Tax Day

Taken from Wikipedia

In the United States, Tax Day is a colloquial term for the day on which individual income tax returns are due to the federal government.^[1] The term may also refer to the same day for states, even where the tax return due date is a different day.

Since 1955, for those living in the United States, Tax Day has typically fallen on April 15.^[1] For those filing a U.S. tax return but living outside the United States and Puerto Rico, Tax Day has typically fallen on June 15, due to the two-month automatic extension granted to filers by IRS Publication 54.^[2]

Due to Emancipation Day in Washington, D.C., (which is observed on the weekday closest to April 16), when April 15 falls on a Friday, tax returns are due the following Monday; when April 15 falls on a Saturday or Sunday, tax returns are due the following Tuesday.^[3][4]

• In 2014, Tax Day was Tuesday, April 15^[5]

• In 2015, Tax Day is Wednesday, April 15^[6]

• In 2016, Tax Day will be Monday, April 18^[7]

• In 2017, Tax Day will be Tuesday, April 18

Similarly, April 15 is the deadline for filing Income Tax Returns (ITR) in the Philippines.

History

Federal income tax was introduced with the Revenue Act of 1861 to help fund the Civil War, and subsequently repealed, re-adopted, and held unconstitutional. The early taxes were based on assessments, not voluntary tax returns. Tax payment dates varied by act.^[8]

The case of Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. challenged the constitutionality of the Wilson–Gorman Tariff Act of 1894 which taxed incomes over $4,000 at the rate of two percent. The case was decided by the United States Supreme Court in 1895. The Supreme Court decided that the Act's unapportioned income taxes on interest, dividends, and rents were effectively direct taxes. The Act was therefore unconstitutional because it violated the Constitution's rule that direct taxes be apportioned.^[9] In 1913, eighteen years later, the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. This Amendment gave the United States Congress the legal authority to tax all incomes without regard to the apportionment requirement.

The filing deadline for individuals was March 1 in 1913 (the first year of a federal income tax), and was changed to March 15 in 1918 and again to April 15 in 1955.^[10] Today, the filing deadline for U.S. federal income tax returns for individuals remains April 15 or, in the event that the 15th falls on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, the first succeeding day that is not a Saturday, Sunday or holiday.

Tax Day occasionally falls on Patriots' Day, a civic holiday in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and state of Maine, or the preceding weekend. When this occurred for some time, the federal tax deadline was extended by a day for the residents of Maine,Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and the District of Columbia because the IRS processing center for these areas was located in Andover, Massachusetts and the unionized IRS employees got the day off.^[11] In 2011, the Monday, April 18, Tax Day fell on Patriots' Day. However, federal filings were directed to Hartford, Connecticut, Charlotte, North Carolina and Kansas City, Missouri^[12] and there was no further extension for Maine, Massachusetts or other surrounding states' residents.^[13][14] The Maine state tax filing deadline was still extended to April 19 in 2011 due to Patriots' Day.^[15]

In 2007, Tax Day was on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 because April 15 fell on a Sunday and Monday, April 16 was Emancipation Day, a legal holiday in the District of Columbia. Under a federal statute enacted decades ago, holidays observed in the District of Columbia have an impact nationwide, not just in D.C. A storm and flooding affected the Northeast that year and certain states were granted additional time to file. In some cases, the deadline was extended to as late as June 25.^[16][17] In 2011, the federal tax deadline was extended to April 18, since Emancipation Day, a holiday in Washington, D.C., was celebrated on April 15, a Friday.^[18]

Until next time!
Cherise, the Mompreneur

Doctor, I have Mommy Guilt! part 1

image from kidsloveacupuncture(dot)com

You know it's coming. You are preparing your bags to walk out the door. You try to avoid eye contact and you stealthily move about the house. And just when you thing you're home free, you hear it.

"You're leaving again?!?!?! Do you have to go?"  There it is! That overwhelming feeling that you're failing your child, not a good parent, focused too much on your career instead of your children.... No matter the exact thoughts that go through your head and heart, the feelings are still the same. Mommy guilt has struck again! 

