Free Republic

For 36 years, Ohioans have been sending a portion of their paychecks to the state -- an act that cost the median filer $619 in 2005. Some Ohio lawmakers say it's time to let Ohioans keep that money. "To me, it just seems pretty logical," said Rep. John Adams, R-Sidney. His House Bill 534 calls for phasing out the state income tax over 10 years. "I'm going to keep pushing it because I don't foresee the economy getting better in Ohio. I only foresee it getting worse." While some see little logic in trying to wipe out state government's largest...

BATON ROUGE - Income tax bracket changes under the Stelly Plan approved by voters in 2002 would go away in 2009 under a bill pushed by Gov. Bobby Jindal and some state lawmakers. Today, Jindal was joined by Senate President Joel Chaisson, Speaker of the House Jim Tucker, Rep. Hunter Greene and Sens. Rob Marionneaux and Buddy Shaw in calling for the elimination of the bracket changes, a move they said will give taxpayers savings in their paychecks at the first of next year.

Together, you and we cleared the first 4 hurdles to putting the END the Income Tax Initiative on the November 4th Ballot. First, we wrote the legal language for the Initiative - and got it legally certified by the Attorney General's Office. Second, we collected 76,085 certified petition signatures to qualify our END the Income Tax Initiative for legislative action - and move it toward the ballot. Third, we survived an under-the-radar, stealth campaign run by the Massachusetts Teachers Union to disqualify our ballot initiative. Fourth, although the Massachusetts Constitution requires the state legislature to take testimony on and vote...

The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, N.Y., against the men targeted in a five-state investigation into harboring illegal aliens spells out a detailed plan alleging skimmed money and forced labor. Last Wednesday, Jorge Delarco, who federal officials say is really Simon Banda, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, as were 10 of his associates. Delarco owns or operates restaurants in New York state, Ohio and West Virginia, as well as La Herradura in Bradford. Raids on restaurants and homes netted 45 illegal aliens last week, according to federal officials. Officials in Georgia were involved...

<p>OCALA, Fla. -- Wesley Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison on tax charges Thursday, a victory for prosecutors who sought to make an example of the action star by aggressively pursuing the maximum penalty.</p>

Can you imagine a public school founded by two Christian ministers, and housed in the same building as a church? Add to that -- in the same building -- a prominent chapel. And let’s say the students are required to fast during Lent, and attend Bible studies right after school. All with your tax dollars. Inconceivable? Sure. If such a place existed, the ACLU lawyers would descend on it like locusts. It would be shut down before you could say “separation of church and state,” to the accompaniment of New York Times and Washington Post editorials full of indignant foreboding,...

Several days ago I wrote an article in which I enumerated what I saw as the 10 top reasons to oppose a Federal Income Tax. In it, I specifically asked for the topic to remain focused on the problems posed and leave for later possible replacements. Few people stayed on subject. I would like, then, to take my top-10 list a few at a time and address some of the comments they elicited. 1. It allows over 1/3 of all Americans to escape paying Federal taxes altogether, either because they don’t report earned income correctly or they hire tax accountants...

Will anyone please list why any good points of an Income Tax? Must be plenty of them from all the posters who apparently live to throw mud at consumption tax alternatives. And to FlatHeads .... The Flat Income Tax is a 100% pure income tax. Most of you want to deny that, but it has all the flaws of any Income Tax.

The U.S. Income Tax ENCOURAGES illegal aliens to break our immigration laws. By officially taxing only reported income our government institutes a policy of $1 earned by an illegal being worth at least 30% more than $1 earned by a legal American. Why? I earn a $100 paycheck and at least $30 gets confiscated by OUR government as income taxes. An illegal is paid $100 in cash and gets to keep the entire $100. The U.S Government might as well put neon signs along the Rio Grande saying 'Come On Over'.

The ONLY income that can be taxed under an Income Tax is that which is reported. That is the definition of an Income Tax. Who doesn't report their income: drug dealers, thieves, common criminals, illegal aliens, a lot of people who just get paid 'under-the-table' in cash, etc. The IRS estimates 25-30% of all 'income' is not reported and that lawful U.S. tax-payers have to make up over $700 BILLION per year to cover the tax-tab for these non-reporting crooks. Thus, U.S. tax policy effectively exempts all criminal activity from Federal taxation. A government makes an enterprise tax-exempt to ENCOURAGE...

In "light" of Nader running... again, here's bit more of the great "honesty" of this liberal fanatic (though this piece was written in 2002). Ralph Nader is a hypocrite where did millionaire Nader get so much money to invest in the first place? ... Nader refused to release his income-tax returns. ... http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26345Actually political wise I think it's good for the GOP that Liberal Nader runs against Liberal Obama...

