Note: All the material related to high gas prices has moved
here. Some of the problem
has to do with events
like Hurricane Katrina, but
a lot of it results from high taxes, as well as ordinary supply and demand.
Part 1 - Taxes:
Excellent:
Let's
do some detective work. Today's White House proposes and Congress taxes
and spends for anything they can muster a majority vote on. My investigative
query is: Were the Founders and previous congressmen and presidents, who could
not find constitutional authority for today's bread and circuses, just plain stupid
and ignorant?
Getting
back our liberties: We all have a moral obligation to pay our share for
constitutionally mandated functions of the federal government, but we have no such
obligation to have Congress take the earnings of one American and give them to another
American. Forcing one American to serve the purposes of another is one way
slavery can be defined.
'If
I had a nickel for every bag,' sez Mayor Bloomberg. Mayor Bloomberg wants to nickel and dime
you at the grocery store -- taxing you an extra 5 cents for every plastic bag you take
home. The controversial charge could raise at least $16 million for the cash-strapped
city while keeping tons of plastic out of landfills, city officials said Thursday [11/6/2008] -- but
some outraged shoppers aren't buying it.
15 Percent NYC Income Tax Hike
On the Way? Mayor Michael Bloomberg is going to cut the city work force by 3,000, but that's
just the beginning of the pain New Yorkers will feel as part of the fiscal crisis. A slew of new taxes
are also on the agenda. There will be 1,000 fewer cops, but the city will hire 200 more traffic agents
to give out $60 million a year in new block-the-box tickets.
One Life to
Give the IRS. This week, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden unleashed the most
absurd remark of his illustrious career, claiming that taxes are "patriotic." Biden claims that
wealthier Americans should pay more in taxes because "it's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to
be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut." Oh, the injustice of American society!
When, exactly, did taxation transform into a form of charity?
Taxes could get sky-high with aerial
technology. A new high-tech aerial photography system that can spot an illegal porch from
5,000 feet is being marketed to tax assessors as a way to grow revenue. Pictometry International
Corp. says it offers tax assessors 12 different views of every square foot of building or land in a jurisdiction
that buys their system. They call it "sophisticated visual intelligence." State Sen. Jeff Van Drew
has another name for it. "It's Big Brother," said Van Drew, D-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic.
America's Tax Bill Tops $26,738 Per Household.
Americans paid about $3 trillion in taxes in 2004, totaling $26,738 per household, according to a new study
released March 26 by the Tax Foundation. "Which Taxes Weigh Most Heavily on Americans with Different
Incomes?" shows $17,338 of that amount went to the federal government, with $9,400 going to state and local
governments.
Investors Flee From 'Change' Obama
Hypes. Are Barack Obama's proposed tax increases adversely affecting our financial markets? We
say yes, unambiguously. The senator has done a masterful job distracting attention from his tax increases with
his $500-per-worker tax credit supposedly for 95% of Americans. ... With the bottom 40% of income earners not paying
any federal income taxes, such tax credits would not reduce any tax liability for these workers. Instead, since
they're refundable, they would involve new checks from the federal government. These are not tax cuts as Obama is
promising. They are new government spending programs buried in the tax code and estimated to cost $1.3 trillion
over 10 years.
Taxing Times.
The two months between the time of a presidential election and the time when the new president takes office
is an eternity in terms of how much money can be transferred out of the country electronically before any new
high-tax laws can be enacted. ... Much wealth from Third World countries flows out to richer countries like
Switzerland or the United States, where it is safer from confiscation. Jack up the capital gains tax
rate in the United States and more Americans can be expected to send their capital elsewhere.
Obama
tax cut 'refunds' those who don't pay. To pay for his middle-class tax cuts, Mr. Obama would
raise the top marginal tax rate on Americans earning more than $250,000 to 35 percent from
30.6 percent. According to the IRS, the top 5 percent of all income earners in 2004
paid 57.13 percent of all income taxes.
Obama's Tax Cut is Actually a
Spending Increase, Says Non-Partisan Group. The heart of Obama's tax cut proposal is in his
use of refundable tax credits, which the [Tax Policy] Center describes as "credits available to eligible
households even if they have no income tax liability" — in short, refunds available even to those
who don't pay taxes. ... These refunds have the ability of reducing a taxpayer's liability below zero,
meaning they can get a refund without actually paying taxes.
Obama's 95% Illusion. Once
upon a time we called this "welfare," or in George McGovern's 1972 campaign a "Demogrant." Mr. Obama's
genius is to call it a tax cut. The Tax Foundation estimates that under the Obama plan 63 million
Americans, or 44% of all tax filers, would have no income tax liability and most of those would get a check
from the IRS each year.
Searching for Obama's
95 Percent. If Barack Obama can effectively claim that his plan cuts taxes on 95 percent of
Americans, then the term "tax cut" has no meaning.
The
Case Against Barack Obama, Part 1. Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama promises to
"cut taxes for 95 percent of American workers." That's not possible. Why? More than
30 percent pay nothing in federal income taxes.
In Defense of "The
Rich": The top 5 percent (those making more than $153,542 — the group whose
taxes Obama seeks to raise) pay 60 percent of all federal income taxes. The rich (aka the top
1 percent of income earners, those making more than $388,806 a year), according to the IRS, pay 40 percent
of all federal income taxes. The top 1 percent's taxes comprise 17 percent of the federal
government's revenue from all sources, including corporate taxes, excise taxes, social insurance and
retirement receipts.
Memo to
McCain: Take the Gloves Off. Obama says, without rebuttal, that his plan lowers taxes on
"95 percent of working families." This is flatly impossible because 32 percent of income tax
returns filed (some 43 million Americans) pay absolutely nothing in federal income taxes. Obama
makes his claim by offering a $500 "Making Work Pay" tax credit to everybody ($1,000 per family), by expanding
the Earned Income Tax Credit, and creating other credits. If your tax credit is more than your tax
liability, you receive a check from the Treasury and you pay no taxes. That is not a "tax cut."
Monsieur
Obama's Tax Rates: Celebrity chef Alain Ducasse changed his citizenship this month from high-tax
France to no-income-tax Monaco. He says it wasn't a financial decision but an "affair of the heart."
Of course. Nonetheless, plenty of other Frenchmen have moved abroad to escape their country's confiscatory
taxes. Americans should be so lucky: Ours is the only industrialized country that taxes its citizens
even if they live overseas.
Good Money After Bad. While
gas prices are at record highs and American families are feeling the economic pinch, Congress may just decide
to boost gas prices even higher. Their reason will be to save jobs. As the Associated Press
reported on July 20, "Now, lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a dime from the
current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on diesel fuel."
Benchmarks of bondage: The
average American worker toils from Jan. 1 to the end of April, and has no legal claim to the fruits of his labor for
that period. Federal, state and local governments, through tax codes, take what he produces. A small portion of
the fruits of his labor provides for the constitutional functions of government. Most of what is taken, up to two-thirds,
is given to some other American in the forms of farm and business subsidies, Social Security, Medicare, welfare and hundreds
of other government handout programs. As in slavery, one person is being forcibly used to serve the purposes of
another person.