On another note, why is there no phenomenon called 'Daddy Guilt'? Do most fathers know how to perfectly manage the feelings of caring for the family? And why don't they share that with us? Hmmmmmm....

Well, I have found some amazing quotes and images to help you deal with this.

image from couponkarma(dot)com 

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes of your goal. 

~Henry Ford

image from rookiemoms(dot)com

  

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. ~Maya Angelou

The three C’s in life:  Choice, Chance, Change.  You must make the choice, to take a chance or your life will never change. ~Anonymous

               

Enjoy the little things in life because one day you`ll look back and realize they were the big things. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

These are just a few of my favorites. I hope this helps you. 

The next part is coming soon!
Cherise, the Mompreneur

Origin of Easter

Taken from Wikipedia

This article is about the Christian and cultural festival. 

Easter (Pascha / Resurrection Sunday)
Icon of the Resurrection, with Christ, having kicked down the gates of Hades and pulling Adam and Eve out of the tombs. Christ is flanked by saints, and Satan, depicted as an old man, is bound and chained. (SeeResurrection of Jesus in Christian art.)
Type	Christian, cultural
Significance	Celebrates the resurrection of Jesus
Celebrations	Church services, festive family meals, Easter egg decoration, and gift-giving
Observances	Prayer, all-night vigil, sunrise service
2014 date	20 April (Western) 20 April (Eastern)
2015 date	5 April (Western) 12 April (Eastern)
2016 date	27 March (Western) 1 May (Eastern)
Related to	Passover, of which it is regarded the Christian fulfillment; Septuagesima,Sexagesima, Quinquagesima,Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Clean Monday,Lent, Great Lent, Palm Sunday,Holy Week, Maundy Thursday,Good Friday, and Holy Saturday which lead up to Easter; and Thomas Sunday,Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christiwhich follow it.

Easter^{[nb 1]} (Old English usually Ēastrun, -on, or -an; also Ēastru, -o; and Ēostre),^[1] also called Pasch (derived, through Latin:Pascha and Greek Πάσχα Paskha, from Aramaic: פסחא‎, cognate to Hebrew: פֶּסַח‎ Pesaḥ)^{[nb 2][2][3][4][5]} or Resurrection Sunday,^[6][7] is a festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial after his crucifixion by Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD.^[8][9] It is the culmination of the Passion of Christ, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance.

The week before Easter is called Holy Week, and it contains the days of the Easter Triduum, including Maundy Thursday, commemorating the Maundy and Last Supper,^[10][11] as well as Good Friday, commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus.^[12]In western Christianity, Eastertide, the Easter Season, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts seven weeks, ending with the coming of the fiftieth day, Pentecost Sunday. In Orthodoxy, the season of Pascha begins on Pascha and ends with the coming of the fortieth day, the Feast of the Ascension.

Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts in that they do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Juliancalendars which follow only the cycle of the sun; rather, its date is determined on a lunisolar calendar similar to the Hebrew calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established two rules, independence of the Jewish calendar and worldwide uniformity, which were the only rules for Easter explicitly laid down by the council. No details for the computation were specified; these were worked out in practice, a process that took centuries and generated a number of controversies. It has come to be the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or soonest after 21 March,^[13] but calculations vary in East and West. Details of this complicated computation are found below in the section Date.

Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, as well as by its position in the calendar. In many languages, the words for "Easter" and "Passover" are identical or very similar.^[14] Easter customs vary across the Christian world, and include sunrise services, exclaiming the Paschal greeting, clipping the church,^[15] and decorating Easter eggs, a symbol of the empty tomb.^[16][17][18] The Easter lily, a symbol of the resurrection,^[19][20] traditionally decorates the chancel area of churches on this day and for the rest of Eastertide.^[21] Additional customs that have become associated with Easter and are observed by both Christians and some non-Christians include egg hunting, the Easter Bunny, and Easter parades.^[22][23][24] There are also various traditional Easter foods that vary regionally.

