Donna Summer was convinced that inhaling toxic air after 9/11 gave her the lung cancer that eventually killed her, as reported by TMZ.  Sources close to the singer told TMZ that Donna was in New York City during 9/11, living at an apartment near Ground Zero.  Eventually, Donna became almost paranoid about breathing the air, which was heavy with a rancid odor.  In the months and years following 9/11, Donna’s feelings intensified.  One source told reporters that when he was around Donna, she would constantly spray some sort of disinfectant in the air.  Deney Terrio, the host of “Dance Fever,” told TMZ that when he was around Donna post 9/11, she would hang silk sheets in her dressing room to prevent dust from coming in.

Another source said that Donna, who was a fervent practicing Christian, believed 9/11 was an attack on Christianity and in some metaphysical way Christians like her were targets.  She somehow felt that her illness was a byproduct of the attack.

And, we’re told, after Donna was diagnosed with lung cancer, several people told her that cigarette smoke may have been the culprit… she was a smoker, and she also frequented clubs where people smoked.  But Donna simply didn’t buy it.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s wife Mary Richardson Kennedy, was found dead in her New York home on Wednesday.  It has been reported that she was “depressed and despondent” shortly before she committed suicide, a source close to the former architect tells RadarOnline.com exclusively.

The long time friend, who spoke to Mary on Monday, said they were sadly not surprised by reports that the 52-year-old had taken her own life, as she was facing mounting financial woes and the end of her marriage.

As RadarOnline.com was first to report, Mary was discovered dead at her Mount Kisco, New York home Wednesday.  A source told RadarOnline.com that she had committed suicide, we have since confirmed that she hanged herself in a barn.

“I spoke to Mary on Monday and she sounded extremely down,” the source tells RadarOnline.com.  “She was very depressed and despondent and worried about the future.  “Mary said she was facing financial ruin, with American Express coming after her hard for an outstanding debt, along with several other creditors.  In addition, she was concerned that Robert was about to substantially reduce the amount of financial support he gave her and she was terrified she would have to file for bankruptcy and lose her home.”

Mary was married to the famed Kennedy for 16 years, before he filed for divorce in May 2010.  The couple had four children together.  Mary lived at the family home in Mount Kisco, while Robert spent the majority of his time in Los Angeles.

“Robert still supported Mary and was there for her whenever he could be, but he had pretty much moved on,” a source close to the radio host previously told RadarOnline.com.  “He has been dating Cheryl Hines for a while now and they are very happy together.”

The initial source tells RadarOnline.com that Mary was struggling to come to terms with the end of their marriage, despite Robert having filed for divorce two years previously, and that the couple was heading to trial.  “It was very tough for Mary to deal with Robert dating someone else,” the source says.  “And it really didn’t help that the new woman is a celebrity.  She would see photos of the two of them together and it would drive her nuts.  I think, deep down, she had still harbored a belief they would get back together but it had recently become blindingly clear that wasn’t to be.”

“Mary was in a very dark place recently,” the second source told RadarOnline.com previously.  “Robert tried to help her all he could but it was difficult for him to be around her.  Robert is committed to his sobriety but Mary had chosen a whole different path to take.”

Mary was charged with driving under the influence in May 2010 by the Bedford, New York police after she failed a number of sobriety tests and her blood alcohol level registered at 0.11.  The incident occurred just three days after Robert filed for divorce.

“Mary has struggled with alcoholism throughout her life,” her friend tells RadarOnline.com.  “She had been hitting the bottle again pretty heavily recently.”

“When I heard the news that she may have taken her own life I was devastated, but not that surprised.  It was in the back of my mind that she may do something like this, and that was compounded by the conversation I had with her Monday.”

“However she died though, this is an absolute tragedy.  Mary was an amazing and beautiful person and she absolutely adored her children.  It is a devastating loss to all that knew her.”

“We deeply regret the death of our beloved sister Mary, whose radiant and creative spirit will be sorely missed by those who loved her,” a Kennedy family representative told RadarOnline.com.  “Our heart goes out to her children who she loved without reservation.  We have no further comment at this time.”

