As published in the Winter Park/Maitland Observer, Thursday Jan. 3, 2012 Edition Offers... Read More »
The Voluntary Buffett Rule and Designated Tax Payments
Professor Todd Henderson supports the Buffett Rule but says it should be voluntary: We can now add actor Will Smith to the growing list of celebrities, business leaders, and politicians who have recently come forward to complain that they don’t pay enough in taxes. Bill Gates has volunteered to pay more. So too has Warren…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Tax PolicyWealth Flight: Facebook Co-Founder Saverin Renounces U.S. Citizenship to save Taxes
Roger Russell of WebCPA reports that Eduardo Saverin, a co-founder of Facebook, has renounced his U.S. citizenship prior to the company going public in a move apparently designed to limit his U.S tax liabilities: The Brazilian-born resident of Singapore took the action last year, and his name appears on an IRS list of people who…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Tax PolicySeven Major Tax Uncertainties
David Rosenberg On Taxation-Shock-Syndrome: While nothing is more certain than death and taxes (and central bank largesse), David Rosenberg of Gluskin Sheff uncovers The Unlucky seven major tax-related uncertainties facing households and businesses that will likely lead to multiple compression in markets (rather than the much-heralded multiple expansion ‘story’ which appears to have topped the…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Tax PolicyThe Guy Who Wants to Raise Taxes on the Rich
“When you’re rich they think you really know.” – Fiddler on the Roof – The left thinks we should listen to this guy on tax issues:
Read Full Article Categorized in: SatireMark Cuban: Increase in Corporate Net Profits through Tax Reduction Doesn’t Create Jobs
Mark Cuban is a billionaire and a very smart guy, but his opinion that reducing corporate taxes does not create jobs is off the mark: Companies hire because they need people to compete and keep customers happy, not because of lower tax rates … . Bottom line is that while CEOs of public companies and financial engineers…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Corporate Tax, The EconomyVOW to Hire a Hero Tax Credit Rewards Employers for Firing a Hero
Read Joe Kristan’s Hire a Vet, Fire Someone Else for yet another reason to distrust government. In it he tells of a new law, the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, which gives a tax credit to employers who hire veterans. A very nice gesture, don’t you think? Not so fast Kowalski. The geniuses on Capitol Hill failed to include…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Credits, Tax PolicyLow Tax, Non-Union Red States Outperform High Tax, Union Blue States
Don’t tell the propagandists of the pro-tax, pro-union, pro-big government crowd this but the red states (you know, the ones with all of those toothless conservative rednecks in them), and their low tax, pro-business policies regularly out-perform the blue states and their high tax, pro-union policies. John Hinderaker of PowerLine has the story (emphasis added): Today, we have…
Read Full Article Categorized in: News, State Taxes, The EconomyColoradans Say No to Tax Increases
Joseph Henchman of Tax Policy Blog reports in Colorado Voters Reject Income and Sales Tax Increase: Colorado voters yesterday rejected Proposition 103, which would have raised $2.9 billion between 2012 and 2016 by raising the state income tax from 4.63% to 5% and the state sales tax from 2.9% to 3% for five years. 36.3% voted…
Read Full Article Categorized in: State TaxesThe Right Way to Raise Revenue: IRS Gets $2.7 Billion from Offshore Amnesty Program
It is unfair for the government to demand that those who have followed the law and paid their taxes pay more taxes simply because federal bureaucrats are too lazy or too inc0mpetent to enforce the current laws. Here is how you raise revenues: Per IR-2011-94 (Sept. 15, 2011) IRS Shows Continued Progress on International Tax Evasion: The…
Read Full Article Categorized in: International Taxation, News, Tax Crimes, Tax PolicyMortgage Interest Deduction in Jeopardy
Kenneth Harney of The Washington Post says that elimination or scale-back of the mortgage interest deduction is on the table in deficit negotiations: After decades of being considered politically sacrosanct, why are homeowner mortgage write-offs suddenly on the chopping block? Sheer size is the No. 1 reason. The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Deductible Expenses, Legislative Watch, Tax PolicyA Return to 70% Top Tax Rates?
Senior Fellow of Stanford’s The Hoover Institution, Michael Boskin, writing for the Wall Street Journal says that we should Get Ready for a 70% Marginal Tax Rate (emphasis is mine): President Obama has been using the debt-ceiling debate and bipartisan calls for deficit reduction to demand higher taxes. With unemployment stuck at 9.2% and a vigorous economic…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Tax Policy, The EconomyObama Says Raise Taxes on Millionaires
WebCPA reports that President Obama used his weekly address to say it was necessary to raise taxes on the wealthy to help close the budget deficit. Obama pointed out that Democrats and Republicans have already identified more than $1 trillion in spending cuts. But he added that it was necessary to also look at every…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Legislative Watch, Tax PolicyDo Lower Corporate Tax Rates Mean More Revenue?
Daniel Mitchell of Cato has a little beauty today titled CAP Leftists Have Accidental Encounter with the Laffer Curve, Learn Nothing: The U.S. corporate tax rate is more than 39 percent and the average corporate tax rate in Europe is less than 25 percent. So let’s ponder these interesting facts. CAP is right that the…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Corporate Tax, Tax PolicyDemocrat Demi-God Bill Clinton Favors Repatriation Tax Holiday
Paul Caron has some big news: Bloomberg, Bill Clinton Backs U.S. Tax Holiday on Foreign Profits, With Caveats: Former U.S. President Bill Clinton endorsed a tax holiday on repatriating offshore profits with conditions, taking a position contrary to the Obama administration. “I favor it under certain circumstances,” Clinton said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Corporate Tax, International Taxation, News, Tax PolicyThe Invisible Tax Increase
Let’s face it, no politician wants to be seen as a tax raiser, especially in an election year. But that doesn’t change the fact that many politicians, in their hearts of hearts, believe that taxes should be raised. What to do? Well, according to Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute some tax-and-spenders have found a way they can raise…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Tax Policy