Show Us the Money: Open the Books for all Massachusetts State Government Income and Spending **** An Open Letter to the Massachusetts State Legislature **** from Michael Cloud and Carla Howell Dear Massachusetts State Legislators, On behalf of the 3,000,000+ taxpayers of Massachusetts, For the purposes of transparency and accountability of the Massachusetts state government, We request that you show us the money: open the books for all Massachusetts State Government income and spending. We ask that you post the Massachusetts state government budget - every dollar of all state government income and spending online - on an open, free,...

In his December 24, 2007 Tax Notes article, “Why the Fair Tax Won’t Work,” Bruce Bartlett purports to critique the FairTax, a proposal to replace almost all federal taxes with a retail sales tax plus a rebate. In fact, Barlett’s article has little to say about the FairTax and even less to say that’s accurate. Instead, most of his article misstates research on the FairTax, criticizes unnamed proponents of the FairTax, lambasts unattributed views of the FairTax, and engages in political punditry. This paper takes a close look at Bartlett’s “analysis,” exposing his repeated use of straw men for what...

I saw the interviews with Ron Paul on Glen Beck and Meet the Press and found myself agreeing with much of what he said. He referred to a movie called Freedom to Fascism so I decided to watch. I am a very skeptical person yet I am now convinced. For the sake of your future and the future of your family watch this movie and decide for yourself. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173 Link to VideoIf this post is removed I will be more convinced than ever

Chart: Percentage of taxpayers paying the alternative minimum tax, by townA federal tax originally designed to prevent the super-rich from avoiding taxes altogether continues to dun more and more of North Jersey, including thousands of families earning less than $100,000.  The latest data from the Internal Revenue Service shows a dramatic increase in the number of North Jersey families required to pay the alternative minimum tax, which produces higher bills than the regular income tax.  New Jersey is home to the highest percentage of AMT payers in the nation.There is general agreement in Congress that the AMT is growing...

Napoleon resident John F. “Jack” Green is 78 years old and runs about three miles every morning. He also is running for Congress in the 5th District special election as a write-in candidate. “I’m running because I can’t lose. I can only win,” Green said. “How can you lose something you never had?” While Green’s name will not be on the ballot, the names of State Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green, and Democrat Robin Weirauch of Napoleon will be. Green said he ran for the same congressional seat six or eight years ago, when no Democrat candidate was running. Green,...

By Christopher CookOur taxation system involves a really disgusting dynamic. It's basic stuff, really, but it bears repeating over and over again. Repetition is the mother of pedagogy. A political party says to one group of Americans..."You see that other group of Americans over there? If you vote for us, we will take money from them, by force, and give it to you."And so, this party gets the votes of the first group, and sure enough, they take money from the other group and redistribute it. But the other group keeps working hard and making more money, because it is...

Anti-war presidential candidate Ron Paul says his campaign is about "restoring the vanishing American dream." And he is criticizing what he calls "the cartel controlling the banking and monetary system" in the United States. Fresh off his third-quarter fundraising surprise of $5 million, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul says the libertarian "revolution" he has started is growing across America. Paul told conservative activists at the "Defending the American Dream Summit" in Washington, DC, that the conference would be more aptly called the "Defending the Vanishing American Dream Summit." The Texas congressman said his Republican rivals often talk about a "flat...

If anyone ever pondered what disasters would await the country if the Whitehouse did fall into the clammy hands of the Democrats we only have to look towards my home state of Michigan. Facing an enormous budget deficit caused by the far left governor Grandholm driving away businesses such as Pfizer and Comerica she resorted to the time tested democratic strategy of raising taxes for the “Rich”, so as Grandholm put it we can “Invest in our State”. Unlike most investments however I sincerely doubt any of Michigan’s taxpayers will be seeing a return on this investment anytime soon. Only...

In another apparent effort to prepare Marylanders for looming tax increases, Gov. Martin O'Malley released a recorded statement to radio stations suggesting corporations and higher-income earners will be among those asked to pay more. "When given a choice between decline and progress, the people of Maryland always choose to make progress," O'Malley (D) says in the message, which runs more than two minutes and was sent to more than 50 radio stations, an aide said. "Together we can overcome the deficit in our path, and we can get our fiscal house in order in a way that improves our state...