Taxachusetts, RIP.
Massachusetts was home of the Boston Tea Party, but in recent years the commonwealth's voters have tended to
docilely accept whatever level of taxation the robber barons on Beacon Hill deem appropriate. When the
tax issue is put directly on the ballot, however, Bostonians momentarily regain their tax-resisting,
tea-dumping spirit.
Texas Treats Phone Use Like a 'Sin'. Texas
consumers who buy electronics or yard equipment pay a combined state and local sales tax rate of 8.25 percent.
For cars, it's 6.25 percent. Only mixed beverages (14 percent) and cigarettes (35.6 percent)
are in the range of telecom taxes. Taxes and fees for local telephone service total almost 29 percent,
putting telephone use in Texas in the "sin tax" category.
Bottled Water Tax Brings Only a Trickle
of Revenue. The city of Chicago's bottled water tax, which went into effect in January, may bring in
less than half of what revenue forecasters first said it would raise. Consumers appear to be buying their
water anywhere but in the city.
Cook County President Gets Earful from Angry Citizens.
Hundreds of residents of Cook County, Illinois gave County Board President Todd Stroger (D) an earful over a
1 percentage point sales tax increase that is forcing county shoppers to pay the highest sales tax burdens
in the nation. Groans and derisive laughter greeted comments by Stroger and his staff as they defended the
tax increase at a meeting at a local college in Palatine in June. Applause greeted many people who spoke
against the county's tax-grabbing, high-spending ways.
New York's Snatch-and-Grab:
New York tax officials are looking to fill budget shortfalls by looking beyond state borders. As part of
its budget, New York passed a first-of-its kind law that saddles sales tax collection burdens on catalog and
online retailers in every state of the country. … Needless to say, this new sales tax law has glaring
constitutional problems.
New tax shocks business
owners. Wayne Bronner, president of Michigan's iconic Bronner's Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, doesn't
feel much Christmas spirit these days for the new Michigan Business Tax. Compared with what his company paid under
Michigan's hated Single Business Tax, Bronner's will pay about 500% more now under the new Michigan Business Tax, a supposed
improvement over the SBT that took effect Jan. 1. The increase includes a surcharge approved late last year so
the state wouldn't go broke.
Virtual
Steamroller. New York recently finished 50th in Chief Executive magazine's survey of
the best states to do business. Respondents cited high taxes, regulation and Governor Eliot
Spitzer's "hostile image toward business." The Governor, for his part, seems to have decided
that if he can't convince companies to move to the Empire State, he'll simply have to govern them
from a distance. Eager to fund his proposed 4.8% budget increase this year (last year's was
6%), Mr. Spitzer is attempting to force out-of-state retailers such as Amazon.com to collect New
York state sales taxes.
Windfall-Profit Nonsense:
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want to raise the price of oil, as well as most everything else, and lower the value of the pension
and mutual funds that union members and retirees depend on. Of course, they don't describe their plan that way.
Instead, they call for a windfall-profits tax on the oil companies. But it's the same thing. Taxing a "windfall"
sounds appealing, but stock prices are based on expected profits.
Paying at the Pump: Gasoline
Taxes in America. Early gasoline taxes in the states were explicitly created in an attempt
to charge road users for the privilege of using roads. However, from the very inception of
gasoline taxation, public officials have faced temptation to divert gasoline tax revenue to projects that
are only tangentially related to transportation and that are often purely politically motivated.
What
the "Alternative Minimum Tax" Really Means for American Families: By its name, many taxpayers
might assume the AMT is a good thing. A simpler "alternative" to the complicated and overly burdensome
tax code would be welcome news. … To the contrary, the AMT denies taxpayers many important deductions, so
that middle class families subject to AMT actually pay higher taxes. To make matters worse, Congress
failed to index the AMT for inflation. So the AMT has not been adjusted to keep pace with the rise in
income and cost of living.
Bush
signs $555 billion spending bill. Mr. Bush also signed into law a bill that places a one-year
freeze on the alternative minimum tax. Without such legislation, more than 20 million taxpayers
would have faced this tax for the first time this year and it would have cost each an additional estimated
$2,000 at tax time. Last year, 4 million paid the AMT; this year, it was expected to hit
25 million.
Tide turning
against toll hike plan. Gov. Jon Corzine's plan to cut state debt and fund transportation projects
by sharply hiking tolls ran into deep political trouble yesterday, with every Republican in the Legislature and
a key Democratic senator vowing to oppose it.
NJ:
High Price For Rotten Government. When New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine announced his slimmed-down
budget recently, he said that the state could no longer afford the government that it now has. What he
didn't say is that this government isn't just expensive, it's also mismanaged and ineffective. That is,
New Jerseyans pay some of the country's highest taxes to get one of the country's worst governments.
Why business is
fleeing New Jersey: It's like watching a car wreck in slow motion. What the Democrats are
doing to the state's economy, I mean. Pieces are flying off in all directions. In terms of taxes and
regulation, New Jersey was once a relative haven, a cheap place to do business. But for most of this century,
we've been slowly losing high-income residents and high-income jobs. … The primary source of job growth in
recent years has been in government, not private industry. And that represents a death spiral. Public
employment creates higher taxes, which in turn discourage private employers from locating or expanding in New Jersey.
N.J.
struggling under tax burden. Between 2002 and 2007, property-tax collections went from $16 billion
to $22.1 billion -- a 38 percent jump caused largely by the ballooning costs of running schools
and towns. That increase was more than double the inflation rate in the same period.
New Jersey Lawmakers Consider Tax On Fast Food.
The sputtering economy has caused an increase in prices of many staples including gasoline, rice, ice cream, even
beer. Now some lawmakers in New Jersey are considering taking food taxes a step further and install a proverbial
"sin" tax on fast food. Yes, the idea of marking up your favorite fast food burger or pack of fries is
actually being tossed around, and it's not settling well with many residents.
New Jersey Has
the Nation's Worst Business Tax Climate. The Tax Foundation's 2009 State Business Tax Climate
Index, the sixth annual report ranking the 50 states on the business-friendliness of their tax codes, finds
New Jersey has the worst business tax climate in the nation ... for the second year in a row. The
organization released the index in October in Trenton, New Jersey to highlight the Garden State's earning
the worst overall score.
Cash-strapped states
resort to odd taxes. Need a few million dollars to fill a budget deficit? Lease a toll
highway, like Indiana and Virginia did, or cash in on future lottery profits as a half-dozen states are
considering. You could slap a tax on pornography as six states already have, or tax strip joints like
they do in Texas, where they call it a "pole tax." Some states take a slice out of pumpkin sales at
Halloween. And most states tax Shaquille O'Neal and Barry Bonds when they visit, using a "jock tax" on
professional athletic events.
Taxman may come for Wake's cats and dogs.
Wake County [NC] wants to put a tax on dogs and cats of up to $30 a year — an idea that is making some veterinarians, pet
owners and animal advocates bristle. Under a proposal that county commissioners still must approve, the annual tax
would start in July and be levied on every dog and cat. The licensing tax would be $15 for a dog or cat that had been
spayed or neutered; $30 for non-fixed canines and felines.
