Free Republic

Bad beat of the year: The Danish government wants 73% of Peter Eastgate's WSOP winnings. Peter Eastgate won $9,152,416 in the 2008 WSOP Main Event, but the question is how much of it he will get to keep. Denmark has strict taxation rules for poker winnings - Eastgate has to pay 45% in taxes on winnings up to approximately $520 000 and 75% on the rest (over $8.5 million). The end result will be $6.6 million in taxes, if the Danish government gets what it wants. Eastgate moved to England shortly after reaching the Main Event final table to protect...

Earlier this month, a California activist began gathering signatures to put a state wealth tax on the ballot. The measure would impose a new 35% income surtax (in addition to federal taxes and the existing 10.3% top state rate), and penalize people who leave the state by seizing 55% of assets exceeding $20 million. The money raised would be used to eliminate the state's budget deficit and for purchasing controlling shares in large corporations. The 17.5% surtax is unusual because it would be on a taxpayer's total (not marginal) income whenever it exceeds $250,000, with another additional 17.5 percent tax...

New York tax filers reporting more than $375,000 a year in earned income may end up paying nearly 60% of their wages in taxes to the government under a Barack Obama presidency, economists who have analyzed his plan said. The Democratic presidential candidate is proposing not only raising the federal income tax, but also adding a Social Security tax for those Americans earning more than $250,000 a year. For New Yorkers, that could mean that if the current Social Security rate is applied, the marginal tax rate, or rate on every extra dollar earned, could rise to 58%. "This is...

It's becoming increasingly clear that the Rooney family is selling the Pittsburgh Steelers to avoid having to pay the death tax.

NJ Lotto sells tickets after winners are redeemed "That's the lottery for ya…they make money, on top of money, on top of money. It's ridiculous."

CARACAS, April 15 (Reuters) - Venezuela expects income of $9 billion a year through a new oil law obliging companies to give "windfall earnings" to the leftist government when world prices are above $70 a barrel, a minister said on Tuesday. President Hugo Chavez, who has for years squeezed more revenue from oil companies operating in the OPEC nation and nationalized all foreign-run oil fields, wants the funds to be spent immediately on social programs in this election year. The government will take in about 92 cents for every extra dollar when world prices are above $70 a barrel and...

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., wants $500,000 in federal money to build a welcome center in Ridgefield and $1 million for a new records management system for the city of Vancouver. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., wants $1 million to study rare blood issues at a Puget Sound blood center and $1.5 million to assess the feasibility of building a sea wall in Elliott Bay. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., is seeking $1.5 million in federal money to expand a cystic fibrosis program at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, while Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., wants $500,000 for organic farming research...

Driving 11 miles over the speed limit cost one driver more than a quarter-million dollars this weekend — at least for now. .... The 35-year-old from British Columbia, who had a valid driver's license, struggled to tell the trooper where he was going and how long he had been in Washington, prompting the trooper to search his car, Merrill said. The trooper found two suitcases in the trunk — one filled with $276,640 in cash. The driver claimed he won the stacks of dollar bills at 23 casinos in Washington, California and Nevada, but he was unable to produce any...

Virginia motorists convicted of minor traffic violations will face a new, multi-year tax beginning July 1. Led by state Delegate David B. Albo (R-Springfield), lawmakers slipped a driver responsibility tax into a larger transportation funding bill signed by Governor Tim Kaine (D) in April. Albo, a senior partner in the Albo & Oblon, LLP traffic law firm, can expect to see a significant increase in business as motorists seek to protect their wallet from traffic tickets that come with assessments of up to $3000 in addition to an annual point tax that tops out at $700 a year for as...

3/22/2007 Florida: City to Seize Homes Over a $5 Parking Ticket Brooksville, Florida proposes to foreclose homes and seize cars over less than $20 in parking tickets. The city council in Brooksville, Florida voted this week to advance a proposal granting city officials the authority to place liens and foreclose on the homes of motorists accused of failing to pay a single $5 parking ticket. Non-homeowners face having their vehicles seized if accused of not paying three parking offenses. According to the proposed ordinance, a vehicle owner must pay a parking fine within 72 hours if a meter maid claims...

Controversial powers for police to confiscate vehicles if their driver is using a mobile or not wearing a seatbelt are to be used across London. Police chiefs say an eight-month trial of Operation Reclaim - nicknamed "stop and seize" - has led to a 29 per cent drop in serious crimes such as robbery and burglary in west London. A total of 1,800 cars, vans and motorcycles were impounded during the trial in Hounslow, using powers introduced last year under the Road Traffic Act that allow police to pull over vehicles that have aroused their suspicion. Most drivers lost their...