If you died tomorrow, who would inherit your assets?  Your house?  Your Snapfish albums?  If you’re like half of American adults with children, you haven’t made a will and therefore, legally speaking, haven’t answered these questions.

A survey from RocketLawyer.com, a legal services web site, last month found that 50% of Americans with children do not have a will.  Even more alarming, 41% of baby boomers (age 55-64) don’t have one.  The top three reasons cited by survey respondents for not having a will: procrastination, a belief that they don’t need one, and cost.

So what happens if you die without a will?  The state will decide how your property is distributed.  The state will sometimes decide in the favor of those intentioned to receive items, other times not.

Shifts in demographic patterns are making estate plans even more critical.  As the survey notes, in the past five years the number of unmarried couples has jumped, according to the National Marriage Project.  Throw a child into the mix and the surviving partner doesn’t get the same protections that are default under law for a married couple.

Don’t forget your ‘digital estate’
And no doubt you’ve heard about the digital afterlife.  According to the RocketLawyer survey, 63% of respondents don’t know what happens to their digital assets when they die.  Traditional estate planning doesn’t take into account this emerging class of assets — and it’s not just thinking about what you want to happen to your Facebook page or Match.com profile.

Your survivors may not even be aware of the extent of your online presence.  Consider your online bank accounts, email accounts, iPod and all its music, blogs, photo albums, YouTube account, eBay account, PayPal account, e-book collection, Gilt Group subscription…you get the picture.  Even your U.S. savings bonds are online.

Most popular online account services like Facebook, Gmail, LinkedIn and Twitter have developed deceased-user policies, which provide the family or executor of the deceased user with information about what’s required to access the account.  This, however, is a problem most people don’t know that they have.

How to create a will: a primer
- List your significant assets, financial advisors, retirement plans, divorce papers, premarital agreements, and any other such documents.
- Gather employment benefits statements, life insurance policies, deeds to real property, partnership and business agreements and the last two years of income tax returns.
- If you’re married, each spouse makes a separate will.
- Decide who will inherit your property.  After you make your first choices, choose alternate beneficiaries, too, in case your first choices don’t survive you.
- Choose an executor to handle your estate.  Every will must name someone to serve as executor, to carry out the terms of the will. Be sure to let that person know you want them to serve as the executor so it’s not a surprise.
- Identify a guardian for your children.  If your children are under 18, decide who you want to raise them in the event that you and their other parent can’t.  You should also pick someone who can manage your children’s property.
- Identify other decision makers to carry out your health & money choices for you if you’re incapacitated.
- With that information, you can create a will online (there are plenty of online options and tips), or hire an estate planning attorney to help you (they can charge hourly rates of $100 to $500 or more)

Even if your overall cash-flow situation is good, but you still need to cover a short-term deficit, today’s still-strict credit environment often won’t allow you to take out a loan.  More than likely, your only option would be an untapped home equity line of credit or a generous relative.  If that’s the case, great.  If not, you may be able to turn to a surprising source for some help: the taxman.

If you’re self-employed, an investor or someone who lives off Social Security benefits, pension payments, retirement account withdrawals, and the like, you can apply for loan from the Internal Revenue Service.  Better yet: To borrow from the IRS, you don’t have to fill out any annoying applications, prove your income or fence with a balky loan officer.  While this may sound too good to be true, it is true.

What you do is simply postpone some federal income tax payments that you would otherwise make to the IRS via estimated tax installments.  You don’t need the government’s permission.  You just do it and then make up the difference later.  Of course, the IRS will charge interest on the difference between what you should have paid in for each installment and what you actually paid.  However, the current interest rate on estimated tax underpayments is only 3%.  While the rate can potentially change each quarter, it will probably remain at a reasonable level for a while.

The IRS calls the interest on estimated tax underpayments a “penalty.”  But since the current interest rate is only 3%, it’s not really a penalty.  In fact it’s actually a pretty good deal for someone with a short-term cash crisis.

