Current Events in August 2017

The Internal Revenue Service is extending the filing deadline for Hurricane Harvey victims who had earlier filed for an extension. 

This includes an additional filing extension for taxpayers with valid extensions that run out on Oct. 16, and businesses with extensions that run out on Sept. 15.

"This has been a devastating storm, and the IRS will move quickly to provide tax relief to hurricane victims," said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. "The IRS will continue to closely monitor the storm's aftermath, and we anticipate providing additional relief for other affected areas in the near future."

The IRS is now offering this expanded relief to any area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as qualifying for individual assistance. Currently, 18 counties are eligible, but taxpayers in localities added later to the disaster area will automatically receive the same filing and payment relief.

The tax relief postpones various tax filing and payment deadlines that occurred starting on Aug. 23, 2017. As a result, affected individuals and businesses will have until Jan. 31, 2018 to file returns and pay any taxes that were originally due during this period. This includes the Sept. 15, 2017 and Jan. 16, 2018 deadlines for making quarterly estimated tax payments.

For individual tax filers, it also includes 2016 income tax returns that received a tax-filing extension until Oct. 16, 2017. The IRS noted, however, that because tax payments related to these 2016 returns were originally due on April 18, 2017, those payments are not eligible for this relief.

The kid racing up and down the block in a battered old car with a Domino's Pizza sign on the roof may soon be a thing of the past. Ford and Domino's are working on a self-driving pizza delivery vehicle.

Of course, the pizzamobile won't be able to deliver the pizza to your door. Instead, what would normally be the right rear passenger window will open to a storage compartment containing your pizza.

A prototype pizza wagon, using a Ford Fusion hybrid, will soon be deployed in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There will be a Ford engineer driving the car but customers will have to dash out and get the pizza themselves, just as though there was no human driver.

Domino's says the test isn't so much to prove the concept of a self-driving delivery car but rather to see how customers react to the idea. Randomly selected pizza eaters in Ann Arbor will soon be able to specify automated delivery when they place their order.

Last 50 feet

"We're interested to learn what people think about this type of delivery," said Russell Weiner, president of Domino's USA, according to Automotive News. "The majority of our questions are about the last 50 feet of the delivery experience. For instance, how will customers react to coming outside to get their food?"

Weiner said Domino's wants to be sure that self-driving pizza delivery is "as seamless and customer-friendly as possible."

In the Ann Arbor test, customers will be able to track their orders through GPS and will receive a text message with instructions on unlocking the storage compartment and retrieving their pizza.

The idea certainly has promise. Besides eliminating the often-cited problem of exuberant young drivers speeding through neighborhoods, it would also eliminate the equally annoying problem of pizza delivery workers being held up at gunpoint. 

It also eliminates the question of how much to tip. 

Net Neutrality can be something of a complex subject, but another poll shows consumers not only understand what it is, they want to keep it.

In short, Net Neutrality holds that internet service providers (ISP) have to treat all web content the same. That means they can't charge extra to sites that use more bandwidth, and they can't favor the content of one site over another.

Some ISPs have protested, saying they've spent millions of dollars building out their networks and should be allowed to manage them as they see fit.

In the latter years of the Obama Administration, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established Net Neutrality as policy, over the protests of some ISPs.

Change in policy

President Trump's FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is a long-time critic of Net Neutrality, and under his leadership the FCC has taken steps to reverse the policy. But it might not be either good business or good politics.

A new poll of U.S. consumers has found 74% supporting legislation that enshrines the principals of Net Neutrality -- namely a law enabling consumers to use the internet free from government or corporate censorship, while setting up one set of rules that applies to all internet companies.

The poll suggests consumers are comfortable with Congress taking the issue out of the hands of the FCC and setting the policy in stone.

Permanent Net Neutrality law

"Americans overwhelmingly favor a permanent net neutrality law over FCC regulations that can be changed from administration to administration," said Mike Montgomery, Executive Director of CALinnovates, a non-partisan tech advocacy group based in San Francisco, which conducted the survey.

Previous research has suggested consumers are growing more concerned about Net Neutrality issues, such as potential throttling, blocking, and the creation of so-called fast lanes.

Younger consumers appear to feel more strongly about the legislative route than their older counterparts. In fact, 18 to 29 year-olds were almost twice as likely to support making Net Neutrality the law of the land than continuing to leave the issue up to the FCC.