Lots of people dread filing their taxes, but here's what's worse: You go to file your taxes find out a criminal has already done it for you.
This week, Life Inc. looked at the surge in identity theft tax fraud, in which criminals take a person’s name and Social Security number and file a bogus return on their behalf. Then, they pocket the hefty fake refund the return generates.
The post prompted tons of outrage, especially from readers who said they’d gone through the painful process of being a victim of this type of fraud. For many readers, there was plenty of anger to go around.
“These crooks aren't that smart, it's just that the government is pretty much incompetent at everything it does,” one reader wrote.
Being pregnant is hard work, but working while pregnant also appears to have its share of complications.
A post this week on the government’s stepped-up efforts to battle pregnancy discrimination prompted a lot of readers to share their stories of odd job interviews, suspiciously timed layoffs and other ways in which pregnancy and work didn’t mix well.
About six in 10 readers who took our poll said they had seen or experienced pregnancy discrimination in the workplace.
Some told us the fear of being treated differently was keeping them from having kids.
“I'm 28 and just married and avoiding pregnancy completely for at least 5 years because of likelihood of losing my job if I do,” one reader wrote.
But others argued that employers shouldn’t have to accommodate procreation.
“First of all getting pregnant is a choice with very few exceptions. As an employer I should not have to deal with your choice,” another reader wrote.
It’s probably true that some people call in sick because of pregnancy-related issues, but another post this week looked at a different reason for taking a sick day: boredom.
Researchers found that workers were much more likely to call in sick on a day when they had a light workload than when they had a normal amount of work to do. Some readers could relate.
“So true...I hate it when I'm bored at work...just hate it,” one reader wrote.