Raising
Taxes is Not the Answer. American businessmen, American families, and the individual American taxpayer
deserve another way to pay for Washington's annual budget. Raising taxes is not the answer. It is a
temporary solution to the permanent problem of government overexpansion. We simply must stop finding
ways to pay for an ever bigger government.
Tax Day
is every day in Chicago. Bears fans pouring into Soldier Field on Sunday may not notice as they
wait with anticipation for the kickoff against the Minnesota Vikings, but City Hall will have its hand in their
pockets. The price of their tickets includes a hefty 8 percent "amusement tax." But then, it's
not easy to keep track of all the times the city dings you because it has about two dozen different — and
sometimes obscure and stealthy — ways to do it.
Live and Let Live. When the Salvation Army
asks you for a donation, you are free to say no, and you suffer no consequences. When the U.S. government
demands a tax return and a check on April 15, you can't say no and go about your business. You comply
or face fines or imprisonment. Yes, you get to vote for candidates periodically. But having an
infinitesimal say in who will coerce you doesn't change that fact that they are using force.
5-cent gas tax hike proposed for
bridges' repairs. House Democrats feuded with Republicans and the Bush administration Wednesday
[9/5/2007] over raising gasoline taxes to pay for safer bridges. A month after an interstate bridge
collapsed in Minneapolis and killed 13 people, the government is struggling to develop a long-term way to
pay for repairs and new construction.
The Editor says...
First of all, the existing gasoline tax is supposed to have already paid for highways and bridges over
the last fifty years. Secondly, there would be plenty of money for highway and bridge maintenance if the
government would stop spending money on
the exploration of other planets,
football stadiums,
and hundreds of other pork barrel projects.
Eliminate the
Gasoline Tax? The Greens have, as long as my memory serves, hated gasoline as much as DDT. We
instinctively know that taxing gasoline "will not discourage highway congestion and reduce accidents on the roadway."
Why
Liberals Spread Poverty: It's called a "surcharge." You and I would call it a tax
increase. One more way and reason for the political class to take even more of the money that you and I
slave for by slugging it 9 to 5 everyday. In their funny little semantic sideshow this
"surcharge" would be their answer to resolving the problem of the "alternative minimum tax."
The
Real Reason For Federal Corruption: The increased role of the federal government opens the door to
federal corruption. As long as the federal government spends millions of taxpayer dollars on purely state
and local projects, lobbyists would be fools to stay away. As long as the federal government spends cash
on bridges to nowhere and structures named after senators, political interest groups will lurk in the shadows,
offering pay-for-play.
Kill this
monster. What politician would rail against the country's irrational, insufferable, infernal
Internal Revenue Code today, except perhaps for ceremonial purposes? Some in Congress have made distinguished
careers leading the innocent and unwary through its byzantine ways and byways, occasionally constructing secret
passages to favor the special interests they represent. Whole industries like accountancy and tax law
have been built on it.
The People who Brought you Tax Day.
Taxes are too complex for the good of the economy, too complex for families, and too complex for small
businesses. For big business and for Washington lobbyists, complexity means profit.
The
'Tax Gap' Myth: The "tax gap" is the difference between what the Internal Revenue Service thinks
taxpayers should be paying and what it collects. The IRS currently estimates this at about $290 billion
a year.
Let the backlash begin.
Election Earthquake Rattles Pennsylvania
Legislature. "Earthquake" is one of the words politicians are using to describe the ouster of
numerous incumbent lawmakers in the May primary elections by voters who were angered and outraged over tax
hikes, spending increases, and boosts in legislative pay. The epicenter of this electoral earthquake
was Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where at least 47 lawmakers will leave office. … Before the May primary
election, 30 other incumbents had announced they would not seek reelection, most because they believed they
would lose, according to Pennsylvania political observers.
The
pan-partisan "debt, debt, and more debt" plan: Politicians of both parties like to spend.
Both like to increase taxes. Both want to "do more things." It's gone out of style to just keep
the old services going; the general consensus seems to be: progress. By which they
mean: debt. ... The four-letter word of politics.
IRS Wants E-Commerce Data.
The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) is sounding an early warning on a proposal in the president's 2008
budget that would require Internet businesses such as Ebay and Amazon.com to collect personal data on their
customers and share it with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The move is part of an effort by the
U.S. Treasury Department to track down unreported small business income generated by the sale of personal
property on such sites.
Internet Sales Tax Looms. Online
shoppers in more than 20 states may soon pay sales taxes on their purchases if Congress passes pending legislation.
Under the proposed Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Act, out-of-state merchants and online vendors must collect sales tax on
goods shipped to some states.
The
Fair Tax: America's Last Best Hope. I think there is one last chance for America to regain
its past glory and, perhaps, to turn back the tide of socialism that threatens our future prosperity.
This last chance comes in the form of a single piece of legislation which, if passed, will cure almost all of
what is ailing America. I know that seems like an extreme position but I think it can be argued
persuasively.
Why I'm a Conservative: A
Conservative is not opposed to all taxation, but rather sees taxes as a necessary evil, and therefore wants to
encourage only the level of taxation that will support the necessities of limited civil government. Tax
policy shouldn't be used as a means to punish economic social classes that have benefited from the America
Dream, nor as a wedge to promote envy, discontentment and coveting.
Democrats and high taxes go hand in hand.
Minnesota Senate OKs $1 billion tax
increase. The bill would create a top Minnesota tax rate of 9.7 percent, giving
the state the highest top income tax rate in the nation.
Holiday Season 'Tax Holidays' are No Break for
Taxpayers. This year, South Carolina lawmakers have enacted a gimmicky, two-day "sales tax
holiday" to follow the real holiday, but it will only remind us of their unwillingness to let taxpayers
keep more of their money year round.
New Jersey Has Highest Property Taxes
in U.S. New Jersey has the highest property taxes in America — a burden that
is alarming young couples and retirees alike and deepening public cynicism in a state with a long and
rich history of graft and self-dealing. The average property owner in the Garden State pays
about $6,000 a year in property taxes, twice the national average.
Corporate Income Tax Rates in U.S. Are
Among the Highest in the World. Amid growing concerns about U.S. economic competitiveness,
policymakers are awakening to the fact that America has one of the world's most inefficient corporate
income taxes. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-New York), chairman of the U.S. House tax committee, has proposed
reducing the federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 30.5 percent. Henry Paulson,
secretary of the Treasury, is also promoting a corporate tax rate cut.
Stealth tax hike slips through
Senate. On May 23, as the Senate raced toward passage of the comprehensive immigration bill
before the Memorial Day break began, Sen. Charles Grassley moved the adoption of a new Title III to the
measure. It passed easily without anybody mentioning that the amendment raises revenue, which was a
violation of the U.S. Constitution's requirement that all such measures originate in the House of Representatives.
Blanco
administration looking at possible tolls on Interstates. An idea floated by Gov. Kathleen
Blanco's transportation chief to turn Interstates 10 and 12 across south Louisiana into toll roads ran into
opposition Thursday [8/10/2006] from Louisiana's two U.S. senators. U.S. Sen. David Vitter, who released
information on the proposal, said it would unduly tax thousands of people who use the highways and asked Blanco
to scrap any proposals to put toll booths on Louisiana's interstates.
