about Angeline Hassell and her struggle to be reunited with her daughter. Now, with Mayor Bloomberg elected to a controversial third term, a mother struggling within the family court system of NYC asks what he has done not just for her lately, but for the too many women and children caught within a web that promised to help them.

via An Open Letter to NYC Mayor Bloomberg on Domestic Violence | VivirLatino.

 

 

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Caster Semenya They Still Don’t Know

 

 

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Caster Semenya They Still Don’t Know

via Raven's Eye by maia on 12/6/09

excerpted from Siditty: Caster Semenya They Still Don't Know.

emenya, who attends the University of Pretoria, could not be reached for comment. Her coach, Michael Seme, said in a telephone interview from Pretoria that Semenya "is going to compete as a woman and will remain a woman until she dies."

Asked whether Semenya had been cleared to compete as a woman without further testing or surgery, Seme said: "I don't want to talk about that. The only thing I want to say is that I'm happy Caster will retain her title as the fastest 800-meter runner in the world. The most important thing when you are an athlete is to get your medal."

Disputes in sports over athletes' sex are rare, and perhaps never has such a case been as volatile as the one that emerged at the world championships, when it became apparent how unprepared her sport was to handle cases of athletes who may have both male and female characteristics.

As Semenya posted the fastest time of the year in the 800 meters, track officials said they had begun sex verification testing on her, but South African officials said that they were blindsided by the claims and insulted that officials had disclosed such private information.

In September, Leonard Chuene, president of Athletics South Africa, apologized for denying knowledge of the sex tests done on Semenya in his country, saying he had hoped to protect her privacy.

After Semenya won the world title, international track officials ordered more tests, saying questions had been raised about her muscular physique and drastic improvement.

Chuene said that tests had been conducted at a Pretoria hospital on Aug. 7 at the behest of track and field's Monaco-based governing body governing body, the I.A.A.F. Chuene has said that despite medical advice from one of South Africa's top sports medical officials, he refused to withdraw Semenya from the competition in Berlin because the results of the tests were not yet known.

Athletics South Africa said last month that it had suspended Chuene and the rest of his board.

Sex-determination testing was once obligatory for female athletes at the Olympics because of persistent allegations that some competitors were not really women. Sanctions are very rare. One case came at the 2006 Asian Games, where a middle-distance runner, Santhi Soundarajan of India, was stripped of a silver medal after failing a verification test.

The sex-determination testing was phased out in 1999 because of concerns about inequities. The testing is now reserved for specific cases in Olympic sports.

The testing done on Semenya takes weeks to complete. It requires a physical medical evaluation, and includes reports from a gynecologist, an endocrinologist, a psychologist, an internal medicine specialist and an expert on gender. The effort, coordinated by Dr. Harold Adams, a South African on the I.A.A.F. medical panel, was conducted at hospitals in Berlin and South Africa.

It is unclear what the exact threshold is, in the eyes of the I.A.A.F., for a female athlete's being ineligible to compete as a woman.

"The implications of the scientific findings on Caster's health and life going forward will be analyzed by Caster and she will make her own decision on her future," the sports ministry said. "Whatever she decides, ours is to respect her decision."

 

 

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calling cards

 

 

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calling cards

via guerrilla mama medicine by mama on 12/6/09

so i am thinking about ways to deal with the world my efficiently.  one of the things that i have to deal with is people's attitudes toward black folk.  both the white ex-pat and the arab egyptians.  (also, i have made the bad habit of talking and writing about egyptians when often what i mean are arab egyptians.  this is silly.  nubians are the more indigenous people to egypt.  arab culture came with the muslim conquest in the 7th century.  and this would all be irrelevant history i guess, except that nubians are still treated like second class citizens, the conquered, in egypt today.)

anyways, i was thinking about cards.  carrying cards that would do the talking for me.

at first i thought i would just print a bunch of copies of this and carry them with me.  but it seems too long.

and i love adrian piper's work.

so has anyone ever tried the racism calling cards?

 

 

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links for 2009-12-05

 

 

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links for 2009-12-05

via Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture by Carmen Van Kerckhove on 12/5/09

• Native American Boy's Right To Wear Braids Moves To U.S. Appeals Court–NPR
  A five-year-old Native American boy in Texas was punished for wearing his hair in two lengthy braids,

  The ACLU sued on the boy's behalf and, earlier this year, a federal district judge said the child had a constitutional right to wear his braids as an expression of his religion. On Friday, the case will be heard by the U.S. Appeals Court in New Orleans.

  (tags: via:cruelsecretary nativeamerican youth)

 

 

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i’d probably be homicidal

 

 

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i’d probably be homicidal

via Raven's Eye by maia on 12/5/09

Tishana: It really does right now. Like I told another organization, I've had an abortion and I've also labored, twice. I was at different points in my life at the time. And if I had not been able to make the decision to abort, I would be the mother of five children right now and that doesn't exactly work. Especially since there are slim to none social resources for women who do decide to labor in Georgia, especially teen mothers. And I was a teen mother at that time I already had my two children, but I needed an abortion. If I didn't have the right to make that decision, then they wouldn't have known what to do with me anyway, because I'd probably be homicidal. And that's just the truth.

via Youth of Color Think Stupak is the Pitts Too! | Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture.

when i was pregnant was when i went from being pro choice to pro abortion.  seriously.  what i realized was that no one.  and i mean. no. one. should be forced to be pregnant.  that is biological and reproductive torture.  pregnancy is hard core.  and no one should have to go through it unless they are sure that is what they want to do.

 

 

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PLEASE JOIN MY NEW BLOG FOR TRANSITIONING NATURALS!!

 

 

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PLEASE JOIN MY NEW BLOG FOR TRANSITIONING NATURALS!!

via Raven's Eye by maia on 12/5/09

Target Queen: PLEASE JOIN MY NEW BLOG FOR TRANSITIONING NATURALS!!.

 

 

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