Archive for the ‘taxes’ Category

Embryos Are People Under Georgia Tax Law

August 4, 2022

Embryos Are People Under Georgia Tax Law

Under Georgia state tax law, embryos gestating for over 6 weeks are now considered dependent children. The state Department of Revenue will allow deductions of $3000 for each 3/4-inch long blob of cells if they have perceptibly pulsing cardiac activity, often wrongly called a “fetal heartbeat.”

Who knows, maybe gun ownership and voting rights will be next under such so-called “personhood laws“.

More:

“Embryos can be listed as dependents on tax returns, Georgia rules,” Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Guardian

“Georgia says ‘unborn child’ counts as dependent on taxes after 6 weeks,” María Luisa Paúl, Washington Post

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Who pays the lowest taxes in the US?

February 14, 2020

Who pays the lowest taxes in the USA? Yep, that’s right, poor folks.

More:

“How to Tax Our Way Back to Justice,” Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, New York Times

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Hey GOP, why aren’t we filing taxes on a postcard?

April 10, 2019

Remember all those times Republicans promised you’d be filing your Federal Income Taxes on postcard? The 1040 may be physically smaller, but it’s 2-sided, and you’ll have to attach a bunch of other new forms to it. Instructions for the 1040 total 117 pages. After all, it’s not like they shrank the tax code, just the tax rates for the 1 Percent.

A Vox video by Madeline Marshall and Matthew Yglesias.

Related:

“Only 17 Percent of Americans Think They’re Benefiting From Trump’s 2017 Tax Cut,” Daily Beast

“Survey: Few people think they’re getting a tax cut under Trump’s law,” Naomi Jagoda, The Hill

“Congress Is About to Ban the Government From Offering Free Online Tax Filing. Thank TurboTax.” Justin Elliott, ProPublica

“The Tax Law’s Big Winner Is the Millionaire CEO,” Joe Light, Bloomberg

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The new US tax law, explained with cereal

January 23, 2018

The most important meal of the day: Vox explains the new US tax law with cereal.

More:

“The Republican tax bill, explained with a bowl of cartoon cereal,” Alvin Chang, Vox.

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Tax Rates: Adam Smith Speaks

November 8, 2017

Tax Rates: Adam Smith Speaks

“The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess …. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.

The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, 1776

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Trump Erects Trade Barrier With Canada

April 28, 2017

US Erects Trade Barrier With Canada
Developer-in-Chief Donald Trump just increased the cost of America’s new homes and decreased US construction jobs. How? putting a punitive tariff on imports of wood from Canada. “We’re going to be putting a 20 percent tax on softwood lumber coming in — tariff on softwood coming into the United States from Canada,” tweeted the president.

Canadian softwoods — pine, spruce, fir — are used to frame most new home construction in the USA.

More:

“In New Trade Front, Trump Slaps Tariff on Canadian Lumber,” Peter Baker and Ian Austen, New York Times

“Why Is Trump Bashing Canada All of a Sudden?” Joshua Keating, Slate

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Image (“Scott Walker’s Northern Border, after Alex Anderson, Jr.”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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It’s Magic! Trump’s Tax Cut Will Pay for Itself.

April 27, 2017

It's Magic! Trump’s Tax Cut Will Pay for Itself.

On Wednesday the Trump Administration rolled out its Tax Plan, less a ‘plan’ than a plutocrat’s wet dreamCorporate tax rate slashed, huge new pass-through business loophole opened, giveaways to wealthy heirstaxes for the rich slashed and their nannies and mansions subsidized through tax deductions.

This won’t produce a federal revenue shortfall, the Tax Fairy promises; tax cuts for the wealthy will pay for themselves.  How? Magic! The same magic that worked so well during the 30 years of the GOP’s trickle-down, deregulating, big-corporate, no-taxes-for-the-rich philosophy, the failed policies that crashed the world economy when Republican leadership was last inflicted upon the nation, making the rich even wealthier at the expense of the rest.