It attacks a
village. A Congress that maintains the death tax isn't just attacking families like the
Hannays, it is also attacking the villages where they live.
Taxes, Spending, and Debt are the Real
Issues. The question to ask yourself is this: What would I do with the money withheld from
my paycheck each month? The answer is simple: you would spend, save, or invest the money, all of
which do more for the economy and society than sending it to Washington. Thanks to the deception of
income tax withholding, however, some people actually look forward to tax time and a much-anticipated
refund. Imagine how quickly Americans would demand lower taxes and spending if they had to write the
federal government a check each month!
At Tax Day Rally, Conservatives Want
Taxpayers to 'Get Mad and Stay Mad'. Edward Hudgins, executive director of the Objectivist
Center thinks Americans are too dependent on politicians for handouts. The tax system is immoral
because it makes free Americans beggars, "dependent on crumbs thrown to us by politicians," he says.
Florida Wants to Double Local Car Rental
Tax. The Florida legislature voted in May to allow local governments to increase the current car
rental tax surcharge from $2 to $4 per rental. Now only Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and November referenda in
localities that want to increase the tax stand in the way of car rental tax hikes. … Bush has
indicated misgivings about allowing higher car rental surcharges, telling news-press.com the biggest
problem with the measure is that people who would pay the higher tax "can't vote on it."
[Well, Governor Bush, that's because we live in a democratic republic, not a
direct democracy. When the voters elect
certain types of people, they
have voted to raise taxes.]
Flat-Out Smart. Imagine
a law that affected everyone in the country but was so confusing that only a select few could
understand it. And those select few didn't even include the people who enforced the law. That
may sound like a recipe for disaster. Actually, it's a description of our current tax
policy. Almost 900 tax forms are in use today. It takes more than 60,000 pages of
laws, regulations and IRS rulings to explain how we are supposed to fill out those forms.
A dangerous
obsession. Can you imagine anything more dangerous than allowing politicians to decide how much
money each of us can earn? Of course, such political control of incomes is usually advocated only to deal
with "the rich." But, when income taxes were imposed in the early 20th century, they applied only to "the
rich" and they took a very small percentage of their income. Once the floodgates are opened to this kind
of political power, however, we have seen with the income taxes that they not only spread far beyond "the
rich," they took a serious share of even middle class incomes.
The Number of Americans Outside the Income
Tax System Continues to Grow. Economists estimate that for tax year 2004, a record 42.5 million
Americans who filed a tax return (one-third of the 131 million returns filed last year) had no tax liability after
they took advantage of their credits and deductions. Millions more paid next to nothing. … In addition
to these non-payers, roughly 15 million individuals and families earned some income last year but not enough
to be required to file a tax return.
The Top 1% Pay
35%. The wealthiest 1 percent of tax filers paid a remarkable 35 percent of all
individual income-tax payments [in 2004]. Some will claim that this merely shows that the Bush tax
cuts made the rich richer. In fact, the Statistics of Income data reveal that there were more Americans
filing taxes in every income category from $50,000 and up in 2004.
The top
one-hundredth of one percent. Collecting taxes is not as easy as it sounds. And taxes
don't redistribute income — they just reduce income. Means-tested federal transfer payments
account for little more than 10 percent of federal spending, and more taxes won't change that because
the poor don't lobby or contribute to campaigns and rarely vote.
Millions Hit by Tax Intended for the
Wealthy. Millions of middle-income Americans are about to be hit by the alternative
minimum tax (AMT), enacted nearly 30 years ago to ensure the nation's wealthiest citizens pay
income taxes. Congress failed to act on the AMT in 2005, leaving more than 15 million
Americans to feel its bite this year.
[Are there really 15 million wealthy people in the U.S.?]
Whatever the
Question, the Answer is Not Raising Taxes. Each year when budget time rolls around in
the states, there are questions of how to pay for government functions. Often, there are more
hands outstretched to lawmakers than tax dollars to dole out. Rather than raiding taxpayers'
wallets each year, fiscally responsible legislators and state officials have turned to several
key strategies to prioritize and control state spending.
Are We Being Taxed to Death? Governments
in the U.S. take approximately 40 percent of the country's total income in taxes. In other words, nearly half
of all the income generated each year is sent to governments to spend. The good news is that a growing number
of people pay no federal taxes at all. … The bad news is that people who do pay taxes much pay more to
make up for those who pay nothing.
Liberty in Our Lifetime. Are you frustrated at the
loss of freedom and responsibility in America, while the growth of government and taxes continues unabated?
Do you want to live in strong communities where your rights are respected, and people exercise responsibility
for themselves and in their dealings with each other? If you answered "yes" to those questions, then the
Free State Project has a solution for you.
58 Million Wage Earners Pay No Federal
Income Tax. According to the Washington, DC-based Tax Foundation, "a record 44 million
tax returns filed in 2005 will be correctly demanding the return of every dollar (or more) that is being
withheld from their paychecks during 2004."
Interesting chart:
Who Pays
Income Taxes? See who pays what. Half of the US taxpayers pay 96.5% of
all taxes. The other half get a free ride.
History of Federal Individual Income Bottom and Top
Bracket Rates.
Update:
The Top 50% pay 96.54% of All Income Taxes.
This is the latest data for calendar year 2003 just released in October 2005 by the Internal Revenue Service. The
share of total income taxes paid by the top 1% of wage earners rose to 34.27% from 33.71% in 2002. Their income
share (not just wages) rose from 16.12% to 16.77%. However, their average tax rate actually dropped from 27.25% down
to 24.31%.
Who
pays the taxes? A few weeks ago, the Internal Revenue Service released data on tax
year 2003. They show that the top 1 percent of taxpayers, ranked by adjusted gross income,
paid 34.3 percent of all federal income taxes that year. The top 5 percent paid
54.4 percent, the top 10 percent paid 65.8 percent, and the top quarter of taxpayers
paid 83.9 percent.
Washington's Governor Wants to Spend an
Additional $503 Million. With a $1.45 billion ending fund balance projected for the
remainder of the 2005-07 budget biennium, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire (D) is proposing
$503 million in new spending in her 2006 supplemental budget request. … "We are right
back on board the tax and spend merry-go-round. This year's spending will inevitably lead
to higher taxes down the road," warned outgoing state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance.
The Editor interjects...
[State and federal governments don't just spend what they need and refund the rest.
If they can create even a momentary perception of a surplus, they'll spend every dollar
they can get.]
On the other hand...
Georgia Governor Gives up
Tax 'Windfall'. The governor's tax cut follows a one-month moratorium on the state sales
tax on gasoline that was implemented after hurricanes Katrina and Rita hurt supplies. That
moratorium was ratified by the General Assembly in a special session and saved motorists an
estimated $77 million.
When taxation is
obviously theft: The New York Times reported on utilities that collect taxes from their
clients, but don't pay those taxes to the government. And get away with it.
