Free Republic

WASHINGTON - Exxon Mobil Corp. and other large oil companies are backing a carbon tax proposal put forward earlier this year by a group of former Republican leaders including James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state and a Houston attorney. The Climate Leadership Coalition, a group that includes Baker, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and former Secretary of State George Shultz, announced a list of "founding members" Tuesday that includes Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell, Total, General Motors and Johnson & Johnson. "We support @TheCLCouncil as a founding member and are working to support its policy development process," Exxon...

Want proof taxes can actually go down? In the last three years, nine states have eliminated or lowered their estate taxes, mostly by raising exemptions. And more reductions are coming. Minnesota lawmakers recently raised the state’s estate-tax exemption to $2.1 million retroactive to January, and the exemption will rise to $2.4 million next year. Maryland will raise its $3 million exemption to $4 million next year. New Jersey’s exemption, which used to rank last at $675,000 per person, rose to $2 million per person this year. Next year New Jersey is scheduled to eliminate its estate tax altogether, joining about...

It’s been six months since the city’s soda tax (or, more accurately, the sugary beverage tax) was implemented — and it’s off to a rocky start. The city is currently $20 million short of its projected $46 million goal to close out the 2017 fiscal year, and based on the most available month’s numbers, it doesn’t appear as though they will reach it. But I’m not surprised by any of this. By the time last June when Mayor Kenney pulled a fast one on City Council to strike the deal, I had already warned about the consequences in lower-income communities.

The Seattle City Council on Monday approved a new tax on soda and other sugary beverages as way to raise millions for healthy food and education programs. The ordinance calls for a tax of 1.75 cents per ounce to be paid by distributors of beverages such as Pepsi and Coke, sports drinks, energy drinks and other sweetened drinks. The tax excludes diet drinks. Supporters such as public health advocates and community groups cheered after the measure passed on a 7-1 vote. Mayor Ed Murray proposed the idea in February to raise millions for programs that promote access to healthy food...

According to the fiscal analyst, income-tax collections declined this year for the first time since the recession due to lower earnings at the top. Many wealthy residents decamped for lower-tax states after Mr. Malloy and his Republican predecessor Jodi Rell raised the top individual rate on more than $500,000 of income to 6.99% from 5%. In the past five years 27,400 Connecticut residents, including Ms. Rell, have moved to no-income-tax Florida, and seven of the state’s eight counties have lost population since 2010. Population flight has depressed economic growth—Connecticut’s real GDP has shrunk by 0.1% since 2010—as well as home...

Via The Seattle Times: Mayor Ed Murray’s soda-tax legislation led to criticism it was unfair because white and affluent people tend to drink more diet drinks. The mayor’s revised proposal lowers the tax rate slightly and adds diet soda. The changes were recommendations that emerged when staff from the mayor’s office and the office of Councilmember Tim Burgess studied disparate impacts the tax could have on people with low incomes and on people of color, according to Murray. That work involved conversations with community advocates, public-health professionals and business owners, according to the mayor. After Murray’s initial announcement, some suggested...

The mayor of Seattle has altered the rules of his proposed soda tax — which would fund education for minorities–to include diet drinks because affluent white people tend to consume them more. Mayor Ed Murray of the staunchly liberal Seattle city originally proposed the soda tax during his state of the city address in February. Under his initial plan, distributors of sugary drinks would have to pay 2 cents per ounce. It would cover sodas such as Coke and Pepsi, energy drinks like Red Bull, fruit drinks, sweetened teas and bottled coffees such as those sold by Starbucks. The Mayor claimed the tax would bring $16 million in...

In its quarterly results on Tuesday, Apple Inc. likely will report that its cash hoard has topped a quarter of a trillion dollars, an unrivaled milestone for a private corporation that raises a question: Why would any company want to hold that much money? Apple has added to its pile at a blistering pace, doubling it in just over four-and-a-half years. In the last three months of 2016 it wracked up new cash at a rate of about $3.6 million an hour. Its current total, not accounting for debt, exceeds the market values of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and that of...

RUSH: Hey, did you see Obama’s accepted another $400,000 speech? That’s two of them now. The first $400,000 speech was from a Wall Street firm, Cantor Fitzgerald. It slips my mind who the second one is from, but I have an idea.That’s how much he made per year as president.And we’re toldthat liberals don’t care about money.We’re toldthat liberals do what they do for altruistic reasons.We’re toldthat liberals are compassionate.They care. They don’t care about getting rich, they aren’t rich, and they, of course, have negative comments and things to say about everybody who is rich. And yet when they...

