May 30, 2006
IRS Targets Estate Planning by John Tiffany
Can you really, as you may have heard, avoid income taxes by placing your
assets in a “pure trust,” “equity trust” or “constitutional trust”? Unfortunately, the answer is “no.” In recent years, the IRS has repeatedly fought these in court and won rulings against the use of these as legitimate tax-planning vehicles. Now another tax reform advocate, who was involved in trusts, has fallen victim to the IRS’s enforcement machine.
assets in a “pure trust,” “equity trust” or “constitutional trust”? Unfortunately, the answer is “no.” In recent years, the IRS has repeatedly fought these in court and won rulings against the use of these as legitimate tax-planning vehicles. Now another tax reform advocate, who was involved in trusts, has fallen victim to the IRS’s enforcement machine.
May 8, 2006
The Phantom Tax Bill by Robert Novak
Sen. Charles Grassley last Tuesday cavalierly rejected a summons to meet in the Oval Office with George W. Bush about tax legislation. Grassley, Senate Finance Committee chairman, said he could not make it because of visiting constituents from back home in Iowa. The real reason is that Grassley is playing his own game on tax legislation without interference from anybody, even the president.
May 4, 2006
FCC approves Net-wiretapping taxes by Declan McCullagh and Anne Broache
The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to levy what likely will amount to wiretapping taxes on companies, municipalities and universities, saying it would create an incentive for them to keep costs down and that it was necessary to fight the war on terror. Universities have estimated their cost to be about $7 billion.
May 2, 2006
Tax Breaks and the Governments Who Hate Them by Ryan McMaken
Governments and those who love them have an excellent talent for using language to disguise the true nature of taxes. Somewhere along the line, it became possible to refer to taxes and tax increases as "investments" without being mocked, and to refer quite seriously to slight decreases in the rate of growth in government spending as "spending cuts." Another strategy in tax deception is to refer to tax breaks as a type of "spending." For example, note these phrases taken from a recent news story:
May 1, 2006
A Day Without Illegal Aliens Is a Boon to Taxpayers by Rep. Tom Tancredo
A day without illegal aliens would be a boon to U.S. taxpayers who wouldn’t pay for the tremendous social service costs of persons not legally in our country. On May 1, illegal alien activists are threatening to shut down major cities in what has been called “The Great American Boycott” and, alternatively, “A Day Without an Immigrant.”
April 28, 2006
Federal tax on gas should be shelved
Axing about 18 cents from the price of gas would provide some relief for Americans struggling to afford filling their tanks.
The House and Senate should repeal the billions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies it gave oil companies and other nonrenewable energy companies last year, along with other tax breaks the oil industry gets. Even Bush said Tuesday it's time Congress repealed some of these breaks.
The House and Senate should repeal the billions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies it gave oil companies and other nonrenewable energy companies last year, along with other tax breaks the oil industry gets. Even Bush said Tuesday it's time Congress repealed some of these breaks.
April 26, 2006
Taxpayers Lose Three More Days to Big Government in 2006
Every April, the non-partisan Tax Foundation releases a report that calculates how many days of the year Americans must work to pay local, state and federal taxes. The day when Americans will have earned enough income to pay their total tax bill for the year is named "Tax Freedom Day."
April 24, 2006
Potential tax impact at the gas pump by William Reinsch
A provision attached to the Budget Reconciliation Bill (H.R. 4297) being debated in Congress would make it harder for U.S. oil producers to compete in the global marketplace. It's not the windfall profits tax -- a large bipartisan majority in both the House and Senate defeated that misguided attempt to "punish" oil companies for price increases brought about by high global demand and shrinking world supplies. But this latest effort to eliminate the foreign tax credit would have a similar outcome: a heavier economic burden on American oil producers to meet our energy demands, and a competitive disadvantage with the rest of the world.
April 20, 2006
The Anti-Family Tax by Terence P. Jeffrey
The additional 16.7 million people that would be subjected to the AMT this year includes some couples with two or more children and incomes as low as $67,890. But families making low six figure incomes will be especially rocked by the tax. "In tax year 2005," Carroll testified, "about 13% of taxpayers with incomes between $100,000 and $200,000 will be subject to the AMT. But, when taxpayers file their returns in the spring of 2007 for tax year 2006, over 75% of taxpayers in this income group will be subject to AMT."