The Sixteenth Amendment DID NOT authorize the federal government to tax your PERSONALLY earned wages, but only that part of your wages that is PROFIT, or GAIN above and beyond what you gave up in order to receive them. Can you say what part of your wages are above and beyond your personal investment in earning them? Neither can the government. So it LIES to you by saying in PUBLICATIONS, like its Form 1040 Instructions, (WHICH ARE NOT LAW) that you must report and pay taxes on ALL of your wages . . . even that part that is...

Early reports have been spreading, circulating around the tax honesty community that Shreveport, Louisiana lawyer, Tommy K. Cryer has been found NOT GUILTY of 'willful failure to file' charges by a 12-0 jury verdict in the Federal District Court for Western Louisiana, in Shreveport, LA. My friend it's TRUE and what follows is a summary of the trial leading up to the emotionally inspiring verdict including exclusive quotes courtesy of Mr. Tommy Cryer. First, I want to thank each and everyone of you who attended the trial for your unwavering support and peaceful, respectful nature during every phase of this historical...

Progressivism was the reform movement that ran from the late 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century, during which leading intellectuals and social reformers in the United States sought to address the economic, political, and cultural questions that had arisen in the context of the rapid changes brought with the Industrial Revolution and the growth of modern capitalism in America. The Progressives believed that these changes marked the end of the old order and required the creation of a new order appropriate for the new industrial age. There are, of course, many different representations of Progressivism: the...

During its May special session, the Montana Legislature approved a one-time tax rebate of $400 for Montana homeowners proposed by Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Great. Everyone likes money. But unlike the famous Bush administration rebate of 2001, this rebate is not an automatic process, which raises the question: How do I get paid? The reason the process is not so simple is the manner in which Montana property taxes are collected. The law specifies that only primary residences in which the owner lived for at least seven months during 2006 are eligible for the rebate, and according to Montana Department of...

IR-2007-113, June 6, 2007 WASHINGTON — Internal Revenue Service officials today announced plans to launch a new National Research Program (NRP) reporting compliance study for individual taxpayers that will provide updated and more accurate audit selection tools and support efforts to reduce the nation’s tax gap.The latest NRP study will be the first of an ongoing series of annual individual studies using an innovative multi-year rolling methodology. The study will start in October 2007 and examine about 13,000 randomly selected tax year 2006 individual returns. Similar sample sizes will be used in subsequent tax years. An advantage of using this...

But complaints fell on deaf ears, ex-employee says. Michelle Cawthra, the state tax department supervisor accused of stealing $10 million of public funds, was abusive and demeaning to subordinates for years, according to a worker who quit over what he called her "dysfunctional management." But despite employees' repeated complaints to top management, Cawthra seemed untouchable, James McClarnon said. "The management of Michelle Cawthra and (her boss) Janet Swaney has made Income Tax Accounting into the most dysfunctional section I have ever worked in," McClarnon, 49, wrote in an exit interview. McClarnon, a tax supervisor who reported to Cawthra, quit March...

Last week, Japan pledged $100 million in grants to fight global climate change. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the world's major leader in the struggle against climate change. The World Conservation Union has recently recognized the work of women from all over the world fighting against climate change. We might want to ask whether it's too late to worry about fighting climate change. Let's look at it. About 65 million years ago, the Earth experienced one of the most rapid and extreme global climate changes recorded in geologic history. The period has been named the "Paleocene-Eocene...

May 10, 2007 Tax inspectors seek slice of prostitutes’ earnings by Roger Boyes Berlin’s brothels are accustomed to all sorts of nocturnal visitors, but not, on the whole, to tax inspectors with clip-boards and stopwatches studying financial turnover. The cash-strapped German capital this week dispatched inspectors into establishments such as Lust Land to drum up revenue from the city’s 7,000 sex workers. “Prostitution is a strong economic sector in the capital,” says Gerry Woop, spokesman for Berlin’s economic administration. According to the German Institute for Economic Research, prostitution in Berlin has an annual turnover of €300 million (£203 million), making...

The average American family will have to pay an extra $2,641 a year if President Bush's 2003 tax cuts are allowed to expire -- but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats have given no indication they plan to extend the cuts. "The mugging will lift $3.3 trillion from purses and wallets because the 2003 cuts will begin expiring soon," Ernest Istook – a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma and a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation – writes in the Washington Post. "The budget resolution moving through Congress is the blueprint for what's coming. Higher spending – by...

Am I the only American who has grown sick and tired of the TV spots from January through April and beyond featuring some well-dressed guy plugging his income tax preparation business by telling us that “it’s serious when the IRS contacts you” and “…our people are former IRS agents and know how to deal with them?” Can you say “revolving door?” Actually, what makes me sick and tired is the nearly 100 year-old SCAM we all know and love as the “personal income tax.” The Founders and others NEVER intended for this to happen here: "...it is the pleasure and...

