Category Archives

Archive of posts published in the category: Taxes

End the Market Distorting Subsidies

In the March 8th Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria proposes three solutions to the debt crisis in “Defusing the Debt Bomb.” His second proposal was to “end the massive , distorting subsidies for homeownership, healthcare, and agriculture.”  I agree with him.

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Why Obama’s tax incentives for small business will backfire

President Obama proposed to give tax incentives to small businesses to hire more people. This sounds like a generally good idea, unless you happen to have any practical experience which  is sorely lacking in this administration. Read full article at American

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Should Rangel Resign?

It is not uncommon for anyone to omit something from his tax return or financial disclosures and find the need to file an amended return or statement.  It is another thing to omit numerous significant entities that could affect your

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Are We Progressive Enough Yet?

The percentage of taxes paid by the top 1% now exceeds the percentage paid by the bottom 95%. This increase in progressiveness happened under  George Bush. The top 1% are made of 1.4 million taxpayers and pay 40.4% of all

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Economic Demoralization

Larry Kudlow in National Review July 10, 2009 4:49 PM The Road to Economic Demoralization Washington is going the wrong way. read the whole article here. excerpts And China has no capital-gains tax. It only has a 15-to-20 percent corporate

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Tax the Poor

excellent point form Ari Fleischer in the WSJEveryone Should Pay Income TaxesIt’s bad for our democracy to exempt half the country. By ARI FLEISCHER excerpts A very small number of taxpayers — the 10% of the country that makes more

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The Best Stimulus

James Surowiecki writes in the January 26 New Yorker that the impact of rebates on economic behavior may vary. A rebate in the form of a tax cut that increases weekly take pay may be spent more readily than a

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Blanket Change.

What is the difference between increasing your sales margin by $500,000 or reducing your expenses by $500,000? If all else is the same the answer is zero. My personal financial situation is the same if my revenue goes up or

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Taxes, My Taxes

New York Governor Paterson lamented the loss of state tax revenue as a result of top Wall Street CEOs getting much lower bonuses as a result of their crappy performance and the taxpayer payout. He noted a $180 million drop

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The Stimulus is a Tax

by Henry Oliner The stimulus package assumes that the government can repair a badly damaged economy by sending checks to a certain sector of citizens. This is such a flawed view that it should be obvious to anyone. The money

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Counterproductive Complex Tax Regulations

The tax code is so complicated and indefinite that the intended impact of tax legislation to increase or stimulate capital investment for a short time is dissipated in complexity. If you buy capital equipment in 2008 you can ‘elect’ under

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More Misguided Tax Policies

We are considering buying a new piece of equipment costing about $200,000. The salesman points out that we can get a code 179 tax treatment if we buy it this year and deduct it all this year instead of spreading

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Destroying Jobs

by Henry Oliner The bailout package had a provision requiring businesses to increase mental health and substance abuse benefits substantially if you have 50 or more employees. If you only had 45 employees and an investment in a new piece

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Are Our Taxes Progessive Enough Yet?

from American ThinkerNovember 10, 2008A ‘Center-Right’ Country? We Shall See.By Steven M. Warshawsky Or consider the progressive income tax. According to a recent article in The American, IRS data shows that in 2006 the top 1% of taxpayers earned 22%

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The Most Progressive Tax Country Is ….

Taxes: A Fair Share for AllAmerica already redistributes its wealth. A lot of it.By Jonah Goldberg from National Review Online excerpts It was, after all, Teddy Roosevelt — McCain’s hero — who introduced the progressive income tax for precisely the

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The Sacred Deduction

The home mortgage interest deduction is one of those sacred cows of the tax code. It is almost as sacred as not taxing church property. Yet it is one of the most regressive of taxes. Richer people in the highest

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The Capital Gains Dilemma

There is a fairness issue to many in the capital gains tax. Earned income may be subject to a total of over 50% in tax when you include federal and state, Medicare and social security (both portions). Yet a wealthy

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Three Ways to Spend

from P.J. O’Rourke in the Weekly Standard through American Thinker Conservatives should never say to voters, “We can lower your taxes.” Conservatives should say to voters, “You can raise spending. You, the electorate, can, if you choose, have an infinite

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Turning Citizens into Subjects

from Taxes: A Fair Share for AllAmerica already redistributes its wealth. A lot of it.By Jonah Goldberg from National Review Online Experts on economic development have long noted what they sometimes call the “oil curse.” Countries with huge oil reserves

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