More:

“Trump’s treasury secretary: The tax cut ‘will pay for itself,'” Damian Paletta and Max Ehrenfreund, Washington Post

“Mnuchin: Our Tax Cuts for the Rich Are Not About Cutting Taxes for the Rich,” Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

“The New GOP Math: ‘Dynamic Scoring’ Doesn’t Add Up.” NotionsCapital

Update:

“37 top economists all say Trump’s tax plan won’t pay for itself,” Alexia Fernández Campbell, Vox

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Cash-Strapped Palm Beach Considers ‘Mar-a-Lago Tax’

April 20, 2017

Cash-Strapped Palm Beach Considers 'Mar-a-Lago Tax'

Palm Beach County gave Donald Trump tax breaks when he bought Mar-a-Lago, but his weekend trips to the “Winter White House” are breaking the county’s budget. A typical Donald Trump visit costs the county more than $60,000 a day for police overtime, and the county estimated its costs for Trump’s visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping at over $250,000. That’s why County Commissioner Dave Kerner is proposing a tax on Mar-a-Lago to cover the costs. It’s that or increased taxes for local residents, whose lives are already disrupted by the president’s weekend golf jaunts.

Of course the Trump Administration could reimburse the county and add that to the $3 million in federal tax dollars each Mar-a-Lago trip costs all of us.

More:

“‘He’s baaaack!’: Trump’s visits to Mar-a-Lago are stretching Palm Beach’s budget and locals’ patience,” Abby Phillip and Lori Rozsa, Washington Post

“Palm Beach official proposes Mar-a-Lago tax to pay for Trump visits,” Brooke Seipe, The Hill

Related:

“Trump has spent one out of every five minutes of his presidency in Palm Beach,” Philip Bump, Washington Post

“GOP Senator: ‘I Do Wish’ Trump Would Host State Visits In DC, Not Mar-A-Lago,” Esme Cribb, TPM Livewire

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Trump’s Taxes: He Screwed His Investors, Not Just Uncle Sam

October 5, 2016

Trump's Taxes: He Screwed His Investors, Not Just Uncle Sam

Donald Trump paid no personal income taxes for 18 years by deducting the $916,000,000 he lost in 1995, reported the New York Times in a story based on leaked information from state tax returns. To do this Mr. Trump had to forgo the depreciation deductions on his properties, which included his Atlantic City casinos. Donald Trump formed a public corporation and funded his casinos with securities he sold to ordinary investors impressed with his celebrity and a promise of 14 percent interest who were unaware of the tax burden The Donald had imposed on the properties by taking personal deductions on them. As the company collapsed and the bond value plummeted 70 percent, the CEO paid himself a $5 million bonus and bought a private jet. So much for Mr. Trump’s sense of “fiduciary duty.”

As Drew Harwell explained in the Washington Post:

“Many of those who lost money were Main Street shareholders who believed in the Trump brand, such as Sebastian Pignatello, a retired private investor in Queens. By the time of the 2004 bankruptcy, Pignatello’s 150,000 shares were worth pennies on the dollar.

‘He had been pillaging the company all along,’ said Pignatello, who joined shareholders in a lawsuit against Trump that has since been settled. ‘Even his business allies, they were all fair game. He has no qualms about screwing anybody. That’s what he does.’”

(more…)

GOP Extortionists Push Hostages to Edge of Fiscal Cliff

January 1, 2013

GOP Extortionists Push Hostages to Edge of Fiscal Cliff

Republicans in the House of Representatives, angry that a pending deal would tax their millionaire masters, are holding America’s working families hostage and threatening to heave them off that Fiscal Cliff. We suspect their rage is really because this crisis (of their own making) forces them to watch college bowl games on TV instead of on the 50 yard line with their wealthy donors.

More:

“G.O.P. Anger Over Tax Deal Endangers Final Passage,” Jennifer Steinhauer and Jonathan Weisman, New York Times

“Cliff deal hits a new snag with House Republicans,” Rosalind Helderman, Ed O’Keefe and Jerry Markon, Washington Post

“House GOP threatens to scuttle fiscal cliff deal,”  Ryu Spaeth, The Week

“Fiscal cliff reveals how dysfunctional Republican nihilism makes US politics,” Michael  Cohen, The Guardian

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