April's Fools: One Born Every Minute April 02, 2007 By Herman Cain An old and popular English proverb cautions us that a fool and his money are soon parted. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) is taking us all for fools with some of his recent statements and votes. On January 4, 2007, Senator Baucus spoke on the Senate floor about the imperative need to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). The AMT was enacted in 1969 to make sure that a handful of millionaires could not take advantage of completely legal tax deductions and shelters. Because Congress did...

This is a short clip of an interview with Aaron Russo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX6_awFqwew&mode=related&search= This ia one and one-half hour film made by award-winning Hollywood producer and director Aaron Russo: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4312730277175242198 Listen to Aaron!

Report: N.J., 18 Other States Tax Poverty-Stricken (CBS/AP) TRENTON New Jersey is among 19 states that tax families living in poverty, according to a new report released Tuesday. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found two-parent families of four who earn less than the federal poverty line -- $20,615 per year -- must pay income taxes in 19 of the 42 states that levy that tax. "Families with very limited means are still taxed too much by states," said Jason Levitis, the report's author. New Jersey doesn't require residents who earn less than $20,000 per year to pay income...

Chris Edwards is director of tax policy studies and author of Downsizing the Federal Government. On St. Patrick's Day, we wear green and celebrate the culture of Ireland. I'll be down at the pub tomorrow, but I'll be toasting Ireland's success at attracting greenbacks -- all that investment flowing into the Emerald Isle and the resulting prosperity. Ireland has boomed in recent years, and it now boasts the fourth highest gross domestic product per capita in the world. In the mid-1980s, Ireland was a backwater with an average income level 30 percent below that of the European Union. Today, Irish...

The fact that the political parties won't acknowledge this is one reason they are doing a disservice to the voting public. ... Politicians talk this way because they generally talk about only one tax: the federal income tax, which offers graduated rates from 10% to 35%. Politicians rarely talk about what real people experience: the true maze of taxes and government benefits. If someone put them all together, we could see what our actual tax burden was. We could see who pays at the highest or lowest rates. Discussions of tax policy wouldn't be a waste of time. Well, two...

Here’s the proposed bill:http://www.leg.wa.gov/pub/billinfo/2007-08/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Joint%20Resolutions/8209-State%20income%20tax.pdf Sponsored by Senator Rosa Franklin http://www1.leg.wa.gov/senate/franklin   Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles http://www1.leg.wa.gov/senate/kohl-welles 

If you're searching for the next big thing in American politics, it's wise to keep an eye on the states. Here's one possibility: the abolition of state income taxes. In Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina, Governors and state legislatures are drafting serious proposals to repeal their income taxes to promote economic development. St. Louis, one of America's most distressed cities, may overturn its wage/income tax as a way to spur urban revival. And in Michigan, the legislature is in the last stages of phasing out its hated business income tax -- the most onerous in the land. "States are now...

Estimated personal income-tax payments, a key predictor of California's financial situation for the year ahead, are significantly down from expectations in recent weeks, the Legislature's nonpartisan budget adviser said Wednesday. In December and January, Californians paid about 15 percent less on income from investments and other non-salary earnings than Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger predicted earlier this month when he proposed a state budget. Overall, the state has earned about $1 billion less than expected since December. The drop was offset by an up tick in corporate tax payments, which were about $350 million above projections. Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill cautioned lawmakers...

FReeper Activism: When doing my taxes for this year, I was clicking the boxes on my electronic tax preparation software. I came to the section whether I wanted $3 of my taxes to go towards the Presidential Election Campaign. Right at that moment, I had FNC on the TV and I heard the shrill voice of ... you guessed it .. HILLARY CLINTON!!! The very thought of Hillary even potentially getting ANY amount of MY tax dollars to run for President was enough to make me cringe. I clicked "NO". Don't have your tax dollars support Hillary, Osama, or any...

A USA Today headline said, "Democratic House Means Changes in Tax Agenda." If so, such changes will be small and subtle. Congressional Democrats might want to reverse the tax cuts of 2003 but know they can't override a presidential veto. There is no point in appearing eager to raise taxes before the next presidential election, since that would just make it easier to lose in 2008. Most tax cuts expire in 2010 anyway, so all the pro-tax Democrats need do is lay low, not show their hand and stall for time.