Note: If you are a salaried employee, you must pay in federal income taxes via payroll withholding.  You may be able to adjust the withholding downward a bit for the rest of this year by turning in a revised Form W-4 to your employer.  However, the strategy of borrowing from the IRS is basically unavailable to you.  Sorry.

Estimated Taxes:

There is no federal income tax withholding on income from self-employment activities conducted via sole proprietorships, partnerships, or LLCs.  Nor is there generally any required federal income tax withholding on interest income, dividends, capital gains, Social Security benefits, pension payments, or taxable retirement account withdrawals.  Instead those with income from these sources are expected to make four installment payments of estimated taxes for each year. The installments for the 2012 tax year are due on Apr. 17, June 15 and Sept. 17 of this year, and Jan. 15 of 2013.  Obviously the first date has since passed, but the next three are still in the future.  So you can work with the installments due on those dates by paying in less than you owe or even nothing at all.

As mentioned, you will be charged interest based on the difference between the amount you should have paid in for each installment and the amount you actually pay for as long as the underpayment remains outstanding.  The amount that you should pay in for each installment generally equals the lesser of: (1) 22.5% of what you expect to report on your 2012 Form 1040 for total federal income and self-employment taxes or (2) 25% of what you reported on your 2011 return (27.5% if your 2011 adjusted gross income was over $150,000).

Borrowing from the IRS in this fashion is only a short-term fix.  By no later than April 15th of next year, you must catch up for any estimated tax payment shortfalls for the 2012 tax year.  If you don’t, the IRS will start charging additional interest of half a percent per month on the shortfall, which equates to a 6% annual rate.  That 6% is on top of the “regular” interest charge, which is currently only 3%.  So you could be looking at a rate of 9% or maybe more.  In any case, owing the IRS for 2012 taxes after April 15th of next year is just not a good position to be in.  So, if you are not ready, willing, and able to pay up by that date, this is not a good option for you.  You do not, however have to wait until April 15th to catch up.  You can do so as soon as you are able and that is the recommendation.

WHEN confronted by a letter from the Internal Revenue Service, some people look at is as though they’ve seen a ghost.  BOO!

And when they open certain letters, a few people do see a ghost — or, more accurately, the ghost of a tax return.

When the IRS detects that a person had reportable income but did not file a return, even after much cajoling, it steps in and does the job itself.  Based on what it knows, the agency prepares what it calls a “substitute for return”, a Form 1040 (the generic tax return).  It lists income, calculates the tax due, adds interest and a penalty for failing to file, and sends the recalcitrant taxpayer a bill based on its efforts.

In one way, that may be a relief to procrastinators who just didn’t get around to filing, perhaps for years.  But it often comes at a VERY high price.

Substitute returns are really no substitute for ones that taxpayers could have filed themselves.  That’s because the IRS uses data from only the income side when it creates such a return, which means that it doesn’t include all kinds of items that might offset that income, according to Julian Block, a tax lawyer in Larchmont, N.Y.

The IRS works from W-2 reports of wages paid, filed by employers, and reports of payments to self-employed people from companies that used their services.  The agency also uses reports from financial institutions about interest and dividends paid and reports from brokers about assets sold.  All these things are taxable income.

For self-employed people, in particular, there is often a big disparity between payments received and taxable income, because much of what they receive goes for supplies or salaries or other expenses.  But the IRS will know only the gross payment, and will plug that figure into its return.  It does not even know about the original cost of assets that were reported sold.

In other words, the IRS does not include many of the deductions to which a non-filer may be entitled.  But this doesn’t mean that the IRS is being mean or vengeful or evil.

The IRS is candid that it does not even look for deductions.  In a fact sheet in what it calls the “tax gap” series on its Web site, the IRS warns that a substitute return it prepares is a “basic” one that “will not include any of your additional exemptions or expenses.”

The IRS investigates about a million “non-filer situations” a year.  But it does not prepare a substitute return for everyone that it believes failed to file.  People in the underground economy do not leave a trail that can contribute to such a return, tax experts have been noted as saying.  If those people are caught, they may not get an official printout in the mail.  A visit from someone who dangles handcuffs from a belt is more likely.  And the IRS substitute is not used when a taxpayer has filed a return but the agency believes that he or she failed to report some income.  It has other methods for resolving those issues — often an audit… just what we all have time for!

