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California’s Plan To Dodge Tax Reform Is A Shell Game
Hotair ^ | 01/08/2017 | Jazz Shaw

Posted on 01/08/2018 8:46:43 AM PST by SeekAndFind

When the Democrats were railing against the tax cut package which was passed before Christmas, one of their major rallying cries was to say that Trump and the Republicans were “punishing blue states” by capping SALT deductions (the amount of state and local taxes you pay which may then be deducted from your federal taxes) at $10K per year. Hardest “hit” were New York and California, with their respective governors vowing to #RESIST Trump and find a way to spare their people. While this would obviously be a silly idea in progressive circles, one response might have been to ask why they don’t stop taxing their residents at such insanely high levels. Perish the thought.

True to their word, California got to work on a plan which would allow residents to avoid this pitfall and still be able to take the full SALT deduction next year. How could they do that? It’s a rather complex shell game cooked up in the state senate. If approved, it would establish a “California Excellence Fund” where residents could make a “contribution” equal to the amount of state tax they owe over the cap. In exchange, the state would give them an offsetting tax credit of an equal amount which they could then deduct on their federal taxes under the exception provided for “charitable contributions.”

But there’s nothing “charitable” about it. The so-called Excellence Fund is nothing more than a holding company inside the state treasury specifically designed to create a tax dodge. Even the LA Times editorial board looked at this scheme and advised against such a corrupt practice. (Emphasis added)

The Internal Revenue Service has blessed similar arrangements that California has used to raise money for college scholarships, and that several states use to preserve land from development or generate money for private school vouchers. But it’s one thing to offer a tax break to try to support a public project or service; it’s another to do it solely to cut Californians’ federal tax bills. Passing the De León bill would be the state’s version of setting up a shell company in the Cayman Islands in order to shelter Californians’ income.

We should also be asking how many people this SALT cap provision is really affecting. In California, the state legislature is making a point of saying that the “average” SALT deduction by Californians is nearly $18,500. But that’s only because the top earners in the Golden State are so massively wealthy that they tip the scales quite a bit. It’s worth noting that you need to earn more than $140K in California in order to owe $10K in state taxes. In New York (which we’ll get to in a moment) you need to earn $170K before you break the $10K state tax barrier. And you still get to deduct all of the state taxes up to that point, so you’re only missing out on deductions for taxes paid on income above those levels.

So, as the LA Times described it, California is trying to do the equivalent of setting up a shell company in the Cayman Islands to help those residents who are well into the six figure income range avoid paying more federal taxes in an effort to #RESIST Trump. On the opposite coast, New York State is looking at something even more novel. (Or perhaps “crazy” would be a better word.) According to the Buffalo News, Empire State Governor Andrew Cuomo is proposing a scheme where the state would simply stop hitting workers with a state income tax and instead force their employers to pay a “payroll tax.”

The basic premise of the still-evolving state plan, vaguely unveiled during Cuomo’s State of the State speech last week, is to sharply reduce the state’s reliance on income taxes that employees pay by starting a new, statewide payroll tax that employers would pay.

It’s a tricky initiative, starting with the fact that personal income taxes — $48 billion — account for 64 percent of the total taxes and fees Albany collects each year.

You don’t need a degree in accounting to see some immediate, gaping holes in this plan. First of all, if you just force the employers to cough up all that money, how do they get it back? Simple. According to Cuomo, the companies can just cut the pay of all the workers to offset the amount they would have paid in state income taxes. Yeah… that should go over swimmingly. And what about people who work for charities, hospitals, colleges and certain non-profit government agencies? Their employers don’t pay corporate income taxes to the federal government so they would be gutted by the change.

All of this scrambling is going on so that blue state politicians can show everyone how hard they are fighting to #RESIST. And while they claim to be fighting for the little guy, they’re talking about the loss of a tax deduction which would only affect a portion of the income of those with earnings at the top end of the scale. That’s roughly 18% of Californians and 16% of New Yorkers. But hey… at least they’re resisting Trump, right?



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; shellgame; taxes; taxreform
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1 posted on 01/08/2018 8:46:43 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

CA is the land of nuts and flakes, what does anyone expect from a one party state dominated by foreigners?


2 posted on 01/08/2018 8:48:40 AM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here of Citizen Parents-Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: SeekAndFind

Won’t work?

Doesn’t Tax law looks at the reality of transactions. Not the window dressing?


3 posted on 01/08/2018 8:49:46 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Just like ObamaCare, it will be deemed as a Tax since it is in Lieu of taxes. Someone needs to sue right now.


