Posts tagged as Taxes
Florida's Tea Party Economics Plan a Total Failure
"Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature face a $1.5 billion revenue shortfall, state economists said Tuesday....The projections are not what lawmakers had in mind last session when they cut regulations, slashed spending and eliminated more than 4,000 state jobs to balance the $69 billion budget.... Lawmakers also turned away billions in federal transpiration [um, sic?] and health care money, and tried to boost the economy by including $70 million in tax incentives." READ MORE
But What About the Second-To-Last Meal?
"It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege. One which the perpetrator did not provide to their victim." READ MORE
No New Taxes to Pay Civil Servants' Healthcare, Say Vineyard Voters
The Vineyard Gazette, of Edgardton, MA, covered the elections this week over in Tisbury, (also known as Vineyard Haven). And the people have spoken, nuking ballot measures that would increase taxes. READ MORE
Liberty Tax Service: Your Huddled Masses Yearning To Be Franchisees
It's as sure a sign of the arrival of Spring as the tulips peeking and the peepers peeping and the open-toed shoes. We've all seen them. People, dressed in powder-blue frocks and Styrofoam hats, frolicking at the strip mall turn-in and at the high-traffic urban business district. And they're cheery, genuinely cheery, like children on Christmas morning, or an I-banker reckoning his bonus. They are dressed like the Statue of Liberty. Sometimes they have boomboxes, the kind that you can change the batteries yourself, and they jam tunes. READ MORE
Here's What Happens If You Don't Do Your Taxes
Your New Taxes: Let the Frenzy of Wealth Transfer Begin!
With today's forthcoming signature by the President, the nation enters a frenzy of wealth transfer over both the next few weeks and the next two years. What does the tax bill do? Here is a fairly simple breakdown. READ MORE
The Worst Tax Hike Ever
"Most taxation has an over-burden in the form of distorting economic activity. But raising alcohol taxes actually moves us in the direction of economic efficiency. Even ignoring the costs alcohol imposes on the people who drink too much of it and on their families, the external costs of heavy drinking–costs on various public budgets plus losses to individuals as a result of drinking people outside their families – are several times as high as the taxes collected on it. So even in purely free-market terms, alcohol is currently grossly under-taxed; in effect, the rest of us get to subsidize the brewers and their best customers through our health insurance bills, our auto-insurance bills, and our police budgets." READ MORE
Toronto to Become Privatized Miracle City of the Tax-Free Future
Gay-disliking, anti-union, immigrant-suspicious libel suit defendant and former DUI arrestee Rob Ford is now the mayor-elect of Toronto! Goodbye, wasteful government employees and bike lanes—oh yes, he really hates urban bicyclists. He's going to change the face of the city and do it... by spending... less money, in that magical way, and he beat out the crazily fun but hostile former drug addict gay dad George Smitherman to win the day. This will actually be a great experiment! Maybe he can privatize garbage collection and cut the city's debt by $1.58 billion over four years and also spend $4 billion on new subway lines and hire more police while saving taxpayers money! Maybe so. And, because it's always about us here in America when it comes to Canada, this even might be a sign that the U.S. elections will be going in the same direction.
How Taxes Work
Jonathan Chait makes a point that should be included in every article about tax rates, because it is so frequently misunderstood: "The main problem with the article is that it presupposes that individuals making $200,000, or couples earning $250,000, will pay higher taxes. They won't. The tax hike only applies to income over that threshold. When you go from $250,000 to $250,001, you only pay a higher tax rate on that one extra dollar. Your taxes will go up by a few cents. If you earn $300,000, you will pay a slightly higher tax rate on the last $50,000 of your income — less than a couple thousand dollars. Even people making half a million dollars a year won't be 'taxed at rates similar to those who make $5 million,' because only half their income will be taxes at the top rate."
Nightmare Mayor Bloomberg: The First Rule Is Don't Tax the Rich
I was settling into this steady warm feeling about Mike Bloomberg in recent months but that has pretty much evaporated with his latest insane bit of pro-business mouthing-off. Plans for a 6% tax hike on people earning half a million per year and more is going to destroy New York City, says New York City's billionaire mayor: "I think it's the best thing that ever happened to Connecticut. I can't imagine why every hedge fund wouldn't pick up tomorrow and move. The first common-sense rule of taxation is, don't tax people that can leave." Yes, just tax the poor ones who can't. Bloomberg then went on to describe "legislation that would decrease the tax deduction for those who make at least $10 million a year" as "CRAZY." Really, he did! And then: "the Legislature had insisted on raising taxes on the wealthy," he complained, saying, "All of this stuff is going in totally the wrong direction." Bloomberg has always sounded the red alarm that corporations and rich people will flee the city-and yes, the city runs because of rich people! And some did go to New Jersey and Connecticut! But it wasn't without Bloomberg giving away the farm in concessions on their way out anyway. Does anyone really think the nutheads in Albany are going to do a great job designing tax proposals? Not really! Does New York City have to be a business-friendly city? Yes! But has Bloomberg lifted a finger to stop the New York City job loss at rich corporations? No-he won't risk offending them.