Tegucigalpa, Honduras - Honduras will take temporary control of foreign-owned oil storage terminals as part of a government import program meant to drive down fuel prices, President Manuel Zelaya said late on Saturday. Honduras will take temporary control of foreign-owned oil storage terminals as part of a government import program meant to drive down fuel prices, President Manuel Zelaya said late on Saturday. Zelaya ordered the move after failing to reach a deal with big oil companies Exxon Mobil and Chevron, as well as local company DIPPSA, to rent the terminals. "It is not a nationalization, it's a temporary use...

Someday, this era may simply be known as The Google Years. California, whose budget revenue slides up and down like a yo-yo with changes in capital gains and stock options, is once again counting on outsized income tax filings from a handful of tech executives to help balance its budget. For this wave, California can largely thank Google Inc. After cashing in more than 9 million shares valued at $3.7 billion last year, 16 Google insiders will owe the Golden State as much as $380 million in taxes — enough to cover the salaries of more than 3,000 state workers....

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives in the first weeks of the new Congress plan to establish a dedicated fund to promote renewable energy and conservation, using money from oil companies. That is only one legislative hit the oil industry is expected to take next year as a Congress run by Democrats is likely to show little sympathy to the cash-rich, high-profile business. Whether the issue is rolling back tax breaks -- some approved by Congress only 18 months ago -- pushing for more use of ethanol and other biofuels instead of gasoline, or investigations into shortfalls in royalty...

Based on appearances, it would seem that Los Angeles developer Geoff Palmer is doing OK. This past summer, he bought a $17-million beachfront house in Malibu, with solid bronze doors, teak cabinets and his-and-hers bathrooms. The beach bungalow could come in handy if Palmer needs a break from the French Regency-style Beverly Hills estate he bought for $21 million in 2001. That property includes a 16,400-square-foot main house, plus two guest houses, each larger than 5,000 square feet. Given Palmer's obvious good fortune, some folks are surprised to see how vigorously he keeps fighting a city requirement that 15% of...

Sometimes in politics the only thing worse than losing is winning. Let's start with the losing. I'm most bitter about the defeat of Proposition 90, the statewide initiative that would have banned eminent domain for private use and required cities to pay compensation for property value taken by regulation. It lost, 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent, pretty close given that the "yes on 90" campaign didn't do much of anything. I expected the corporate guys who benefit from eminent domain and the government agencies that like to exert their power to fund a powerful "no" campaign, deceptive as it was...

A federal appeals court has has ruled that if a motorist is carrying large sums of money, it is automatically subject to confiscation. In, "United States of America v. $124,700 in U.S. Currency," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (Nebraska)upheld the right of police to confiscate cash found in the rental car of Emiliano Gomez Gonzolez, a man with a "lack of significant criminal history" and neither accused nor convicted of any crime.

OMAHA, Neb. - Authorities were correct to assume nearly $125,000 they seized from a California man's car during a traffic stop may have been connected to narcotics trafficking, despite finding no drugs in the vehicle, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. The ruling from the three-judge panel overturned an earlier decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Thalken in Nebraska in the case of Emiliano Gomez Gonzolez. A state trooper stopped Gonzolez for speeding on Interstate 80 on May 28, 2003. Gonzolez's lawyer, Donald Yates of San Diego, said they would appeal the ruling. He said the government...

Hercules once had a reputation as a city that never saw a development it didn't like. But as Wal-Mart has learned in the past few months, times have changed. Today, this city of about 24,000 residents stands as a national symbol of small-town audacity after its City Council unanimously agreed to invoke eminent domain to take over a tract where the world's largest retailer applied to build a store. The David-versus-Goliath quality of the showdown has drawn the attention of the national media and created a public relations quandary for Wal-Mart, which in commercials has portrayed itself as a good...

NOGALES, Ariz. - The young woman in the white ski jacket hugged herself tightly, walking quickly down the ramp toward the Nogales port of entry, when a federal agent stopped her 50 feet from Mexico. He asked if she had any money to report before leaving the United States and, according to the criminal complaint against her, Maribel Lopez Romero lied, telling the agent on Christmas Eve morning that she carried $9,000. Inside her jacket, agents found bundles of cash totaling $59,320 she was carrying to her house in Mexico for someone else, the complaint states. The 24-year-old Mexican woman...