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Campus Quotes
Easter Egg Hunt
Book Sale
Football
If today was your last day on Earth, what would you do?
Pi Sigma Alpha Poltical Science Honor Society will host their third annual Easter Egg Hunt and carnival.
The UCO Chamber Library will kick off their 11th Annual Library Book Sale.
The team’s spring scrimmage starts at 6:40 Saturday night.
APR. 14, 2011 uco360.com twitter.com/uco360
THE VISTA
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA’S student voice since 1903.
GREEK WEEK CELEBRATES ‘SPRING SING’ By Cody Bromley / Senior Staff Writer
By Ibrahim Albeeti Contributing Writer
With only five days left until the deadline, tax day is just around the corner. This year, the IRS income tax filing deadline was postponed from April 15 to April 18, the next possible business day, because of a holiday in Washington D.C., called Emancipation Day. The local holiday was created as part of a bill signed by President Abraham Lincoln that freed about 3,100 enslaved people in the District of Colombia nine months before the president issued the famous Emancipation Proclamation. Emancipation Day was celebrated in Washington D.C., from 1866 until 1901, but returned to being an observed holiday in 2005. Emancipation Day is actually celebrated on April 16, but part of the law which declared the celebration an official public holiday also declares that when it falls on a Saturday it should be celebrated on the preceding Friday. Nonetheless, this year’s tax deadline is not the only time tax filing has been affected by the holiday’s celebration. In 2007, when April 15 fell on a Sunday, the tax deadline was shifted until the following Tuesday because of Emancipation Day’s celebration on April 16. The history of income taxes also shares another page of history with Abraham Lincoln. The Revenue Act of 1861, signed by Lincoln, introduced the first-ever income tax on Americans to fund the Civil War. The tax was three percent on income above $800 (equivalent to $17,261 in 2010 dollars), and five percent on income of individuals living outside the country. That law was repealed in 1862 with a new one that changed the tax rates, introduced the office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue and also included a higher rate on individuals who earned more than $10,000 (equivalent to $215,767 in 2010 dollars). The income tax continued to be refined in another revenue bill signed by Lincoln in 1864 before being struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1895 as unconstitutional. While the Supreme Court ruled that taxation done in the way prior to their ruling was unconstitutional, in 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution nullified the case and brought back income taxes. Oklahoma was the sixth state to ratify the amendment. To date, six states ratified the amendment after the required 36 had already ratified it, and six states never ratified it. Alaska and Hawaii have never ratified the amendment because they were admitted after the amendment had been
UCO celebrated Greek week with their annual “Spring Sing “ at 7:30 on the Hamilton Field House on Friday, April 8. There were four teams in the Spring Sing and each displayed their talent such as “ singing – dancing and acting.“ Lauren Garrity in team thre said, “ My team and I practiced really well. We got along really well and established a lot of new friendship.” Jessica Schwab, the assistant director of Greek Life and Student Organizations at UCO said, “Greek Week is a really exciting time for our students and a time for us to showcase all of the amazing things that our students can do. There are a variety of activities, such as the OBI Blood Drive, the canned food sculpture competition and the Penny Wars, which are all philanthropic-focused events, social activities like the cookout, educational events such as Corey Ciochetti who spoke about authentic success, and our fun events, like the Stepshow and Spring Sing. The week is really a time to celebrate Greek Life at UCO. Spring Sing is one of our largest and most popular events, so I feel it certainly ends the week on a high note.” Each year is an improvement on the last. Schwab further clarified. “[And] not because the students or the executive board worked any harder or did any better, but because we learn something new each year. Last year we learned things that would improve this year’s Greek Week, and this year we learned things that will help improve Greek Week 2012.”
ratified. Earlier this week, an unofficial tax-related holiday took place called Tax Freedom Day. The day is sponsored by the Tax Foundation and is noted as being the day on which Americans will have earned enough money to pay for all the federal, state and local taxes. In recent years, the tax cuts put forward by President George W. Bush had moved Tax Freedom Day to its second earliest date in 2004 after being its latest ever date in 2000. This year’s Tax Freedom Day falls three days later than last year’s due in part to the recession, the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts and a two percent payroll tax reduction. Those who still have not filed their taxes are quickly running out of time, but several options still exist. First, taxpayers who need more time to file can apply for an extension on their tax deadline. This can be done using IRS form 4868 or by visiting a tax professional. As for filing, taxpayers can take all their relevant documents to a qualified tax preparer to process their return, or for taxpayers who make $31,000 or less there is the option of filing their federal and Oklahoma state taxes online for free using the Oklahoma Tax Commission endorsed website www.TaxFreedom.com. Tax Freedom is a barebones web-based tax filing solution from the makers of TurboTax. This year, the makers of TurboTax are providing another solution for filing taxes with the release of the TurboTax SnapTax app for iPhone and Android. The app is a free download, but TurboTax charges $19.99 upon completion of the tax return.
Last Minute Tax Tips Taxpayers who are not claimed as dependents by their parents but have outof-pocket education costs for tuition, fees, books and supplies may be able to claim the American Opportunity credit. Room and board, travel expenses and other equipment not required for school are examples of expenses that may not be claimed as education costs even if they were paid for with scholarship money. Students should be aware that if the amount of scholarships and grants they received is greater than their combined education costs, they may have taxable scholarship income. Source: IRS.gov; Dr. Mary Sheets, professor of accounting
Theatre
WEATHER TODAY
H 86° L 47°
CFA PRESENTS OPERA FOR BEGINNERS By Brittany Dalton / Staff Writer
TOMORROW H 66° L 38°
More weather at www.uco360.com
DID YOU KNOW? Hawaii is the only U.S. state that grows coffee.
The College of Fine Arts and Design will be presenting Gianni Schicchi, a comedy opera composed by Giacomo Puccini, starting tonight. Show times are at 7:30 Thursday through Saturday, and 2:00 on Sunday. “This show is a great show for newcomers to opera,” Kevin Eckard said. Eckard is the director of opera at UCO. “It’s a comedy, it’s fastpaced. It is a lot of fun.” The story highlights the Donati family after a rich uncle dies, fallen to fighting over the uncle’s estate, which is left entirely to the church. Not wanting to give the story away, Eckard says that the costumes, as well as the sets, are beautiful. The opera is a little different from those performed in the past. “The music is difficult to learn; it is an ensemble where each person is singing a different part,” Eckard said. “If one person drops a word, the rest will be off too, like a domino effect.” The cast has been rehearsing since the beginning of semester, and Eckard notes that some rehearsals took place even before Christmas.
PHOTO BY GARETT FISBECK
The play highlights a family divided and fighting over a rich uncle’s will, a concept director Kevin Eckard says parallels real life. He says that the idea of relatives fighting over money is timeless.
“We make it [the performances] different every year,” Eckard said.
“Puccini’s work has big orchestration. It requires more vocal effort from the
cast, which is also what makes it exciting.”