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Governor Cuomo blamed President Trump and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for a decrease of $2.3 billion in New York State tax revenues in December and January. He indicated that the revenue reduction was the result of the new federal tax law. He believes an unprecedented number of New York residents permanently moved from New York to Florida during 2018 because New York State taxes are essentially no longer deductible on federal income tax returns of wealthy taxpayers. Just a wild guess, but a loss of 11% in the Dow Industrial Average during the fourth quarter of 2018 might...

New Jersey residents could soon be hit with what Republicans are calling a "rain tax," if Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signs newly passed legislation. The bill, approved by the New Jersey Assembly and the Senate, would allow municipalities to create utilities that can collect fees from homeowners and business owners that have large paved surfaces, like driveways and parking lots. During storms, rainwater mixes with pollutants on those surfaces before running into sewers and drains. The funding from the fees could be used for upgrades to reduce the impact on the environment.

The state of New York may be falling behind some states when it comes to quality of life issues. But there's one category where New York excels at; taxing its citizens. New York leads the nation in taxes, a dubious distinction not lost on wealthy residents of the state. So it's puzzling why the Governor would be surprised when expected revenues fall a little short; about $2.3 billion short. New York Post: Cuomo attributed the revenue drop in December and January largely to the new federal tax code, as well as volatility in the stock market and other uncertainties....

The American Revolution was sparked in part by unjust taxation. After all, the colonists in Boston rebelled against Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” and summarily tossed English tea into the harbor in protest in 1773. Nowadays Americans collectively spend more than 6 billion hours each year filling out tax forms, keeping records, and learning new tax rules according to the Office of Management and Budget. Complying with the byzantine U.S. tax code is estimated to cost the American economy hundreds of billions of dollars annually – time and money that could otherwise be used for more productive activities like...

When people see the empty storefronts that have multiplied in San Francisco the past few years, they often blame competition from online vendors for the death of small retailers. Supervisor Aaron Peskin sees another culprit: landlords who intentionally keep their properties vacant until they can extract higher rents from potential tenants. Now he wants to repopulate those storefronts by taxing property owners with consistently empty units. “This is by no means meant to be a revenue generator,” Peskin said Tuesday. “It’s meant to be a behavior changer.” Under Peskin’s proposal, owners of commercial properties in Neighborhood Commercial Districts — areas...

by Jessica Huseman March 20, 2017, 1:22 p.m. EDT Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images Here’s how preparing your taxes could work: You sit down, review a prefilled filing from the government. If it’s accurate, you sign it. If it’s not, you fix it or ignore it altogether and prepare your return yourself. It’s your choice. You might not have to pay for an accountant, or fiddle for hours with complex software. It could all be over in minutes. It’s already like that in parts of Europe. And it would not be particularly difficult to give U.S. taxpayers the same option....

This calculator provides a window into how the tax bill being passed by Congress could affect your after-tax income if your main source of income is a paycheck. It does not take into account the effects of the repeal of the health care individual mandate or the potential economic growth that may result from the bill's provisions.

Philadelphia’s outlandish soda tax is what Democratic-party politics looks like when it lets its freak flag fly. So many classic elements are there: (failed) social engineering and “think of the children!” on one side, paid for with a punitive tax on poor people and destroyed businesses, which means destroyed jobs, which in turn means lives upended. What lives? Greedy capitalists with monocles, maybe? No, they’ll be fine. Think of ex-cons trying to regain their footing in society. To review this debacle, in 2017 Philadelphia, seeking to fund a universal pre-K program, slapped mammoth sin taxes on Coke and Pepsi (and...

California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed his first budget for the state on Friday, and it includes a tax on drinking water. The budget, titled “California for All,” declares drinking water a “fundamental right,” and adds: “The Budget includes short-term measures to bring immediate relief to communities without safe drinking water and also proposes an ongoing sustainable funding source to address this problem into the future.” The San Francisco Chronicle notes: “The details of the proposed tax are unknown, but a similar proposal was abandoned by then-Governor Jerry Brown last year after failing to garner enough support in the legislature.”

Tackling what promises to be a controversial issue, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a tax on drinking water Thursday to help disadvantaged communities clean up contaminated water systems. Newsom’s plan for a “safe and affordable drinking water fund,” included in the new governor’s first budget proposal, attempts to revive an idea that died in the Legislature last year. A McClatchy investigation last year showed that at least 360,000 Californians rely on water that does not meet state standards for toxins. McClatchy also found that 6 million Californians have water providers that have violated state standards at some point since 2012. “That is a...

