Taxes

JuWanda Harris spent the last year rising before the sun to work two jobs, using the money to support her brother and sister and help her parents with everything from gas bills to toothpaste.

With a surge of last-minute votes expected, Oregon will decide Tuesday whether to impose higher taxes on businesses and people whose income is well into six figures.

President Barack Obama's push to create jobs includes a new tax credit for small businesses that add employees, an idea that has appeal as the nation struggles with an unemployment rate topping 10 percent.

Millions of Americans may look back on 2009 as the year they froze like deer in headlights – and made money by standing still. Since the market bottomed out in March, some who sat on their hands have done surprisingly well. As of today, an investor with all her stocks in an S&P 500 index fund would be up a healthy 20 percent for the year – and more than 60 percent since March.

Christmas on ... Independence Day? Determined to avoid a repeat performance of last year’s lackluster sales, retailers have moved up “Christmas creep” even earlier than usual, stocking shelves with gifts during the summer months.

Wilma Erwin is fuming. Despite an 18-year track record of paying her bills on time, the retired principal got a notice April 15 from Discover Card that her card's 10.99 percent rate will jump to 15.24 percent.

For almost half a century, attorney J. Harlan Stamper has sorted through U.S. tax law. He's only recently stepped back from preparing other people's returns.

If you're paying for a college education, you may need an advanced degree to figure out how to claim federal tax breaks for those expenses.