Etymology

Main article: Names of Easter

The modern English term Easter, cognate with modern German Ostern, developed from an Old English word that usually appears in the form Ēastrun, -on, or -an; but also asĒastru, -o; and Ēastre or Ēostre.^{[nb 3]} The most widely accepted theory of the origin of the term is that it is derived from the name of a goddess mentioned by the 7th to 8th-century English monk Bede, who wrote that Ēosturmōnaþ (Old English 'Month of Ēostre', translated in Bede's time as "Paschal month") was an English month, corresponding to April, which he says "was once called after a goddess of theirs named Ēostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month".^[25]

In Greek and Latin, the Christian celebration.... To continue reading, click here.

Until next time!
Cherise, the Mompreneur

Origin of Passover

Taken from Wikipedia

Passover or Pesach (/ˈpɛsɑːx, ˈpeɪsɑːx/;^[4] from Hebrew פֶּסַח Pesah, Pesakh), is an important, biblically derived Jewish festival. TheJewish people celebrate Passover as a commemoration of their liberation by God from slavery in Egypt and their freedom as a nation under the leadership of Moses. It commemorates the story of the Exodus as described in the Hebrew Bible especially in theBook of Exodus, in which the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. According to standard biblical chronology, this event would have taken place at about 1300 BCE (AM 2450).^[5]

Passover is a spring festival which during the existence of the Jerusalem Temple was connected to the offering of the "first-fruits of the barley", barley being the first grain to ripen and to be harvested in the Land of Israel.^[6]

Passover commences on the 15th of the Hebrew month of Nisan and lasts for either seven days (in Israel) and for Reform Jews and other progressive Jews around the world who adhere to the Biblical commandment or eight days for Orthodox,Hasidic, and most Conservative Jews (in the diaspora).^[7][8] In Judaism, a day commences at dusk and lasts until the following dusk, thus the first day of Passover only begins after dusk of the 14th of Nisan and ends at dusk of the 15th day of the month of Nisan. The rituals unique to the Passover celebrations commence with the Passover Seder when the 15th of Nisan has begun. In the Northern HemispherePassover takes place in spring as the Torah prescribes it: "in the month of [the] spring" (בחדש האביב Exodus 23:15). It is one of the most widely observed Jewish holidays.

In the narrative of the Exodus, the Bible tells that God helped the Children of Israel escape from their slavery in Egypt by inflicting ten plagues upon the ancient Egyptians before the Pharaoh would release his Israelite slaves; the tenth and worst of the plagues was the death of the Egyptian first-born.

The Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a slaughtered spring lamb and, upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord knew to pass over the first-born in these homes, hence the English name of the holiday.^[9]

When the Pharaoh freed the Israelites, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread dough to rise (leaven). In commemoration, for the duration of Passover no leavened bread is eaten, for which reason Passover was called the feast of unleavened bread in the Torah or Old Testament.^[10] Thus Matzo (flat unleavened bread) is eaten during Passover and it is a tradition of the holiday.

Historically, together with Shavuot ("Pentecost") and Sukkot ("Tabernacles"), Passover is one of the three pilgrimage festivals(Shalosh Regalim) during which the entire population of the kingdom of Judah made a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem.^[11]Samaritans still make this pilgrimage to Mount Gerizim, but only men participate in public worship.^[12][13]

Date and duration

See also: Jewish calendar

The Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, which typically falls in March or April of the Gregorian calendar. Passover is a spring festival, so the 15th day of Nisan begins on the night of a full moon after the northern vernal equinox.^{[citation needed]} To ensure that Passover did not start before spring, the tradition in ancient Israel held that the first day of Nisan would not start until the barley was ripe, being the test for the onset of spring.^[14] If the barley was not ripe, or various other phenomena^[15] indicated that spring was not yet imminent, an intercalary month (Adar II) would be added. However, since at least the 4th century, the date has been fixed mathematically.^[16]

In the Israel, Passover is the seven-day holiday .... To continue reading, click here.

Until next time!
Cherise, the Mompreneur