April 19, 2006
Your tax burden is bigger than Tax Day by John Stossel
Why should government cost us more than shelter? Political scientist James L. Payne examined the record of 14 congressional appropriations hearings and found that of 1,060 witnesses who testified, only seven spoke against spending money, while more than a thousand testified that the spending -- whatever it was -- was necessary. Even a politician who believes in limited government has a tough time resisting a constant onslaught of "needy" people saying, "This program is crucial!"
April 18, 2006
Get Serious About Tax Reform by Mallory Factor
Tax bills enacted over the past five years have reduced the tax-bite for millions of Americans, but they’ve also make the tax code more mind-bogglingly complex than ever. A recent Cato Institute study found that the number of pages of federal tax rules leapt from 26,300 in 1984 to 40,500 in 1995 to a staggering 66,498 in 2006. That’s 50 times the length of the King James Bible, and about 150 times the length of the Da Vinci Code.
At Tax Day Rally, Conservatives Want Taxpayers to 'Get Mad and Stay Mad' by Mandy Stoltzfus
“American people have consistently shown they don’t want their taxes raised,” said host Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. But he added that “we have a less stupid government than many other people.”
Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation said in one year the government spends $23,760 per household and this is just the tip of the iceberg. He said programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will “force spending to European levels.”
Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation said in one year the government spends $23,760 per household and this is just the tip of the iceberg. He said programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will “force spending to European levels.”
April 17, 2006
It's time to scrap the tax code and save Americans $125 billion
The cost of the tax code essentially amounts to $125 billion in investment capital we do not have for the U.S. economy or for our education system (or for any other purpose you can think of). Unless Congress acts, over the next eight years, tax complexity will waste around $1 trillion.
April 16, 2006
The Rocky Road of American Taxation by Charles Adams
No modern revolution was deeper rooted in taxation than the revolt of the Thirteen Colonies in British North America. British taxation not only caused the revolution, but perhaps most important, it acted as a unifying force in the colonies. The once disorganized and squabbling colonies rallied around the cause of taxation without consent, took up arms against the British, and finally formed the United States of America. The American independence movement was not deep-rooted; it began in 1766 when colonial leaders met to protest British taxes under the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act Congress, as it was called, was the real birthplace of the United States.
April 13, 2006
Income taxes should be left up to the states' discretion by Jonathan McGlumphy
The key to ending this stranglehold the federal government has over state government and citizens is to cut off its source of power. The debate should not be focused on whether or not the “rich” or the “middle class” get a cut, but whether we should have a federal income tax at all.
On Tax Day, $125 Billion in Waste by Joyce Krawiec
Indeed, a positive way to look at the current mess is to see that tax reform is a huge opportunity to boost economic growth in this country. Instead of creating new government handouts to help struggling American businesses, Congress needs simply to free our economy from the wasteful cost of the tax code. The goal should be a tax code that is simple, fair, honest, and flat. The average American should be able to complete their taxes without professional help, using just a single form.
April 12, 2006
US Lawmakers Abandon Tax Cut Negotiations by Mike Godfrey
Republican lawmakers have abandoned their attempt to push through a $70 billion tax cut package after House and Senate negotiators failed to reach agreement on the provisions of the bill ahead of the April Congressional recess.
The postponement of the talks means that lawmakers will not be in a position to approve important provisions such as extending the capital gains and dividend tax cuts for an additional two years, nor put in place an Alternative Minimum Tax 'patch' before the April 17 tax filling deadline, as had been hoped.
The postponement of the talks means that lawmakers will not be in a position to approve important provisions such as extending the capital gains and dividend tax cuts for an additional two years, nor put in place an Alternative Minimum Tax 'patch' before the April 17 tax filling deadline, as had been hoped.