A taxpayer prompted to action by a substitute return can file the return that he or she should have filed in the first place, and the IRS will adjust the taxpayer’s account accordingly.  The next step, in which taxpayers can claim their exemptions and deductions, can sharply cut the amount due or even yield a refund.  Many nonfilers wouldn’t owe large amounts if their returns were done properly. The IRS fact sheet says its research shows that such failures “could simply be due to procrastination”, as stated by Mr. Eric Bach, CPA.

ONCE a ghost return appears in the mail, simply avoiding it isn’t a viable option. The IRS will send reminders.  If there is no response, it will start collection efforts, based on its calculations.

“The worst thing a taxpayer can do, is not file a return and then continue to ignore the repeated letters from the IRS”, Mr. Bach said.

But taxpayers sometimes do just that, provoked by “fear, paralysis, and denial”, as Mr. Bach has stated it.  “The most important point to remember is that the substitute returns only reflect the income and some some expense information such as mortgage interest because they are required to be reported to the IRS.  These returns are not final.  When the actual return is filed, it supercedes the ‘ghost return’.  This is very important to remember because the actual return will include your itemized deductions that may substantially reduce the IRS’ original assessment.”  In essence, Mr. Bach’s point is, file your returns as quickly as possible if a “ghost return” has been filed to, not only reduce your tax debt and possibly eliminate it, but also to minimize penalties.

Unpleasant as it may be to file  a tax return, and paying the bill to begin with… filing may prove much more appealing than the alternatives.

Eric L. Bach & Associates – Yes, filing your taxes can be trying and extremely annoying… therefor we like to put the whole ordeal off until the last possible moment.  Other than getting your refund sooner or having more time to gather up the funds to pay your tax bill, there is another good reason to get your taxes done early: identity theft.  Simply, this is when someone gets your Social Security number or other identifying information and forges a tax return in your name to get a refund.

It’s understandable that many people don’t want to deal with the IRS because it can be a very trying experience.  But, just imagine how frustrated you would be if you found out someone had filed a false tax return using information stolen from you.  Identity thieves will often submit their fake returns early in the filing season before the victim finishes their real return.

Tax refund identity theft is a growing problem.  In 2010, the IRS was able to identify and remove almost 49,000 returns seeking fraudulent refunds.  Last year, it removed 262,000 fraudulent returns.  The IRS is taking every step they can to try to combat this problem.  If you suspect you are a victim of identity theft, contact the IRS Identity Protection Specialized Unit at 800-908-4490.  You will then be asked to complete IRS Form 14039, the identity-theft affidavit.  Also, remember that the IRS will not contact you by email to request any personal or financial information.  If you get any such message, delete immediately.  Do not, however, dismiss IRS notices you receive in the mail that indicate that more than one tax return was filed for you.

Don Cornelius, the creator of  ‘Soul Train’, was found dead in his home this morning.  Officers responding to a report of a shooting found Cornelius at his Mulholland Drive home at around 4 am, police said.  He was pronounced dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 4:56 am at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Los Angeles County Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter.

“I am shocked and deeply saddened at the sudden passing of my friend, colleague, and business partner Don Cornelius,” said Quincy Jones.  “Don was a visionary pioneer and a giant in our business.  Before MTV there was ‘Soul Train,’ that will be the great legacy of Don Cornelius.  His contributions to television, music and our culture as a whole will never be matched.  My heart goes out to Don’s family and loved ones.”

With the creation of  ‘Soul Train’, Cornelius helped break down racial barriers and broaden the reach of black culture with funky music, groovy dance steps and cutting edge style.  It introduced television audiences to such legendary artists as Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, and Barry White.  It brought the best R&B, soul, and later hip-hop acts to TV and had teenagers dance to them.  It was one of the first shows to showcase African-Americans prominently, although the dance group was racially mixed.  Cornelius was the first host and executive producer.