A few days ago the Senate failed to pass Senate bill S. 2343, the “Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act of 2012 which would have limited the ability of S corporation shareholders to classify payments made to them by their corporations as distributions thereby avoiding self employment tax. Tony Nitti has the story: The bill would have [...]
Tags: Legislative Watch · S Corporations · Tax Policy
PJ Media reports that seven of the top ten wealthiest members in Congress are Democrats: Yes America, there is a wealth gap. Seven of the top ten wealthiest members in Congress are Democrats. The results are based on a new study released today by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. The Center did an analysis [...]
Tags: Legislative Watch · News · Politics of Taxes
Several months ago vice squads in West Palm Beach, Florida began the practice of giving local beat reporters the names and mugshots of men who had been arrested for allegedly soliciting prostitutes. I believed then, and still do, that in a country that declares a man to be innocent until proven guilty, the practice is illegal.¹ The reporters, of course, maintain that they have [...]
Tags: Legislative Watch · News · Opinion · State Taxes · Taxpayer Rights
Howard Gleckman of TaxVox writes in The Democrats Millionaire Tax: Smart Politics, Awful Policy: Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid’s plan to fund a $445 billion stimulus, err, jobs bill with a 5.6 percent surtax on millionaires is not all bad. After all, Tax the Rich does make a nice campaign bumper-sticker. But it is mostly [...]
Tags: Legislative Watch · Tax Policy
WebCPA reports that Senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and Kay Hagan, D-N.C., introduced legislation Thursday allowing multinational corporations to repatriate their foreign earnings at a reduced tax rate: The bipartisan bill, known as the Foreign Earnings Reinvestment Act, aims to trigger the flow of $1 trillion from the foreign subsidiaries of U.S.-based multinationals at a reduced [...]
Tags: Legislative Watch · News · Tax Policy
If President Obama and the tax-happy left get their way, this is what is coming in America. Lisa Abend of TIME reports that Denmark has just enacted a tax on fatty foods: The tax, the first of its kind in the world, imposes a 16 krone (roughly $3) hike per kilo of saturated fat on [...]
Tags: Legislative Watch · Tax Policy
Janet Novak of Forbes writes today in Billionaire Poster Boys for Tax Reform: Mellon, Buffett, Schwarzman…And Koch? President Barack Obama’s decision to brand his bid to tax the rich more—the “Buffett rule”– is hardly unprecedented, but it is plenty savvy. “Anecdotes have caused all sorts of tax legislation,’’ says Columbia University Law Professor Michael J. [...]
Tags: Legislative Watch · Politics of Taxes · Tax Policy