On Tax Day, $125 Billion in Waste by MATT KIBBE
It’s April 15: national lawbreaker day. Everyone could be a criminal on tax day because of the sheer size and complexity of the federal tax code. At more than 9 million words and growing, the tax code is a leviathan of potholes, pitfalls and disasters waiting to happen. Special interests have long fed at the tax code trough, getting clever exclusions and deductions added to the code while you and I break pencils worrying about if those late-night copies constitute a business expense or whether mileage can be deducted from our taxes. Who knows? Unless you like pouring over indecipherable tax forms, instruction booklets and the attendant guide books published by the tax consulting industry, you will probably never know for sure if you’ve paid the right amount this year. You might just be a felon.
Secretary Snow Admits U.S. Tax Code is Incomprehensible; IPI Asks, Now What?
Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) Economist and Senior Research Fellow Dr. Lawrence A. Hunter released the following statement:
"Treasury Secretary John Snow finally admitted to the Congress what every American taxpayer has known for years: the Internal Revenue Code is incomprehensible and unintelligible even to the experts who prepare the tax returns, enforce the law and collect the taxes.
"Treasury Secretary John Snow finally admitted to the Congress what every American taxpayer has known for years: the Internal Revenue Code is incomprehensible and unintelligible even to the experts who prepare the tax returns, enforce the law and collect the taxes.
April 11, 2006
$5.9 Million for 'Bridge to Nowhere' in Mo. by Stephen P. Laffey
It seems little has changed over the past year. In Washington, it's dirty business as usual. The 2005 Appropriations Bill was stock full of one outrageous earmark after another. Unfortunately, the 2006 Transportation Bill (H.R. 3058) bears a striking resemblance to its 2005 counterpart, doling out $5,888,000 for Joplin, Missouri's very own "Bridge to Nowhere."
Cough Up by Ron Paul
April 15th, our national tax day, comes this year just as Congress prepares to pass the 2007 federal budget. If you think paying taxes was painful this year, I’ve got some bad news: the new budget is a grotesque illustration of everything wrong with the federal government. At $2.7 trillion, it’s the largest budget in U.S. history by a long shot. Like it or not, the pressure to raise your taxes will be enormous in coming years no matter who controls Congress. The amount of money government spends, borrows, and prints simply cannot be sustained.
April 10, 2006
Selling of tax info too prone to abuses
Last month, the agency, without a lot of attention, proposed rules that allow tax return information to be shared or sold for one year with any third party, including marketing firms and other data brokers, if the taxpayer consents.
Tax time looms, so time for change by GORDON HOLMES
The Fair Tax will also make it possible for people to quickly determine when taxes have been increased. Revenue-increasing bills can no longer be hidden; if the tax goes up, you will see it plainly on your receipt.
Sales taxes as the primary source of revenue is not new. Several states do not now have an income tax. The majority have both a sales tax and an income tax. Since states already levy sales taxes, they can collect the tax and remit it to the federal government.
Sales taxes as the primary source of revenue is not new. Several states do not now have an income tax. The majority have both a sales tax and an income tax. Since states already levy sales taxes, they can collect the tax and remit it to the federal government.
The Guardians of Complexity by Robert J. Samuelson
The larger political obstacle is that people don't want to surrender the concrete tax breaks of a complex system for the abstract advantages of a simpler system. Those advantages are diffuse and deferred; they go mainly to the nation as a whole. Meanwhile, tax breaks are identifiable and immediate; they go mainly to individuals. Suppose the mortgage-interest deduction causes people to overinvest in extra-large homes, as it surely does. The country would be better off if—absent the tax subsidies—people diverted more money into other productive investments.
April 7, 2006
The simple (tax) life? Rates down, complexity way up? by Chris Edwards
These advantages of tax reform have inspired a flat tax revolution in Central and Eastern Europe. Nine countries including Russia have enacted income taxes with low, flat rates and few special breaks. Our turn at tax reform should be next - Congress should end the micromanaging of society through the tax code and adopt a flat tax system that treats Americans with fairness and equality.
Viable School Tax Reform by David Hartman
The reformed franchise tax as proposed, would replace the current corporate franchise (which levies the lesser of a 4.5 percent tax on income or a 2.5 percent tax on equity) with a 1.0 percent tax on the gross margin of all “limited liability businesses”. This justification for state taxation originated with legal limited liability of corporations, which is now proposed to be joined by other types of limited liability businesses, such as limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, professional associations, and business trusts. Exempted would be sole proprietorships; businesses with less than $300,000 total revenues (indexed for inflation) versus $150,000 at present; passive unincorporated investment entities, and not-for-profits.
