Politico recently published a post about a novel suggestion for how the government might raise revenue: Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit proposed a 50 percent surtax on the post-administration private sector incomes of top government officials and excise taxes on movie tickets, DVDs and digital music downloads. “Then let Hollywood scream about how the tax increase would destroy American jobs,” [...]
Tags: Politics of Taxes · Tax Humor
Victor Davis Hanson of National Review Online talks about the agenda of the poor and the middle class (emphasis added): About 50 percent of taxpayers don’t pay federal income taxes. Almost half of American adults receive either the majority of or all of their income in some form from government. They are naturally desirous of [...]
Tags: Politics · Politics of Taxes · Tax Policy
WebCPA reports that Congress is having hearings on IRS oversight of tax preparers. David Rothstein, a research fellow at the New America Foundation, testified on behalf of the think tank as well as the National Community Tax Coalition and Policy Matters Ohio: The data from this past tax filing season confirms that an extremely high [...]
Tags: News · Regulation of Tax Preparers
Caroline May of The Daily Caller says that while Americans may complain about paying taxes, a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) found that the vast majority are honest on their tax returns: Economists Sara LaLumia of Williams College and James M. Sallee of the University of Chicago investigated whether [...]
Tags: News · Tax Crimes
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has issued another report on IRS inefficiency, which, no doubt, will be met by the Commissioner’s demand for more funding (see Related Posts, below). TIGTA reports that some taxpayers received multiple refunds for their First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit claims, while others changed the acquisition date of their homes on their [...]
Tags: Credits · IRS procedure
“Democracy… is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.” - Plato – The latest buzz word used to describe the ongoing negotiations between Republicans and Democrats over deficit reduction and whether and to what extent the nation’s debt limit should be raised is [...]
Tags: Opinion · Politics · Politics of Taxes
Imagine having this exchange with your child on Christmas morning: Parent: Here are your Christmas gifts Tommy. Tommy: Where’s the other one? Parent: That’s it, Tommy, just four this year. Tommy: What do you mean? I got five last year. You’re ripping me off. Parent: We didn’t have to give you any gifts, Tommy. You did [...]
Tags: Opinion · Politics · Politics of Taxes
