IRS: Firms can pay taxes for employees


Companies can voluntarily pay the additional taxes rank-and-file workers face because they were issued backdated stock options, the IRS said Thursday.

The Internal Revenue Service initiative affects the additional 20 percent tax and any interest employees would owe after exercising backdated stock options. The IRS said its program would help employees who might be unaware that they held backdated stock options.


Federal authorities have been investigating whether companies have backdated the exercise price of the options to a date when the price was lower, making them more lucrative for the holders. The government is scrutinizing the options practices of nearly 140 firms, and many others are conducting internal reviews of their stock option plans. IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said the plan doesn't extend to "the executives and insiders who were the principal beneficiaries of the backdating schemes."



Source: chicagotribune.com

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Anna Nicole Smith died of unknown causes in a Florida hotel room



THE WASHINGTON POST

Anna Nicole Smith, a postmodern pinup for a tabloid age, died of unknown causes Thursday in a Florida hotel room, her sudden death at 39 delivering the same shock and uproar as the celebrity life she cultivated.

Smith was in her sixth-floor room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla., when her private nurse called the operator for help, according to Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger, who said a bodyguard attempted CPR but could not revive her.

The former Playboy Playmate of the Year was rushed to a hospital, where she died at 2:49 p.m. The Broward County medical examiner planned to conduct an autopsy today.

Embroiled in an epic court feud over the hundreds of millions of dollars left behind by the octogenarian oil tycoon she married at 26 but never lived with, Smith cultivated a Marilyn Monroe image with her breathy singsong voice and va-va-voom figure. She pursued fame with a dignity-be-damned abandon, and her life unfolded in lurid headlines, tragedy and triumph in outsize measure — with so much legal drama that Smith was as likely to appear in a courtroom as a centerfold.

Her fight over the inheritance of J. Howard Marshall II took her to the U.S. Supreme Court in May. The paparazzi were waiting as Smith catwalked past in a form-fitting suit.

Smith's death came just five months after her 20-year-old son, Daniel, mysteriously died at her hospital bedside in the Bahamas, where Smith had given birth to a daughter whose paternity immediately became a matter of legal dispute.

Smith's attorney, Ron Rale, said that his client had not felt well in recent days, suffering from flu-like symptoms.

"I don't think anybody should have to endure what she's endured, having lost her son, people attacking her left and right," Rale said. "I felt like Anna was the underdog, having all of this thrust upon her. And she really just wanted to be a mom, and she was a good mom."

It was not explained why Smith, who had been hospitalized for drug and alcohol use previously, took her own nurse to the Indian gaming resort, where hotel sources described her as a regular guest.

Her baby, Dannielynn Hope, was not with her in Florida, police said, and was believed to still be in the Bahamas, where Smith set up housekeeping pending a formal inquiry into Daniel's death. An American medical examiner hired by the family said the death was an accident caused by the reaction of methadone and two antidepressants in his system.

An ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, has filed a paternity suit claiming he fathered the girl, and a Los Angeles judge had ordered Smith to have the baby undergo a DNA test by Feb. 21.

Shortly after Dannielynn's birth, Smith identified her personal attorney, Howard K. Stern, as the father, and the two staged a white-dress "commitment ceremony" they later admitted was nonbinding. They celebrated with champagne and buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Her life had been one of extremes ever since Vickie Lynn Hogan escaped the high school dropout life of teen bride.

First married to a fry cook named Billy Smith in the small Texas town of Mexia, she later worked at Wal-Mart and waitressed at Red Lobster before heading to Houston to pursue her fortune as a topless dancer. It was as a stripper that she met Marshall, 63 years her senior.

While in Houston, a friend urged Smith to send photographs to Playboy, which featured her as 1993 Playmate of the Year, and the persona of Anna Nicole was not so much born as invented.

Smith became famous as a Guess jeans model, her curves and sleepy-eyed gaze conjuring the ghosts of Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. There were soon other memorable photographs, as well: of Anna Nicole burying the wizened head of the wheelchair-bound Marshall in her ample bosom.

The unlikely pair married in 1994.

She was one of the original celebrity-train-wreck girls, undeniably beautiful but ultimately more famous for the calamities of her life than her accomplishments. Smith parlayed numerous Playboy videos showing her in fancy cars and bubble baths into B-movie roles, cameos in sitcoms and, later, her own reality TV show.

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner issued a statement describing her as "a dear friend who meant a great deal to the Playboy family and to me personally."

Marshall's death in 1995 triggered a long contest for the estate between Smith and her 60-year-old stepson, E. Pierce Marshall. At one point she was awarded $88 million by a federal court in California but she never saw the money. The case made its way to the Supreme Court, but the stepson died before there was a resolution.

Her weight fluctuated as drastically as her fortunes.

She lost a reported 69 pounds and became a spokeswoman for TrimSpa, a weight-loss supplement. On Wednesday news broke that Smith and the diet products company were named in a class-action suit alleging false or misleading marketing of a weight loss pill.

E! Entertainment Television gave her a program in 2002, "The Anna Nicole Show," one of the first so-called celebrity reality series.

Just before "The Anna Nicole Show" debuted, she touted it in a press release. "People won't be able to stop watching once they tune in," she said. "My life is a roller coaster, so hold on and enjoy the ride."

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