The Bad Tax Bill Within the
Bad Energy Bill: The tax provisions are little more than a collection of old ideas that have
never worked, new ideas unlikely to work, and a lot of pork for the energy industry.
Fixing America's Tax Code: With
all its mind-numbing complexity and wrong-headed rules, the tax code is emblematic of the entire body of
federal laws and regulations on every subject imaginable. Thus, the stakes riding on successful tax
reform are enormous.
The top one
percent: Because most people now accumulate most capital gains and dividends in ways
undetectable on tax returns, tax data wrongly suggest that only the very rich (whose investments
exceed the caps on 401k and Keogh contributions) still appear to be realizing many gains. This
creates a statistical illusion that only those at the top appeared to benefit much from the
1982-2000 boom in stocks and bonds.
Feeding the kitty for
Katrina. The tax increase proponents seemingly cannot grasp that taxes reduce our
economic vitality. When taxes rise, the economy slows. When taxes are reduced, job
creation and economic growth accelerate. Those who do not understand the role of incentives are
always surprised when tax revenues increase, as they did after the Reagan and recent Bush tax
cuts, and fall or stagnate when tax rates increase.
The Facts About Federal Spending.
Including the President's fiscal year 2003 proposal, the Congress will spend almost $800 billion more between
2000-2003 than it did during the period of 1996-1999. This escalation in spending will raise the total four-year
cost of the federal government to an egregious $73,373 per household.
"View
tax" triggers revolt in rural New Hampshire. The one-room cabin David Bischoff built in a
cow pasture three years ago has no electricity, no running water, no phone service and no driveway. What
it does have is a wide-open view of the surrounding hills — a view valued at $140,000, according
to the latest townwide property revaluation.
The Editor asks...
Are blind people exempt from the view tax?
More information on taxes in general:
50-State Table of Individual Income Tax Rates.
State and Local Tax Burdens by State, 1970-Present.
The 108-year-old Telephone Tax
Time for a Truce in the
Spanish-American War. One-hundred and seven years ago, the United States
went to war with Spain. Because at that time telephones were still a luxury item
owned largely by the rich, Congress decided to create a special, 3 percent excise
tax on telephone service to finance the war. Although the war ended pretty quickly,
the tax endured and, in fact, is still assessed on every American's phone bill.
Three Percent Fee On Cell Phones Started 107
Years Ago. Anybody who has ever tried to decipher a cell phone bill knows how tough it can
be. One of the charges is a 3 percent fee on every cell phone bill in America. The
origin of the tax predates the invention of the cellular phone by nearly a century.
Courts Strike Down Phone Tax. The
IRS is having to defend itself against lawsuits from large telecom consumers because of its refusal to stop
collecting the "temporary" federal excise tax (FET) on telephone services the federal government imposed to
help fund the Spanish American War, which ended on December 10, 1898. Telephone service then was
in its infancy, and only some wealthy people and businesses had telephones. The tax stayed in place,
however, as telephone use spread, and it was expanded over time to cover other telecom services.
Finally!
The Phone
Tax is Laid to Rest at Age 108. Bowing to changes in technology and pressure from taxpayers and
phone companies, the Treasury Department said yesterday that it would scrap the 108-year-old federal excise
tax on long-distance phone calls. The move will bring consumers and businesses about $15 billion
in refunds on next year's tax returns.
Consumers Will Get Refunds for 1898 Phone
Tax. More than 100 years after the Spanish-American War ended, the 3 percent telephone
tax that was imposed to pay for the war is about to end. The U.S. Treasury Department and Internal
Revenue Service announced on May 25 they plan to stop collecting the tax on long-distance phone calls
beginning August 1. Consumers will receive about $15 billion in refunds on their 2006 income
tax returns, filed in 2007.
After 100 Years, Telecom Tax Is No
More. The U.S. Treasury Department will stop collecting the 3 percent telephone
tax, more than 100 years after the end of the Spanish American War, the conflict the tax was
levied to fund.
Update:
IRS
Failed to Refund $4 Billion in Improper Taxes. The Internal Revenue Service has failed
to refund about $4 billion in improperly collected taxes, according to a Treasury Department audit.
The IRS collected $8 billion while an outdated tax on long-distance telephone calls was being challenged in
court, according to a federal report that states "a significant amount" of the tax "may never be refunded."
Telecom Taxes Are Unduly Harsh, Regressive:
Study. Taxes and fees imposed on cable TV and phone services in 59 U.S. cities cost the average
household approximately $264 a year, according to a new report from a team of researchers at The Heartland
Institute and Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University. On average, communication services are taxed
at 13.32 percent, twice the average rate of other products, the study found.
Cook County Eyes $4 Phone Tax.
A Cook County, Illinois proposal to impose a $4 tax on all wireline and wireless phone lines has
drawn fire from all sides, including the local phone company, consumer advocates, and the local
utilities watchdog group.
Congress Considers
Beer a Luxury — But Not Mink Coats, Private Jets, or Yachts. President
George H.W. Bush and Congress in 1990 raised a host of excise taxes on "luxury" items including
expensive cars, fur coats, jewelry, yachts, and private airplanes. Included in the list
of luxury items was beer, which at the time saw a doubling of the federal excise tax, from $9 to $18 a
barrel. Fifteen years later, the taxes on expensive cars, fur coats, jewelry, yachts, and private
airplanes have been rolled back. The beer tax remains, even though the main purchasers of beer are
lower- and middle-income consumers. Taxes make up an astounding 44 percent of the retail price of
beer, according to the Beer Institute.
Tax Group Targets Spanish-American
War Tax. Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) announced on March 10 [2005] that it
would make repeal of a 107-year-old federal excise tax on telephone service a major priority
in the current session of Congress. Since then, support for the proposal has been
increasing. The tax — a flat 3 percent on every telephone
bill — was enacted in 1898 to fund the Spanish-American War.
Don't Tax My iPod! Anyone who has
ever taken the time to inspect a landline or wireless phone bill will know that, on top of the price of service,
the government heaps taxes: the telecom excise tax, universal service fee, and various others. The
combined state and local tax rate for wireline telecom services averages 14 percent and can be as high as
30 percent, putting communications in the sin-tax bracket along with alcohol and cigarettes. For a
country that claims to value free speech, it's ironic that the tax system is so regressive, favoring
communication for the rich.
Evidence, evidence and more
evidence. An opinion piece by reporter Anna Bernasek in last Sunday's New York Times actually
argues that there's no real evidence that lower tax rates spur economic growth. Bernasek finds a couple
of economists to back up her idea before concluding that tax "reform based on a notion that taxes are bad for
the economy is just that: a notion not backed by strong evidence." Let me beg to differ in a very
strong way.
The Smoking Section:
Texas House
Approves $1 Increase in Cigarette Tax. A pack-a-day will cost Texas smokers an extra $365 a
year under a cigarette tax increase approved in the House on Thursday [4/27/2006].
Update:
Texas smokers face tax
increase. Smokers in Texas are bracing themselves for a $1 tax increase per pack of cigarettes
next month, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
Sides square
off in fight to hike tax on tobacco. Come November, Californians will be asked to impose the
biggest tax increase ever on tobacco products, a change that healthcare advocates believe will reduce
cigarette consumption, but some officials think will increase cigarette smuggling.