There’s one regard in which some fiscal liberals want us to return to the “good ol’ days” – insanely high tax rates, especially on the wealthy. While the top tax rate is 37% today (previously 39.6%), debating raising or lowering the rate a few percentage points is pale in comparison to the rates of 70-90% we had in the past, we’re told. “When radical, socialist Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, I think the highest marginal tax rate was something like 90 percent” Bernie Sanders informed us, speaking tongue in cheek in regards to that “socialist” quip. “That 90% top rate...

Japan began levying a 1,000 yen (US$9.24) departure tax on Monday, payable by anyone leaving the country by aircraft or ship, in a measure aimed at raising funds to further boost tourism. The International Tourist Tax covers everyone regardless of nationality, from businesspeople to holidaymakers older than two years of age. It will be tacked on to the price of an airline ticket, though those bought and issued before Monday are exempt. Japan’s government estimates that it will make an additional 50 billion yen (US$462 million) from the tax, which it wants to use to improve tourism infrastructure by making...

Soon after the Democrats take control of the House next year, Rep. Richard Neal, who will be the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, expects to send a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin requesting copies of Donald Trump's returns. He doesn't expect to get them. At least, not right away. A 1924 federal law - 26 U.S. Code § 6103 - mandates that the Treasury secretary "shall furnish" the tax returns of any individual for private review by the chairmen of the House and Senate tax committees. Committee sources could find no evidence that it had ever...

In a ruling sure to be appealed to Supreme Court, Texas court says the ACA, also known as Obamacare, can no longer stand without the penalty against the uninsured. A federal judge in Texas struck down the Affordable Care Act on Friday night, ruling that former President Barack Obama's signature domestic legislation has fallen down like a losing game of "Jenga." But the White House said that with the ruling expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the law will remain in place for now.

Have you found yourself texting people instead of calling them? Sure. Have you stopped to debate whether texting is a form of “telecommunications” or an “information service?” Chances are the answer is “no”. California’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is betting you haven’t either — and the difference matters because the commission has jurisdiction over telecommunications, which includes telephone calls. What’s more, it wants to extend an existing tax on calls to include text messages, the Mercury News reports. Should it get its way, then Californians may soon be taxed on every text they send from their cell phones. Gather round,...

30 second daytime video shows high level of street violence: Constant shower of rocks, use of trucheons, gate barricades are thrown --a high level of energy. If you see the clip, you could say this looks vaguely revolutionary. I also heard a ZeroHedge claim that 90,000 troops will be deployed across France.

Brown paper covered the windows of Ed Burke's office at Chicago City Hall on Thursday after federal agents showed up there. Burke, who is the City Council Finance Committee chairman in Chicago, once served as President Donald Trump's property tax attorney, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Klafter & Burke, his firm, has often sought to reduce the property taxes Trump Tower and other commercial properties have to pay. The visit from federal agents was unannounced, and it has not been said why they might be there. Upon their arrival, everyone in the office was asked to leave, witnesses told WLS television...

John has written about the protests against the French government of Emmanuel Macron, protests that turned violent this weekend. I want to add the following observations:First, the protests weren't just this weekend, although that's when they turned up on the U.S. radar. One of my daughters was in Paris on business last weekend (the weekend before Thanksgiving) and observed some of the disruption. It's estimated that 280,000 people protested throughout France last weekend and more than 100,000 protested this weekend. Second, news reports say that the protesters are not among France's more "marginalized citizens." That's true in some senses....

The concept of government is that the people grant to a small group of individuals the ability to establish and maintain controls over them. The inherent flaw in such a concept is that any government will invariably and continually expand upon its controls, resulting in the ever-diminishing freedom of those who granted them the power. When I was a schoolboy, I was taught that the feudal system of the Middle Ages consisted of serfs tilling small plots of land that belonged to a king or lord. The serfs lived a meagre life of bare subsistence and were subject to the...

Two recent studies of public sector pay and retirement benefits show tens of thousands of retired Illinois public employees making six-figures or more in all levels of government, dwarfing figures from states with more people. ... Illinois has more than $130 billion in unfunded pension debt for its five state-run pension systems. Adding in other post employment benefits, that number climbs to more than $200 billion. Municipal governments in Illinois also are struggling with unfunded pension liability. Some report using most, if not all, of their share of property taxes to pay pension costs. Taxpayers United of America said Illinois’...