As published in the Winter Park/Maitland Observer, Thursday Jan. 3, 2012 Edition Offers... Read More »
Maryland to Increase Taxes on “Rich” Residents Earning More than $100K Per Year?
Tax Policy Blog reports that the Maryland legislature is considering whether to pass a law that would raise tax rates on wealthy individuals. And what is considered wealthy in Maryland? $100,000.00 of annual income: Maryland’s tax special session began today; expect more analysis on it from us tomorrow. However, we just received detail on S.B.…
Read Full Article Categorized in: State Taxes, 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 PolicyOklahoma Republicans Want to Abolish the State Income Tax
The AP’s Sean Murphy reports that Oklahoma Republicans want to abolish their state income tax: A year after Republicans swept into office across the country, many have trained their sights on what has long been a fiscal conservative’s dream: the steep reduction or even outright elimination of state income taxes. The idea has circulated among academics…
Read Full Article Categorized in: State TaxesWealth Flight Update
Kay Bell reports: Democrats who control the New Jersey legislature are vowing to revive the state’s millionaire’s tax. The state’s Republican governor releases data showing that higher taxes drive out New Jersey’s top income earners. Coincidence much? No, politics as usual. Dr. Charles Steindel, the top economist for the N.J. Treasury Department, and two colleagues…
Read Full Article Categorized in: News, 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 EconomyRafael Nadal to Skip Wimbledon Warm-Up Event to Avoid Taxes
WebCPA reports that tennis player Rafael Nadal will not play in the traditional Wimbledon tennis tournament warm-up event next year because of stringent British tax laws: The No. 2-ranked Spanish tennis player said Thursday he can “lose money” playing in the Queen’s Club tournament because of the tax laws that affect athletes, musicians and actors.…
Read Full Article Categorized in: News, Tax Policy, The EconomyHigh Taxes Scare Rich People Away
And when rich people leave, there is less tax revenue. Tim Worstall of adamsmith.org on wealth flight (emphasis is mine): We keep trying to tell the lefties this, that people really will move out of a tax area to escape high tax rates. The usual response rarely rises above “Yah, Boo, Sucks, so what?”. And of course…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Tax Policy, The EconomyTax Shocker of the Week: Tax Increases Drive Jobs Away in Illinois
File this one under the category “Ya think?” Joseph Henchman of Tax Policy Blog writes in Illinois Legislators Hint that Tax Increases are Driving Away Jobs: In January, Illinois legislators approved raising their individual income tax rate from 3% to 5%, and raised the corporate income tax rate from 7.3% to 9.5%, retroactive to January…
Read Full Article Categorized in: State Taxes, Tax PolicyCalifornia Leaving
Mark Perry of Carpe Diem reports that California businessmen are fleeing the state in droves: California currently ranks #49 among U.S. states for “business tax climate” (Tax Foundation) and #48 for for “economic freedom” (Mercatus). It shouldn’t be any surprise then that companies are leaving the “Golden State” in record numbers this year (see chart above)…
Read Full Article Categorized in: News, State Taxes, The EconomyIf You Don’t Tax it, They Will Come
Phillip Morton of TaxNews.Com reports that the Bailiwick of Jersey has announced proposed changes to tax legislation to encourage new High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNWIs) to the island: [Prime Minister Phillip Ozouf] explained that the current regime, which taxes all Jersey income at 20%, discourages HNWIs from investing in Jersey, because they are taxed more on their Jersey income than on…
Read Full Article Categorized in: News, Tax Policy, The EconomyThe Best States for Business Have no Personal Income Tax
Russ Fox of Taxable Talk has published a nice little list of the top and bottom 10 states for business climate: Here in the Bronze Golden State, discovering that you rank at the bottom of a list is all in a day’s work. Another list of business climate, this one from the Small Business &…
Read Full Article Categorized in: State Taxes, Tax PolicyIllinois Raises Income Taxes, Indiana and Wisconsin Celebrate
The Tax Policy Blog reports that Illinois has just raised it’s corporate income tax rate by 67% and in response legislators in neighboring Indiana and Wisconsin are inviting corporations and small businesses to move to their more business-friendly states: We’ve released a report today taking an updated look at how just-enacted tax increases in Illinois would…
Read Full Article Categorized in: News, State TaxesCliff Lee Should Stay in Texas
In July I suggested that Lebron James sign with the Miami Heat for tax reasons. Today, Texas cowgirl Kay Bell (I’m thinking Debra Winger in Urban Cowboy) writes about another mega-millionaire professional athlete who may choose his next team based on tax considerations: Texas baseball fans, or at least those who follow the American League Champion Texas Rangers, are anxiously…
Read Full Article Categorized in: State TaxesLow-Tax Texas Creates More than Half of New 2010 U.S. Jobs
Aaron Worthing of Patterico’s Pontifications has a “jaw dropping” statistic: More than half of the jobs created in the last year… were created in Texas alone. Yes, really. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 214,000 net new jobs were created in the United States from August 2009 to August 2010. Texas created 119,000 jobs during the same…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Tax Policy, The EconomySoak the Rich Policies Destroy States
We previously wrote about Bill Gates, Sr.’s efforts to get his home of Washington to stick it to the wealthy via a 5% surtax. Now here comes Arthur Laffer of Laffer Curve fame writing for the Wall Street Journal and pointing out how stupifyingly stupid it is for states to soak the rich through high taxes: Over…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Tax Policy, The Economy