Cigarette
Taxes Are Fueling Organized Crime. Come July 1, New York City's smokers will be paying on average
$9 a pack for legal cigarettes. But if history is any guide, most cigarettes sold will actually be trucked
up from Virginia, or shipped in from China, by "butt-leggers" who can make over $1 million on each tractor-trailer
load of smuggled smokes. The blunt fact, which politicians of both political parties are determined to
ignore, is that high cigarette taxes in New York have led to a bloody, decades-long smuggling epidemic.
Cigarette
Smuggling: While it's politically popular to impose confiscatory taxes on America's 40 million
tobacco smokers, there are a number of consequences one might consider, but let's start out with a quiz.
If a carton of cigarettes sells for $160 in New York City, and $35 in North Carolina, what do you predict will
happen? If you answered tons of cigarettes will be going up I-95 from North Carolina to New York City,
go to the head of the class.
N.Y. Smokers Face Highest
Tax In Nation. New Yorkers start paying the highest cigarette taxes in the nation Tuesday
[6/3/2008] with the latest $1.25 spike per pack that officials expect to bring in $265 million a
year. Convenience stores across the state and the smokers who will be paying the price are angry about
the change, but health officials hail the tax increase as a success.
New York Sets Record Cigarette Tax. New York's
state cigarette tax climbed from $1.50 to $2.75 a pack in June, the highest state cigarette tax burden in the
nation. … New York City charges its own $1.50 a pack tax, for state and local taxes totaling $4.25 a pack, said
Jeff Lenard, spokesperson for the National Association of Convenience Stores. The federal excise tax on cigarettes
adds 39 cents a pack.
Cigarette Tax Hike:
'Gold Mine' for Smugglers. The proposed tax hike on cigarettes in the state budget would create
a "black market gold mine" for smugglers and force New York smokers to pay the highest taxes in the nation,
experts warn. Facing a $5 billion budget gap, state lawmakers see doubling the state's cigarette
tax, to $3 a pack, as a way to help weather a difficult economic period.
Higher Cigarette Taxes Mean More
Smuggling. Here's a puzzle for lawmakers: If the same percentage of Texans smoke
as nationwide — 20 percent — why are sales of tax-paid cigarette sales so much
lower in Texas? The answer: Texans are smoking millions of bootleg cigarettes smuggled into
the state to avoid the tax of 41 cents per pack. A tractor-trailer holds 200,000 packs, so
the profit margin is awfully tempting.
Cigarette Tax Hikes: A Feeble Attempt to Cut Smoking Rates
and Balance the Budget. Last week, the Kentucky House of Representatives approved a 25 cent increase in
the state's cigarette tax in an effort to help eliminate the state's budget deficit. … Higher cigarette taxes are needed,
some legislators say, to avoid "deep cuts" in the state's budget. They find it is easier to balance the budget on the
backs of smokers than to cut wasteful spending.
Are Cigarette Taxes Becoming Obsolete?
Social and economic changes force us to ask whether excise taxes are obsolete. If they are, governments will
increasingly find that excise taxes do more harm than good. Cigarette taxes, because states have raised them
precipitously during the past 10 years, provide a good test of the obsolescence theory.
Butt
Taxes Go Up in Smoke. The city hauled in $123 million in cigarette taxes last
year — but lost about $40 million to tax-evading smokers, according to a study released
yesterday [10/19/2007].
Tobacco Tax Increase Will Cost Wisconsin.
On January 1, the tax for a pack of cigarettes in Wisconsin increased by $1 bringing it to $1.77 per pack. … A
tobacco tax, aside from being dramatically regressive, is a thoroughly unreliable stream of revenue for health
care expansion; at the end of the day, you will need more smokers or the imposition of higher taxes on workers
and consumers.
Indiana Nearly Doubles Its Cigarette Tax.
Hoosiers will pay an additional 44 cents per pack, with about 33 cents of that tax going directly to
[Governor Mitch] Daniels' plan to subsidize health insurance for lower-income Indiana citizens. Hoosiers
will pay a total tax of 99.5 cents per pack. … "Increasing the tax on cigarettes does not answer our
objects of an overall health plan for Indiana," said Craig Ladwig, president of the Indiana Policy Review
Foundation. "In fact, it just adds the onus of socialized medicine to legislative moralizing."
Drop in
Smoking Means Less Tax Revenue. Across the country, states are putting their treasuries under
pressure by adopting smoking restrictions as well as higher cigarette taxes, which appear to be discouraging
people from lighting up, as many health activists had hoped would happen.
Cook County Doubles Its Cigarette
Tax. The Cook County, Illinois tax on cigarettes has doubled to $2 a pack, giving the city of
Chicago the highest cigarette tax in the nation. County, city, state, and federal taxes on cigarettes
now total $4.05 a pack in Chicago.
[Remember, $4.05 per pack is just the tax, not the total price. The stores also charge
an additional fee for the cigarettes themselves. It's no wonder that cigarettes are
used as money in prisons.
Cigarette Tax Doesn't Live
Up to its Promise. The $1.425 state excise tax [in the state of Washington] is now one of the
highest in the nation. There comes a point when taxes on a product will eventually stunt the overall
volume of sales — therefore negating a once-promised high source of revenue. The evidence
suggests this has been happening with cigarettes for quite some time.
NYC Seeks to Tax and Fine Online Cigarette
Buyers. New York City residents who purchased smokes over the Internet are facing huge fines and
garnishment of their wages for failing to pay city cigarette taxes. … New York City has the highest
cigarette taxes in the nation. The state tax on one pack of cigarettes is $1.50. The city tax adds
another $1.50. The federal tax is 39 cents a pack, for a total tax of $3.39 per pack.
Harm's a two way
street. The largest losers of America's anti-tobacco crusade aren't tobacco companies and
smokers, it's the American people who are incrementally giving up private property rights.
Cigarette Smuggling: Diverse
state tobacco taxes are a key reason for cigarette smuggling, in which organized crime and
terrorist groups increasingly are involved. A July 21 article in the Detroit News
quoted John D'Angelo of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms as saying, "There is no
doubt that there's a direct relationship between the increase in a state's tax and an
increase in illegal trafficking."
Cigarette Tax Lessons from
Oregon: The Governor should be wary of increasing cigarette taxes, or any tax for that matter,
in light of the election night results from Oregon. Oregon voters were asked to increase their cigarette
tax by $0.845 to $2.02 per pack from $1.18 per pack in order to fund expansion of the State Children Health
Insurance Program-commonly referred to as SCHIP. … The ballot measure was rejected by a resounding
60-40 margin.
Smokers Head for the Border to Avoid Cigarette
Tax Increase. Guy Arrans, chief operating officer at St. Joseph-based Primar Petroleum, said the
tax increase is going to hurt business at the 14 area convenience stores and gas stations Primar owns and the
30 other independently owned stations it supplies. "They're building more and more of the budget on
smokers but they keep saying they want people to quit," he said. "Why would they build a budget on what
they hope will be a vanishing tax base?" Arrans also pointed out that, since Michigan charges sales tax
atop the cigarette tax, the real tax is $2.12 [per pack, compared to a 55.5 cents per pack in
Indiana.]