Once again President Trump proves that he is a man of his word. Earlier today, the leader of the free world announced a wonderful tax plan that will provide tremendous aid to individuals and small businesses alike. The new tax plan consists of the following: lower individual income tax rates, a reduction in business rates, one time tax on overseas profits, a new territorial tax system, tax break for child care costs, and the repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax. The President’s new tax plan is in great alignment with his written proposals on tax reforms in his 2015 book...

President Donald Trump will outline major tax cuts for Americans Wednesday that could take trillions of dollars away from the federal government over the next decade and lump it on to the national debt. The president will be "pretty broad in the principles" of tax reform that he lays out with more details coming in the summer, his director of legislative affairs, Marc Short, told the Associated Press. But what it boils down to is major hikes in the amount people can deduct from their taxes and large cuts for small businesses and corporations.

Trump has released his tax reform plan and there is much interesting about it; let us focus on one small portion that will get the most headlines – reducing the corporate tax rate from 39% to 15%. The United States has the third highest corporate tax rate in the world at 39% – even China’s corporate tax rate is only 25%. Yes, we tax corporations at a higher rate than the commies! The caveat that is that no one pays the 39%. There are deductions – and deductions are the threat to this tax plan passing congress. While the corporate...

The Trump administration has dropped any support for a so-called border adjustment tax on imports, according to two people who have been briefed on the matter. The tax was intended to be the keystone of a tax reform proposal developed by Republican leaders in the House of Representatives. But it faced immense pushback from influential companies including Walmart and Toyota. If enacted, a border adjustment tax would have effectively imposed significant levies on billions of dollars of imported goods. Retailers in particular would have been hard hit, as products ranging from tires to T-shirts, which are imported from overseas, would...

President Trump told The Associated Press on Friday that he intends to release a tax reform plan next week that includes a "massive tax cut" for businesses and individuals. This is what I have been waiting for and have been building my portfolio since December on this hope. I was very concerned when the "Freedom" Caucus damaged the momentum by not accepting reality and being hardliners who could not wait to stage in the required changes needed in the name of what Americans have their hopes in - jobs and the economy. My position is the DOW already "priced in"...

Taxes could soon be on the rise if a new house bill passes. House bill 7322 seeks to increase the sales tax up to 6.99 percent from its current rate of 6.35 percent and increase the income tax for some state residents. Other aspects of the bill would help towns generate more money by increasing state owned property payments. Properties like colleges and hospitals owned by the state would see an increase of their payments to their towns by roughly 23 percent. If the bill passes, regional governments would be responsible for creating plans to help pay for that. Another...

Headline of the Day Poll Should President Trump release his tax records? Yes. The American people deserve to know what is in them. No. They are totally irrelevant.

Ah, the blithe joys of springtime in the United States. Azaleas in bloom at the Masters, breezy picnics on balmy afternoons, Easter egg hunts — and the annual ordeal of tax forms, with helpful I.R.S. instructions like this: “Go to Part IV of Schedule I to figure line 52 if the estate or trust has qualified dividends or has a gain on lines 18a and 19 of column (2) of Schedule D (Form 1041) (as refigured for the AMT, if necessary).” Americans will spend more than six billion hours this year gathering records and filling out forms, just to pay...

Remember when Trump promised in early February that he would unveil a "phenomenal" tax plan within two to three weeks? Well, it was just scrapped, because as AP reports, Trump has scrapped the tax plan he campaigned on and is going back to the drawing board, hoping to find a plan that will have Republican consensus, something his current proposal has failed to achieve. In doing so, the president threatens the timetable of what many had seen as the primary driver behind his entire first year agenda, which is not in peril, and may not come until early 2018...

Two republican lawmakers are about to present a bill calling for the unpopular FATCA tax reporting law’s repeal. USA lawmakers have scheduled a first hearing on April 26 for a bill requesting the repeal of the controversial and much-disliked FATCA legislation. Republican anti-FATCA campaigners Senator Rand Paul and Representative Mark Meadows are determined to end the chaos caused to USA expats and overseas financial institutions since the unpopular legislation was introduced. Should the house vote for repeal, the FATCA legislation underpinning the Internal Revenue Service’s links with foreign governments will be a thing of the past. In a letter to...

California’s governor and legislative leaders on Wednesday proposed raising $52 billion to fix the state’s roads through a big gasoline tax increase, higher car registration fees and a charge on emission-free vehicles. The 10-year plan would boost gasoline excise taxes for the first time in more than two decades, raising them 12 cents per gallon — a 43 percent increase. The tax would rise automatically with inflation. For the first time, owners of zero emission vehicles would pay a $100 annual fee because they use public roads but don’t pay gasoline taxes that fund highway maintenance. The plan also includes...