What is your reaction to these numbers? In 2009, roughly 47% of households or 71 million will owe not federal tax, according the Tax Policy Center.

Previous estimates were for 36% to pay no tax, but with the stimulus incentives passed by Congress, the numbers are getting larger.

The vast majority of households making less that $30,000 fall into this category, as do nearly 50% of households making between $30,000 and $40,000 per year.

Another record deficit, a Geithner likely tax boost, and higher import prices failed to significantly spook the markets even after a five or day run-up. Based on the late day recovery, where this close was going to end up was an unknown until right at the closing bell. The day was a very light day for news, so here are the closing bell levels (unofficial close):

Dow 9,603.98 -23.50 (-0.24%)
S&P 500 1,042.73 -1.41 (-0.14%)
Nasdaq 2,080.90 -3.12 (-0.15%)

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What's a high income in the United States? Right now, ask 10 Americans and you'll probably get 10 answers.

The reason the topic is mentioned here is that views on income help determine U.S. income tax policy: they help push the U.S. Congress in one direction or the other.

Could a tax on health care premiums, applied to both businesses and individuals, slow the increase in health insurance premiums?

It seems implausible, but indeed it could. Here's why:

We get a second piece of positive news out of the housing industry in as many days today as the Commerce Department announced this morning that new home construction jumped 3.6% in June.

No one is going to put forth the argument that the housing market is all of a sudden in good shape again, but we are starting to see signs that things could be at least leveling off, which is the first step that needs to be made.

Three quarters of the fiscal year is comfortably behind us, and the U.S. budget deficit has already passed the $1 trillion mark. In June alone, the federal government spent faster than it earned to the tune of $94.3 billion. The result is below the median predicted by 30 estimates according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists -- projections ranged from $70 billion to $109.3 billion for the month. This is the first time we've had a June deficit since 1991.

In June 2008, the deficit for the month was a much more modest (but still sizeable) $33.5 billion. But last month spending spiked 37% to $309.7 billion, while revenue plunged 17% to $215.4 billion.

So how does the rest of the year look? Pretty grim.

H&R Block (NYSE: HRB), a tax-preparation company whose colleagues include Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service (NYSE: JTX), was up in the after-hours session on Monday because the market approved of the company's Q4 earnings report. At one point, shares had gained almost 5.8%, and that was on top of 1.6% gain during the regular session. Volume was okay during the regular session, not overly spectacular.

H&R Block did pretty well considering revenues declined almost 3%. Earnings from continuing operations were flat at $2.09 per diluted share. This was enough to beat estimates of $2.05 per share according to this source.

H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) turned in strong numbers for its last fiscal year, which ended April 30, 2009. Income from continuing operations climbed 15% to $513.1 million ($1.53 per share), compared to $445.9 million ($1.36 a share) the previous year. But, the income growth came on basically flat revenues of $4.1 billion.

The Tax Services division saw revenues grow 1.5% to $3 billion, with pretax income up 13.7% to $893.8 million. H&R Block prepared 5.8% fewer returns, though the average fee per returned was up 7.2%. The up-tick in fees resulted from increased tax return complexity and an increase in clients with higher adjusted gross incomes.

What's a good way to gauge the economic relevance of Wednesday's Tea Parties?

Use a question University of Connecticut Political Science Professor Howard Reiter asks his students to deploy: "What practical impact will this policy have on the typical person's daily life?

We know the practical impact of President Obama's policies. Since the Tea Parties expressed concern about taxes, let's focus on that issue. Obama's tax policy will cut taxes on 95 percent of Americans and raise taxes on those earning more than $250,000 per year, with some exceptions for small businesses.

Last night it was reported by Reuters, following up on an interview in the Financial Times (subscription required) that James Hackett, chairman and chief executive of independent oil and gas company Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) said, "Washington's energy and environmental policy risks plunging the United States into an economic tailspin that could make it the world's cleanest third world country."

Seems he is not partial to the global warming crowd as indicated by his statement that "The histrionic and maniacal focus on carbon dioxide is intellectually repugnant to me," but how does he really feel?

As people work on their taxes, they always look for creative ways to cut their tax bills. Some of our readers think they've got a perfect new write-off -- claiming American International Group, Inc. (NYSE:AIG) as a dependent.

One reader, Rick, wrote, "I hope to keep my job, I still have to provide for my family and AIG. I wonder if I can claim them on this years tax return?"

If the allegations are to be believed, Robert Allen Stanford ripped off his investors to the tune of $8 billion and managed to cheat the IRS out of its cut of his ill-gotten gains as well.

The IRS has asked a judge to allow it to continue its efforts to collect $226.6 million in back taxes -- and there may be more to come because Stanford still hasn't filed his 2007 tax return.

Maybe I'm naive in the ways of massive fraud and its tax implications, but here's what I don't understand: Thousands of investors are in all probability out billions of dollars because of Mr. Stanford's alleged conduct. Given that, every penny that the IRS collects from him represents a penny that won't be available to his victims.

There are times when I have been behind the times but not like the investment gurus that laughed at Peter Schiff over the past few years as he called it like he saw it, and he happened to be spot on with his facts and his conclusions. For those that follow the blabbing of Arthur Laffer -- he in particular never looked more laughable than he does in this compilation video of his business show appearances, that has been floating around the web for a while.

In California, where unemployment has already reached 10%, as reports from the economic wizards suggest it might reach 9% nationally later this year -- we are looking at considerably worse still, and in the Los Angeles area it's higher now.

The state budget that was due on the governors desk last July, was just signed last week -- only seven months late!

We have deficits in the tens of billions of dollars and are looking at large increases in all kinds of taxes and "fees" (taxes) and "surcharges" (still more taxes). Adding new tax burdens to the most taxed people in the union is not the way to economic recovery.

American International Group (NYSE: AIG), in yet another act of self-parody replacing the role of traditional comedians, has taken the unusual step of suing the United States government over a tax dispute -- at the same time that the company is holding $150 billion worth of taxpayer money and is set to receive another $30 billion.

Apparently that isn't good enough. The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that AIG sued the U.S. over $306 million in taxes, interest and penalties. A company spokesman told the reporter that "AIG is taking this action to ensure that it is not required to pay more than its fair share of taxes."