Today, A glitch in tax prep software may have resulted in unexpected generosity toward the Oregon's State School Fund this year. Oregon's state constitution requires that surplus revenue in the state's general fund be refunded to the taxpayers at the end of the year. Now some taxpayers (including reader Erich, who sent this in) didn't get their checks because they say Turbo Tax involuntarily donated the "kicker" to the Oregon State School Fund. Whoops!
"We are getting calls from people who are saying that they used some kind of an electronic software program to file their tax returns and that they did not check the box to donate their kicker," said Rosemary Hardin, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Revenue. "When we bring up their tax return, that box is checked."

Hardin said it's possible that people intentionally checked the box, then forgot. Still, the department is investigating.

Kicker checks -- or thank-you letters for donations -- began arriving in mailboxes Dec. 8.

About 12,000 people gave a total of $6.7 million in kicker refunds to the State School Fund this year.

That's twice as many people, and nine times as much money, as was donated to the fund in 2001, the last time there were kicker refunds.

"We're contacting at least one software company to have them look a little more deeply into their programming," Hardin said. "We're looking into if this is a glitch in some software programs or one software program." The Department of Education says that they don't intend to keep accidental donations, but they may have to. There's no provision in the law for reversing donations. TurboTax says they haven't received any complaints about the issue. Bob Meighan, a vice president with Turbo Tax, said the company has not received any complaints regarding Oregon's kicker provision.

He ran through the program Friday afternoon and said it clearly asks users whether they wanted to make the donation and warns them that the decision is irrevocable. Odd. If you're one of the inadvertently generous, you here's some Canadians are heading to the U.S. to do their shopping—and are leaving their old clothes behind in order to avoid paying a duty when they cross back into Canada.

Some Canadian shoppers wear their new clothes home to avoid paying a duty when they cross back into Canada. The old clothes get left behind in parking lots, dressing rooms and restrooms at malls and shopping plazas in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls region. Malls are now setting up collection boxes so Canadians can donate their old clothes to charity rather than just throwing them away. Weird.

Kiplinger's idea of a good Christmas present for a teenager is helping them start a retirement account. We kind of think the average teen is going to have a hard time understanding why that's a "better" gift than, say, a game system, but the underlying idea is sound. As long as your teen worked at some point in 2007—even babysitting counts— It's not as sexy a topic as dog treats, but it's an important one: tax planning mistakes. More specifically, how to avoid some of the most common ones. Kiplinger lists 11 frequent mistakes you should be aware of if you don't want an unpleasant surprise come April.

• 1) Ignoring the Alterna