Incentives drive all economic behavior. Taxes are a negative incentive. People do not work, invest, or engage in entrepreneurial activities in order to pay taxes. They engage in such economic activities in order to earn after-tax income. When the government increases its share of the income earned by its citizens, the incentive to engage in growth-enhancing economic activities falls; alternatively, the disincentive to these activities rises. The higher the tax on the next dollar earned (the marginal tax rate) the larger the disincentive. However, without taxes the government cannot operate. From an economic efficiency perspective, the appropriate goal for tax...

Talking taxes with the Internal Revenue Service is never easy. Scheduling an appointment to resolve tax problems isn't, either, according to a recently issued report. Federal auditors made 36 telephone calls to IRS taxpayer assistance centers to schedule meetings when they could discuss tax issues but were able to set up only five appointments. Of the 31 failed attempts, four IRS employees did not return calls, and the 27 employees who did "would not, for various reasons, allow the auditors to schedule appointments," according to the report by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration. The inspector general ran the...

... "Let's fix the system we have rather than shifting the tax burden to lower-income Americans." I've heard this argument before. It doesn't hold water. I believe that junking the current tax system – in its entirety – would create a modestly graduated tax system with a very broad base, consumption. By replacing both the income tax and the employment tax (among others) with a single sales tax, we would accomplish these good things: •Eliminate the fastest-growing and most regressive tax in our lifetime – the employment tax. •Massively broaden the tax base from only some income to all consumption....

As specified in Congressional bill H.R. 25/S. 25, the FairTax is a proposal to replace the federal personal income tax, corporate income tax, payroll (FICA) tax, capital gains, alternative minimum, self-employment, and estate and gifts taxes with a single-rate federal retail sales tax. The FairTax also provides a prebate to each household based on its demographic composition. The prebate is set to ensure that households pay no taxes net on spending up to the poverty level. Bill Gale (2005) and the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform (2005) suggest that the effective (tax inclusive) tax rate needed to implement...

A CHALLENGE TO H.R. 25 [alleged fair tax] SUPPORTERS What part of our federal Constitution grants power to Congress to lay and collect a “sales tax”? I have been told by some proponents of H.R. 25 to read Article 1, Section 8, but, I do not see “sales tax” in the list of specific taxing powers granted in that part of the Constitution. I guess it’s safe to assume at this point in time the promoters of H.R.25 were pretending that a power was granted to Congress to lay and collect a “sales tax”. In addition, those who promote H.R....

Advocates of replacing the income tax with the FairTax — a consumption tax in the form of a national retail sales tax (NRST) on new goods and services — regularly point to the complexity of the tax code, the millions of hours and dollars wasted on compliance costs, the evils of the withholding tax, and the abuses of the IRS to bolster their case for the FairTax. The twin truths that taxation is theft (no matter how the money is collected) and that the US government should never be given a budget that is in the trillions (no matter how...

Alright, here's the deal: I'm in my Income Tax class (ignore this if you aren't a tax attorney) and we're learning about basis, right? Specifically, donee's basis on donated property. Now, there are two ways to calcuate a donee's basis: either it's going to be the donor's basis, or the fair market value at the time of the transfer. Here's a little flowchart type thing that I've come up with to figure this out. Can someone tell me if I've got this at least substantially right? IF donor's basis equals fair market value at time of transfer, THEN there's no...

Many of the proposals that are being brought before you have merit. But they have merit in the same sense that treating the symptoms of a serious disease rather than the underlying cause of the disease has merit. If we have no means of treating the underlying disease, then we treat the symptoms in the hope the disease will run its course and the patient will improve. If we have not yet accurately diagnosed the disease, then we alleviate the symptoms until the tests are completed and we can attack the underlying problem. On the other hand, if we understand...

The Senate Finance Committee recently began its tax reform effort in earnest, holding a hearing called "Kick-Off for Tax Reform: Tackling the Tax Code." It certainly needs tackling. The number of pages of federal tax rules exploded to 66,498 in 2006 from 26,300 in 1984, according to a Cato Institute study. Compliance costs with this mass of rules topped $265 billion in 2005, according to the Tax Foundation. While the hearing went mostly unnoticed, it marks the opening of a rare opportunity to enact fundamental tax reform. The chairman of the finance committee, Senator Grassley, set the tone by signaling...

Why NTU Supports the FairTax: The Fair Tax Act of 2005 would promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national sales tax to be administered primarily by the States. Legislative Status: Rep. John Linder (GA) introduced H.R. 25 in the House of Representatives on January 4, 2005. Senator Saxby Chambliss (GA) introduced S. 25 in the Senate on January 24, 2005. NTU has endorsed the FairTax since 1998 and continues to work for its adoption Benefits of the FairTax: The FairTax plan brings fairness, transparency,...