If Mitt Romney ends up as the Republican nominee, we’ll be hearing a lot more about his stint at Bain Capital. I think that would be a good thing for a lot of reasons — one being that we would all be better served if our citizenry and our politicians had a clearer understanding of [...]
Posts Tagged ‘taxes’
Capitalism 201
Posted in America, The Economy, tagged America, Bain Capital, Capitalism, Democrats, Mitt Romney, Republicans, taxes, The Economy, Venture Capital Firms on January 12, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Sailing Through The Loopholes In The Corporate Tax Code
Posted in America, Politics, The Economy, tagged America, Budget Deficit, Carnival, Congress, Corporate Taxes, economy, Federal Budget, House Ways and Means Committee, Politics, President Obama, taxes on February 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The New York Times recently carried an interesting article on the odd state of corporate tax payments in the United States. The Times asked a research firm to analyze the tax payments of Fortune 500 companies over a five-year period, and the analysis showed significant discrepancies in the tax payments made by those companies. Although [...]
Grave Thoughts About The Estate Tax
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, Democrats, Estate Planning, Federal Estate Tax, Lawyers, News, Politics, President Obama, Republicans, taxes on December 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Today President Obama signed the tax deal into law. Among its provisions are revisions to the federal estate tax, which applies to the assets of the dead. The law provides that wealthy couples with vast estates may pass the first $10 million to their heirs without any tax, with amounts over $10 million then being [...]
Working On A Deal
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, Bush Tax Cuts, Congress, Democrats, Extended unemployment compensation, income taxes, President Obama, Republicans, taxes, Unemployment compensation on December 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
President Obama announced yesterday that he had worked out a deal with Republican leaders in Congress on taxes and unemployment compensation. The deal would extend all of the Bush-era income tax rates for two years, provide extended unemployment compensation for another 13 months, and reduce payroll taxes for a year, among other components. The Bush-era [...]
That Infuriating Washington, D.C. Feeling Of Entitlement
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, Bush Tax Cuts, income taxes, Political Spin, Politics, President Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, taxes on November 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
One issue to be addressed in the upcoming “lame duck” Congress is whether the Bush-era tax cuts should be extended. Republicans say that the current tax rates should be extended because it makes no sense to raise taxes during a recession. The position of many, but not all, Democrats is that some of the tax [...]
“Waste, Fraud, And Abuse” And The New Jersey Turnpike
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, budgets, Government spending, Legislators, New Jersey, New Jersey Turnpike, Politics, taxes, Taxpayers on October 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Come election time we hear politicians say they plan to balance governmental budgets by getting rid of waste, fraud, and abuse. That comment always seems like a dodge to allow the candidate to avoid talking about tough budget choices — and then you run across a story like this. It turns out that a recent [...]
Two Worlds, Two Sets Of Rules
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, Congress, Federal Employees, Federal Government, Government Employees, income taxes, IRS, Politics, taxes on September 11, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The Washington Post has done some good reporting on the amount of taxes owed by Capitol Hill staffers, White House aides, and other government employees. All told, federal employees owe $1 billion and Capitol Hill employees owe $9.3 million. In the Obama Administration White House, 41 aides owe $831,000 — or about $20,000 per person. [...]
Tough Times On Labor Day
Posted in America, The Economy, Work, tagged America, economy, Federal Debt, income taxes, Labor Day, recession, Recovery Summer, stimulus spending, taxes, Unemployment, Work on September 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Times are tough on this Labor Day. You can’t pick up a newspaper or visit a news website without seeing discouraging reports on employment, manufacturing, housing, and other economic indicators. Labor Day marks the traditional end of summer and beginning of autumn — which means that the “Recovery Summer” has come and gone, with nary [...]
Should The Bush Tax Cuts Be Extended?
Posted in America, Politics, The Economy, tagged America, Ben Bernanke, Bush Tax Cuts, Democrats, economy, income taxes, Politics, President Bush, President Obama, Republicans, taxes, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on July 23, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Beginning on January 1, 2011, the tax cuts enacted under President Bush will expire and significant tax increases — affecting Americans of different income brackets and many American businesses, and involving income taxes, estate taxes, capital gains taxes, and other forms of federal taxes — will automatically take effect as a result. The Springfield News-Sun [...]
Recognizing Taxes As Taxes
Posted in America, Healthcare Reform, Politics, tagged America, Congress, Health Care Reform, Healthcare Reform, Politics, President Obama, taxes on July 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The New York Times recently carried an interesting article on the Justice Department’s arguments against claims that the “health care reform” legislation is unconstitutional. The “linchpin” of the argument is that the individual mandate, which requires people to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, is constitutional as an exercise of Congress’ broad taxing power. [...]
Our Tax Dollars (Not) At Work (Cont.)
Posted in Politics, tagged New Albany, New Albany Board of Education, New Albany-Plain Local school district, Politics, taxes on July 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I posted recently on the decision of the New Albany-Plain Local Board of Education’s decision to accept the resignation of the Superintendent of Schools, pay him his six-figure salary for a year (or slightly less if he finds another job during that time period), and then hire an interim replacement at additional cost. During this [...]
Tax Credits For Residents Of The “Big House”
Posted in America, crime, Politics, tagged America, crime, Homebuyer tax credits, Politics, taxes on June 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Taxpayers have to love a story like this: the federal inspector general for tax administration in the Treasury Department issued a report saying that 1,300 prison inmates received $9 million in tax credits by claiming that they bought a home. More than 200 of those inmates were serving a life sentence. All told, more than [...]
Tax Day/Birthday
Posted in America, Family, tagged America, Family, income taxes, Russell Webner, Tax Withholding, taxes on April 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
For many people, April 15th is a crappy day. No one likes to pay taxes (except for UJ, apparently) and most people dislike filling out the forms, too. If you are self-employed and have to write a check — as opposed to trying to get a refund of money that was withheld by the government [...]
Happy Tax Freedom Day (In Ohio, At Least)
Posted in Ohio, Politics, tagged Government, Government spending, Ohio, Politics, Tax Freedom Day, taxes on April 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Today is Tax Freedom Day in Ohio. The Tax Foundation calculates Tax Freedom Day by taking the official government tally of all taxes collected in a particular year and dividing it by the official government tally of all income earned in that year. That calculation yields a percentage, and that percentage, with some adjustments, is [...]
Higher Revenue (Cont.)
Posted in Politics, tagged California, California budget deficit, Legalized Marijuana, Politics, taxes on January 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve written before on California’s budget problems and the lure of revenue from legalizing, and then taxing, the sale of marijuana. That posting has turned out to be a bit prescient, because a committee of the California General Assembly has now approved a bill to legalize and tax the sale of marijuana. Interestingly, the proposal [...]