IRS PROPOSAL ALLOWS INCOME TAX INFO TO BE SOLD by Diane M.Grassi
Therefore, the latest proposed changes to the IRS Code as published in the Federal Register on December 8, 2005, has rallied consumer protection advocates and members of the United States Congress to take issue with such change to Section 7216-3 of the IRS Code. But the recommended changes only came to light to not only the public but to members of Congress, just three weeks before a public hearing on these new rules at the offices of the IRS, which took place on April 4, 2006.
April 5, 2006
Window for true tax reform is closing
Never in recent history has the climate in Harrisburg been more on the side of taxpayers to effect change. With the pending election of 25 senators, all 203 members of the House and an incumbent governor, combined with the pay-raise disaster, taxpayers must demand real reform, not rebates and political pandering to specific voting groups.
Readers sound off about the school-tax issue
Your article was damaging to our children. As a school board member, I feel compelled to answer. Class sizes should be larger, you say? Tell that to NYSUT, one of the most powerful unions in the state. How about yelling at your state legislators? Tell them to take a hard look at teacher tenure. How about property tax reform? We are at the mercy of state aid funding levels.
April 3, 2006
Businesses Eye Impact of Proposed Tax Reform
"Our main position is reducing property taxes," Lawson said. "Out of all states in the U.S., Texas ranks 44th in home ownership, and we think that's because of property taxes." Under the proposed tax plan, the state's tobacco taxes would increase $1 per pack, and taxes on other tobacco products would increase 13.6 percent.
Tax reform plan is fair
If the Legislature adopts this plan in the upcoming special session, Texas will benefit in four principal ways. First, the way we pay for education will be fundamentally fairer because the centerpiece of our proposal — the reformed business franchise tax — is broader, more equitable and assessed at a lower rate than today's tax. It closes tax loopholes so that more businesses will pay their share and doubles the small business exemption so that small employers can continue to grow and create jobs.
April 2, 2006
Rule change on tax data is dubious
There is a troubling move afoot by the Internal Revenue Service to allow tax-return preparers to sell information to marketers and data brokers.
NAACP Challenging IRS Probe Into Tax-Exempt Status by Randy Hall
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is basically telling the IRS to put up or shut up. On Thursday, the NAACP said it will challenge the IRS in federal court -- if the IRS does not refund the $17.65 estimated tax the NAACP paid on a controversial speech delivered by NAACP Chairman Julian Bond in July 2004. The IRS is investigating a complaint that NAACP Chairman Julian Bond tried to steer blacks away from President Bush in the run-up to the presidential election, in violation of its tax-exempt status. Although the NAACP insists that Bond's speech did not compromise its tax-exempt status, the group said it filed a form with the IRS in September, treating Bond's speech as political activity -- just in case. If the IRS fails to respond to the refund request in six months, the NAACP said it will "seek review of the refund claim in federal court."
March 31, 2006
NCAA's tax-exempt status might be threatened
The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee confirmed to The Detroit News it has heard testimony on the topic from former U-M president James J. Duderstadt and others. And the Senate Finance Committee, which is conducting a broader approach to tax reform, told The News it will be "very interested" in what the House panel learns.
Tax returns for sale?
It's bad enough that seemingly every business that sells us something these days tries to make even more money on us by selling information about us to someone else. There's no telling how much private information is floating around out there and how it is being used, or abused. Now, the federal government wants to make it legal for tax preparers to sell what has always been considered sacrosanct - information from our personal income tax returns.
March 30, 2006
Soda and the Sin Tax by Robert Murphy
Second, what about the government funding of all of the pro-tax scientists? These connections are ignored; for example, the article didn't mention that Barry Popkin of UNC Chapel Hill is an employee of the government. If we are to automatically assume that anyone who is funded by the beverage industry would therefore oppose taxes on soda, why shouldn't we also assume that anyone who is funded by the government would support taxes on soda (and everything else)? Note that I don't simply mean the vague connection between tax receipts and scientific funding out of tax revenues; I am being far more cynical and suggesting that the government might be more willing to fund those scientists who get behind programs that expand the government's power.