States Blow Tobacco Funds on Budget
Smorgasbord. States spent two-thirds of tobacco settlement money on government programs
unrelated to health care in 2005, according to an annual survey released [in April 2005]
by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
How to identify
American totalitarians: In America today, two groups are most actively engaged in falsifying
history: the ACLU and the anti-smoking movement. The ACLU is suing cities and counties to remove
crosses from their city and county seals. … Examples of anti-smoking fanatics doctoring photographs
[to remove cigarettes] are so legion that I can only offer a few examples in the space of a column.
Cigarettes are one possible motive for crash
burglaries. The price of a pack of cigarettes is apparently enough to prompt a group of
thieves to steal cars, ram them into Twin Cities convenience stores after hours and scoop up packs of
smokes and other goods to sell on the street.
The government often plays the role of a
heavy-handed nanny, not
just a tax collector, when it goes to great lengths to discourage smoking. That
discussion is on another page.
Illinois Brothers Charged with $10 Million
Cigarette Tax Scam. Two brothers from the Chicago suburb of Burbank, Illinois were arrested
June 6 for allegedly diverting millions of dollars in taxes on sales of tobacco products.
Cigar Tax Up
6,000% to Pay for SCHIP. The increase in federal tobacco taxes that congressional Democrats are
proposing to fund their new healthcare initiative is being praised by anti-smoking advocates as an effective
way to discourage tobacco sales. … The tax hikes would include raising the federal cigarette tax from
39 cents to one dollar. Additionally, the tax cap on cigars would be raised from five cents to
three dollars, a 6,000 percent increase.
Did
someone mention SCHIP?
Taxes on Smokeless Tobacco are Unfair and
Ineffective. In recent years, controversy in many state legislatures has erupted over the right
way to tax smokeless tobacco. It is not immediately clear why some states outside the South tax smokeless
tobacco so heavily and some so lightly, nor why some base their tax on weight and others on price. Assuming
the role of government is to prevent individuals from harming one another, and not to prevent individuals from
harming themselves, then special taxes on tobacco products should exist only if those products impose
significant costs on third parties.
A
national sales tax: Representative John Linder, a Georgia Republican,
has a 133-page bill to replace 55,000 pages of tax rules. His bill would abolish the
IRS and the many billions of tax forms it sends out and receives. He would erase the
federal income tax system and replace it with a 23 percent national sales tax
on personal consumption.
On the other hand...
The
national sales tax: I have written many times before about what a dopy
idea I think this is. … The national retail sales tax would tax 100 percent of
services, including medical services and government services. Every time you
go to the hospital, you will have to pay 30 percent on top to the federal government.
A Hacksaw for Our
Government Shackles: The top benefit of a national sales tax would supposedly
be reduced bureaucracy or even elimination of the IRS. Don't bet on it. Forty-three
states with income taxes rely heavily on federal enforcement to ensure compliance. With
that enforcement gone, forty-three state bureaucracies would end up performing drastically
more audits. And for a national sales tax to correlate with existing state collections,
the five states without sales taxes would have to create brand new agencies.
National sales tax:
There's no question that tax reform is needed, but tax reform is secondary to a much larger issue —
federal spending. From 1787 to 1920, except during war, federal spending was a mere 3 percent of GDP,
compared to today's 20 percent. If the federal government takes only 3 percent of the GDP, just
about any tax system is relatively non-oppressive.
Okies Enjoy Largest Tax Cut in State
History. The tax cut package passed only months after Republicans took control of the House of
Representatives, which they had last controlled in 1921-22.
Do you
trust your neighbor to pay taxes? Journalists invent sources. Employees
loot their employers to the tune of $50 billion per year. Shoppers make off with
about $13 billion worth of products through shoplifting every year. No one obeys
speed limits. Are we then to believe that only a small minority of taxpayers, offered
the opportunity to cheat such an impersonal entity as the U.S. Treasury, are
declining to do so?
Scrap
the tax code. "There is nothing to be learned from the second kick of a mule," is
an old Texas axiom, and it applies to simplification of the U.S. tax code, which is outdated,
overly complex and exceedingly resistant to reform. The tax code now exceeds a staggering
60,000 pages, prompting Americans to waste 6.2 billion hours just completing their returns
every year. Deciphering it costs the country $203.4 billion a year, according to
the Tax Foundation. Its complexities generate additional job-killing distortions
throughout our economy.
2005 Tax
Freedom Day Falls on April 17. That's the day when "Americans stop
working to pay taxes and begin working for themselves."
"Our Taxes Are Too
High," Americans Say. Tax Freedom Day calculates the day each year when we stop working for
government and start working for ourselves. In effect, this measures taxes as a share of aggregate
income. Last year, taxes took 29.1 percent of income by this measure, down from a recent
high of 33.6 percent in 2000. In short, the tax burden is well above the level that at
least two-thirds of Americans think should be the maximum and right at the level that 90 percent
believe should be the absolute limit.
Chart shows Tax Freedom Day by
State, 2006.
Tax Burdens and Tax Freedom
Day. Tax Freedom Day is the day when the nation as a whole has earned enough
money to pay off its total tax bill for the year. Tax Freedom Day provides Americans
with an easy way to gauge the overall tax take — a task that can otherwise be daunting
due to the multiplicity of taxes at various levels of government and "hidden" taxes
and fees that are often buried in the cost of living.
Let's
Scrap the Code! Our tax system needs to be changed. Every year, Americans
spend 6.2 billion frustrating hours fighting forms and figures, digging for documentation,
and checking and rechecking their math to make sure everything is right. That's
because our archaic 60,000 page tax code is mired in special interest loopholes.
The Law That Never Was: In
1984, William J. Benson began a research project, never before performed, to investigate the
process of ratification of the 16th Amendment. When his year long project was finished
at the end of 1984, Bill had visited every state capitol and knew that not a single state had
actually and legally ratified the proposal to amend the Constitution. Thirty-three states
engaged in the unauthorized activity of amending the language of the amendment proposed by
Congress, a power the states do not possess.
When It Comes to Taxes, We
Need Some Real Pain. Actually writing out checks to the government generates a lot more thinking
and questions about the size and scope of government. From 1913 to 1942, income taxes were paid in
quarterly installments during the year after the income was earned. Returning to such a system would mean
that all income earners would have to sit down four times a year and write out a check to the government.
Study Finds Controversial Jock
Taxes Spreading. The jock taxes are so named because they require traveling
professional athletes and other team employees to pay income taxes in every state where games
are played. "This is a real slippery slope," said Andrew Chamberlain, a Tax Foundation
spokesperson. "If jock taxes continue to be applied this aggressively, more and more
professionals that travel to other states are going to be subject to them. Eventually, a
traveling executive would have to pay tax in every state that he visits during the year. That
creates an untenable level of complexity."
Government Workers: Working Hard or Hardly Working?