4 posted on 01/08/2018 8:51:43 AM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: SeekAndFind
You mean like this?
5 posted on 01/08/2018 8:51:50 AM PST by OttawaFreeper ("If I had to go to war again, I'd bring lacrosse players" Conn Smythe)
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To: SeekAndFind
As I've said before, this is the "tax the rich" program that libs have been crying for.

And since most of the really rich live in NY and Calif. what's the surprise?

6 posted on 01/08/2018 8:55:04 AM PST by Pietro
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To: SeekAndFind

And voters in California and New York will continue to vote...with their feet.


7 posted on 01/08/2018 8:55:09 AM PST by immadashell (Save Innocent Lives - ban gun free zones)
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To: SeekAndFind

.
Possibly a shell game, but in the present situation, it will sell.
.


8 posted on 01/08/2018 8:57:12 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: SeekAndFind

This is the way the communist libeRATS FORCE caliMEXICO to stay blue!!


9 posted on 01/08/2018 8:57:57 AM PST by RoseofTexas
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To: SeekAndFind

I thought liberals loved paying taxes? Why would they scheme so hard to avoid them. Oh, they’re being hypocrites as usual, I see.


10 posted on 01/08/2018 8:59:31 AM PST by NohSpinZone (First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers)
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To: SeekAndFind

Maybe the best lesson that Californians would learn is to send the money to the Caymans and watch the Caymans nationalize it or have the Brits tax it there . . . :)


11 posted on 01/08/2018 8:59:45 AM PST by LRoggy (Peter's Son's Business)
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To: SeekAndFind

All the IRS has to do is declare that those “charitable contributions” are not tax deductible after declaring they do not meet the definition under Federal tax law. It’s not a shell game, it’s a pipe dream.


12 posted on 01/08/2018 9:01:38 AM PST by Sparticus (Primary the Tuesday group!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Tax fraud which is a felony


13 posted on 01/08/2018 9:02:37 AM PST by junta ("Peace is a racket", testimony from crime boss Barrack Hussein Obama.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Nice to see the commies in Cali. are scheming to pass on their state tax burden back on to the rest of the country.

So predictable.

14 posted on 01/08/2018 9:02:53 AM PST by deadrock
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To: SeekAndFind

Protecting all the Liberal Silicon Valley Millionaires and Billionaires?

Meanwhile, Moonbeam adds additional Gas Taxes, higher Vehicle Registration Fees and stealth Carbon Taxes which directly impact the Working Poor and Middle Class and there is nothing but silence.

Luckily no Liberal Millionaires and Billionaires were hurt with Moonbeams new Tax and Fee Policies.


15 posted on 01/08/2018 9:03:54 AM PST by Kickass Conservative (Tweet softly, but carry a big stick.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Would love for these States to implement these schemes and then the IRS charges the super rich individual that use these illegal schemes with criminal tax evasion.


16 posted on 01/08/2018 9:04:37 AM PST by rigelkentaurus
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To: immadashell

Trump can finish off the MSM with a simple statement. “The MSM at the bequest of the Democrats promoted a tax the rich scheme and we listened.” “Now they are upset? If they did their jobs and actually looked at the tax bill instead of parroting Democrat talking points, they could have accurately informed their viewers.”


17 posted on 01/08/2018 9:06:57 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (Death of the MSM - "Because it is my show and I don't want to do that." Jake Tapper)
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To: SeekAndFind

I say go for it Anything to keep government from picking your pocket is worthwhile

Then we can also use similar schemes to avoid paying California’s outrageous taxes


18 posted on 01/08/2018 9:11:29 AM PST by PGR88
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To: Lurkinanloomin; Sivad

“CA is the land of nuts and flakes....”

......and the home of Free Republic...

If you recall your neighbors and relatives that moved here back home again we’d be a leading conservative state again.


19 posted on 01/08/2018 9:27:15 AM PST by Forty-Niner (The barely bare, berry Bear formily known as Ursus Arctos Horrilibis (or U.A. Californicus))
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To: SeekAndFind

I think the states could mandate that impacted people pay $5,000 in “child support” to each child of theirs, then tax that away.

Most of the taxes are for K-12 education and Medicaid anyway.

Another possibility is to start charging income-based tuition for K-12 schools. That would require a state constitutional change.

Rich towns will privatize their streets (parks, beaches, etc.) since the tax to maintain them would no longer be deductible. FedEx and UPS might have to pay access fees which Amazon Prime would have to eat.

Another possibility is to levy a paycheck tax on the employers instead of income tax on the employees.


20 posted on 01/08/2018 9:29:08 AM PST by Brian Griffin
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