March 29, 2006
Plotting the tax-cut/deficit curves by Bruce Bartlett
Belatedly, Republicans in Congress have become concerned about the federal budget deficit. But this is making it harder for them to find the votes to extend previously enacted tax cuts, some of which expire in 2008 and all which disappear after 2010. Tax cut supporters are now arguing that failure to extend the tax cuts will actually cause revenues to fall, thereby defeating the goal of deficit reduction.
Gabig proposes tax credit to cut pollution
State Rep. Will Gabig, R-199, has introduced legislation that improve air quality and cut down on pollution in Pennsylvania, especially in the Carlisle area.
"As the crossroads of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 81, the Carlisle area is a major transportation hub which naturally results in an excess of truck traffic," says Gabig. "Recent reports have shown that the air quality in Cumberland County has significantly suffered because of the impact of this truck traffic."
"As the crossroads of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 81, the Carlisle area is a major transportation hub which naturally results in an excess of truck traffic," says Gabig. "Recent reports have shown that the air quality in Cumberland County has significantly suffered because of the impact of this truck traffic."
March 28, 2006
Firms too focused on tax credits, top GOP tax writer says by William L. Watts
American businesses have spent too much time lobbying for the preservation of narrow tax breaks, and they may have lost the opportunity for overhauling an inefficient U.S. corporate tax code as a result, the House's top tax writer said Monday.
March 27, 2006
Federal estate tax: Big questions loom by Russ Wiles
Four more years - that's basically all the time that's left before estate-planning tax laws could get turned on their head.
Today, Americans can transfer up to $2 million federal tax-free to beneficiaries at death. That's up from $1.5 million last year and $675,000 in 2001.
The limit will rise again in 2009, to $3.5 million per person.
Today, Americans can transfer up to $2 million federal tax-free to beneficiaries at death. That's up from $1.5 million last year and $675,000 in 2001.
The limit will rise again in 2009, to $3.5 million per person.
March 24, 2006
Looser limits on tax preparers' sharing of data proposed by Jenny Mandel
Background information published on Dec. 8, 2005, along with the proposed regulatory changes, indicated that the revisions are geared primarily toward updating rules "written in a paper filing era" before electronic transmission and filing of tax returns became common.
Orwell's Internal Revenue Service by Stephen Pizzo
The Internal Revenue Service is quietly moving to loosen the once-inviolable privacy of federal income-tax returns. … If it succeeds, accountants and other tax-return preparers for the first time would be able to sell information from individual returns -- or even entire returns -- to marketers and data brokers. … The change is in a set of proposed rules the Treasury Department and the IRS published in the Dec. 8 Federal Register, where the official notice labeled them "not a significant regulatory action."
March 23, 2006
What Happened To Tax Reform?
April 15th is less than a month away, and millions of Americans are breaking out their calculators and 1040s to slog through another year’s tax return (or hiring someone else to do it for them). H&R Block revenues from US tax operations in 2004 were $2 billion, and over 60 percent of returns were completed by a paid preparer.
March 22, 2006
Don't Tax the American Dream by E. O'Brien Murray
The death tax is fiscally and economically destructive: it accounts for only about one percent of government revenue and some studies, including one last year from professors at Carnegie Mellon University, conclude that the tax actually costs the government money. This effect is partly due to capital gains tax avoidance, but is also because the tax is responsible for the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs a year, as many family businesses can't afford the government bite.
March 21, 2006
Taxpayer Rip-Off of the Week: $950,000 for Please Touch Museum by Stephen P. Laffey
If taxpayer dollars could talk, they might say, "Please don't touch!" Unfortunately, Congress isn't getting the message. Last year, Congressional members loaded the 2005 Labor/HHS Appropriations Act (H.R. 4818) with $950,000 for Philadelphia's Please Touch Museum (PTM) to develop education programs focusing on hands-on learning experiences.
© 2000-2006: Another BATR Site
use rss for Tax Tyranny