People who have waited on line or on hold or who have heard "that's not my area" too
often wonder if anyone works in federal agencies let alone if those working know what
they are doing. Often they do not: a 2003 study disclosed that the IRS gives
incorrect answers or no answer at all 43 percent of the time!
Wireless Phone Costs Drop, but Taxes Skyrocket.
Taxes on wireless telephone service in the United States have climbed nine times faster than those on general
business since January 2003, putting a damper on the growing use of wireless communications, according to Jim
Schuler, director of policy at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.
Tax-free Internet Access Might End November 1.
If the 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA) is not extended, consumers may pay taxes to access the Internet this
fall. Congress will either need to extend or make permanent the federal ban that expires on November 1
to keep Internet access tax-free.
Top 10 Wireless Tax States. Since
1993 the average wireless phone customer's monthly bill has gone down almost 37 percent, while minutes of
use have increased about 300 percent … but some state legislatures see wireless service as an easy
target and are taxing it more and more.
Taxing Forests to Death. Proponents of the estate
tax claim it affects only the very rich. However, forest owners, many of whom are cash-poor, are more
likely to incur the estate tax than the general population. Suburban growth has caused timber prices to
rise; thus substantial increases in the value of forest acreage are not unusual.
Estate tax
questions. Financial advisers today tell middle class couples that they will need at least
$1 million in financial assets to live comfortably in retirement. And with the big run-up in housing
prices in recent years, it is not at all uncommon for middle class families to live in $600,000 homes.
The IRS vs. Foreign Investment: Foreigners have
invested more than $1 trillion in capital in the United States since 1984, when Congress and the Reagan
administration established a policy of not taxing interest they earn on U.S. bank deposits. This influx
of capital will be jeopardized if a proposed IRS rule is implemented.
Tax Cuts and the Rich: High tax rates on the
wealthy may make the promoters of economic class warfare feel good, but they do not raise revenue for the
federal government.
Pennsylvania Voters Want Property Tax Reform;
Legislators Ignore Them. "This poll confirms what policymakers have known for years," said Matthew
J. Brouillette, president of the Harrisburg-based Commonwealth Foundation. "Pennsylvanians want the same
protections that citizens in an overwhelming majority of other states have. They want the power to approve
or veto future school property tax increases."
What is the FairTax? The FairTax,
pending in Congress as HR 25 and S 1493, is a non-partisan proposal that would abolish all federal
income taxes, including payroll, self-employment, alternative minimum, income, capital gains, corporate, and
death taxes, replacing them with a simple, visible, federal sales tax.
They're gaining
in the poles…
Wooden
Telephone Pole Tax. An attempt to raise taxes on New Hampshire phone
calls. The magic show where politicians claim businesses can make money appear
from nowhere used to be convincing. But today's economically savvy voters will no longer
be fooled by this sleight-of-hand pick-pocket scam that has too often left them wondering
where their money has gone. Voters today know that, in the end, only people
pay taxes.
Editor's Note: What would
be the purpose of taxing telephone poles, and what good could result from this
tax? Is this just a way to compel people to switch to cell phones? Or
was this proposal cooked up by a tree-hugging liberal who opposes the harvesting of
trees? (Does the tax apply to metal poles, too?) In any event, there aren't very many new telephone poles installed
on a typical day, except after a storm, and there certainly aren't many poles which
carry telephone lines exclusively — most carry power lines and other utilities
as well.
The FICA slush fund:
This time each year, as we all go through the ritual torture of filling out our income-tax forms, we hear a
crescendo of complaints from friends, neighbors and co-workers about how unfair, complex, onerous and
contradictory the tax code is — and they're right.
Simplify the Tax Code with a Flat Tax: The
income-tax system began in 1913 as a two-page form backed by 14 pages of law. Today, we struggle with
742 different forms and 254 separate publications, backed by more than 17,000 pages of law.
The "progressive" taxman cometh.
In an ideal world, every person and every corporation would pay the same tax rate on their income, with no
deductions for anything. A universal flat tax rate would be fair, and for most people, the rate would
be lower than the rate now being paid. A single tax rate would reduce the IRS bureaucracy to a mere
shadow of itself. Tax attorneys and CPAs would need to find productive work. First-time employees
and low-wage earners could assume the same tax responsibility everyone else bears. Tax returns could,
indeed, be no more complicated than a postcard.
The U.S. Income Tax Burden: An Analysis of CBO
Numbers. An enormous percentage of taxes are payed by a minority of Americans. The
Top 1% of taxpayers pay 29% of all taxes. The Top 5% of taxpayers pay 50% of all taxes.
Tax system punishes
success: According to tax data released by the IRS in 2000, the top 5 percent of wage
earners pay nearly 57 percent of all income taxes collected annually; the top 10 percent pay
67.3 percent; the top 50 percent pay more than 96 percent of all income taxes.
High Tax Republicans Replacing
"Tax and Spend" Democrats? A new tax revolt may be in the works. Only this time, the "bad
guys" are Republicans. Taxpayers in several states are complaining the GOP politicians they put in office
are acting like Democrats when it comes to spending their hard-earned dollars.
Theft of your labors:
Americans collectively spend more on government today than they do on food, clothing and shelter combined.
Much of that biggest expense in their budget is based on this wacky notion of the sliding scale. You pay
one price, your neighbor pays another. And those who pay the most get the least in return.
Winning The War Over
Liberalism: A review of "Let Freedom Ring — Winning the War of Liberty Over Liberalism", by
Sean Hannity. "Government spending is at an all-time high. And the tax burden is at a record high,
having skyrocketed during the Clinton-Gore years," Hannity writes.
Death to the death
tax: It's time for the Senate to join the House in repealing, once and for all, the socialistic
death tax monster, whose only remaining purpose is to serve as ammunition for class warfare demagogues.
Does Bigger Government Help the Poor?
Higher tax burdens are associated with greater poverty. Big government that is tax-financed is more
likely to add, rather than subtract, from poverty rolls.
This next one is a broken link, but I'm trying to track it down somewhere else.
Evaluating the Incentives to Stay in the Welfare
System: A family with $12,600 in earnings before taxes pays $1,251 in taxes but gets back an EITC
of $2,247 for a total of $13,596. [A negative income tax!]
What's the Worst Tax for Texas? A new study
unveiled in Midland finds that an income tax would be a drag on Texas' economy, and suggests that reliance on
sales taxes and user-fees will harm economic growth the least.
Collection Contributions: The IRS uses an
illegal quota system that rewards agents for the amount of money they collect.
"Global
Tax Police" Under Scrutiny: House Majority Leader Dick Armey says a Paris
organization is trying to initiate a "global network of tax police" targeting low-tax
nations such as the United States.
Income Tax
Withholding Called "Triumph of Big Government": Americans are now in their 60th year of
having income taxes withheld from their paychecks. And the National Taxpayers Union, no friend of the
Internal Revenue Service, is condemning the law for having created a "bloated" welfare state that lacks
accountability and punishes taxpayers.
Maine tops in taxes per
person: Mainers paid 14.5 percent of what they earned to the state and local government for
income, sales and property taxes, the New York Times reported recently. New Yorkers came in
second place at 14.2 percent.
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