Free Republic

Major contributors like the Koch brothers and Tom Steyer would get a break on gift taxes to secretive non-profit groups. The House on Wednesday with little fanfare passed legislation that would protect major donors like the Koch brothers and Tom Steyer from having to pay gift taxes on huge donations to secret money political groups. The legislation, which now heads to the Senate, is seen by fundraising operatives as removing one of the few remaining potential obstacles to unfettered big-money spending by nonprofit groups registered under a section of the Tax Code — 501(c) — that allows them to shield...

Apple's market capitalization of $730 billion may now be more than double that of Exxon Mobil, but when it comes to taxes paid to the US government, it's no contest: the company with record profitability that so many progressive hipsters adore and for whose products they line up with annual regularity is billions of dollars below its "fair" contribution to the US Treasury. Ironically, it is eclipsed by that other company that so many progressives love to hate: Exxon Mobil, which paid $4 billion more in tax than Apple, yet whose valuation has been cut by 15% over the past...

CARSON CITY — A state lawmaker pushing for major changes to the state public employee retirement plan told a committee Wednesday that long-term workers would do better under his proposal than with the current defined-benefit pension plan. Assemblyman Randy Kirner, R-Reno, testified in support of his Assembly Bill 190 in front of the Ways and Means Committee. The bill would establish a new hybrid retirement plan for public employees hired as of July 1, 2016. The bill is fiercely opposed by public employee groups who argue the existing Public Employees Retirement System plan is well-managed and does not need to...

In January, the 89th Legislature convened to begin its work. With the elections behind us and the House under Republican leadership, we opened the session with a renewed sense of bipartisanship. Many suburban legislators, myself included, had high hopes for one particular bill that would inject some common-sense into a major concern of local city councils — the Metropolitan Council. The Met Council is an unelected body that has the power to tax and spend over $1 billion every year and inject itself regularly into local government decisions. It has the authority to dictate (among other things) where new trains...

If either side in the battle over the Proposal 1 sale tax increase on the May 5 ballot is hoping for an unusually low voter turnout they're likely to be disappointed. A poll commissioned by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy shows that the number of Michigan voters aware of and planning to vote on the measure is substantial. “It’s clear that a lot of people are interested in the upcoming election, and very few of those who are interested have made a conscious decision not to participate,” said Mark Grebner, president of Practical Political Consulting, which conducted the poll....

<p>At this time of year, the last thing anyone wants to think about is paying more taxes. But there's one tax I'm in favor of - and you should be, too, if you care about your health and the health of the planet: a sin tax on meat, cheese and other animal-based foods.</p>

Around this time every year, Joseph Bankman, a professor of tax law at Stanford Law School and a longtime advocate of using technology to simplify tax filing, gets on the phone with reporters to explain what is wrong with how we do our taxes in the United States. Every year he says pretty much the same thing: No other industrialized country asks its citizens to jump through as many hoops to calculate their taxes as ours. It isn’t just lawmakers or the hapless-seeming Internal Revenue Service that is perpetuating the annoyance of tax time, he adds. Instead it is the...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, after winning reelection, pronounced Chicago "the greatest city in America." Run by Democrats for more than eight decades, Chicago should serve as a showplace that reflects the wonderful world of "progressive policies." Public schools are a mess, and the city's finances place their bonds at near junk level. In 2013, the city averaged 36 homicides a month, with the majority of them unsolved. CNN aired a series on Chicago called "Chicagoland," starring the city's dynamic mayor. Presumably, Emanuel thought it would show off the mayor as he tackled the city's problems. Why, if the man his...

I have believed for close to 20 years that the 16th amendment was never properly ratified and that the IRS and all the shenanigans we citizens go through every year is ILLEGAL. For all of my adult life, I have spent 6 months dreading tax season and then 6 months worrying if maybe I had done something wrong when filing them. This year, when our tax preparer (for the first time in my adult life, we actually hired a preparer as I believed that a citizen should NOT have to pay someone else to do their taxes, as it should...

While the impending May 5 election hasn’t quite kept the Legislature in a complete holding pattern so far this year, it can be said Gov. Rick Snyder and lawmakers have been toiling beneath its shadow. Approval or rejection of Proposal 1 by Michigan voters will likely set the stage for much of what happens in state government for the balance of 2015. Meanwhile, with the Legislature out of town for its annual spring break, Michigan Capitol Confidential asked some Lansing political observers about Proposal 1 and other topics. Q. If Proposal 1 — the $2 billion sales tax hike that...

Today is tax day in America. As always, it features a lot of confusion with tax forms, some rushed trips to the post office and a whole lot of heartburn as taxpayers are reminded just how much they paid in taxes over the previous year. Despite the fact that every American constantly is affected by local, state and federal taxes, there is still a large number of Americans who don’t know about taxes. Here are seven things many every American should know about taxes. 1. Taxes Cost a Whole Lot Taxes on all levels consume over a quarter of gross...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, released the following statement marking Tax Day: "Tax day is upon us again. But this year it’s different. This year, on top of the frustrating reminder that Americans are giving too much of their income to fund too many wasteful government programs, families are now being forced to pay the Obamacare tax for the first time. "Instead of government-run healthcare that increases taxes, limits options, and puts the government between patients and their doctors, imagine a free-market system that enables healthcare to be personal, portable and affordable. Instead of a tax code that crushes innovation...

It’s poor-paying jobs, not unemployment, that strains the welfare system. That’s one key finding from a study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, that showed the majority of households receiving government assistance are headed by a working adult.

As six armed officers pour out of two unmarked Ford Explorers on a Long Island City street corner, you can see the confusion on the faces of gawkers and passersby. One woman looks up from her phone and does a sitcom-worthy double-take when she notices their windbreakers, embossed with the word "SHERIFF" in big gold letters, front and back. That might be because few have ever heard of the New York City Sheriff's Office. But those who have know what happens next. And, not surprisingly, when they burst into a corner store near 40th Avenue and 21st Street, the clerk...

So, it’s tax day.And you know what that means: it’s the day we celebrate the redistribution of wealth rather than its creation. It’s the day the government decides how much of what you make belongs to them - to give to somebody else. Or more to the point, it’s the day the ‘have lot’s’ ante up for the benefit of the ‘have gotz’.It should be interesting to see how President–in-waiting Hillary, champion of the proletariat, celebrates the day. She will most likely  emphasize the the income gap between the haves and the have nots because nothing stirs the heart to...

It's mid-April, and Karlyn Bowman - the astute public opinion analyst at the American Enterprise Institute - has noticed something significant. Tax Day "comes and goes without a ripple," she recently wrote. There's not much fuss. Discontent with the income tax has ebbed. To buttress the point, Bowman cited intriguing survey data. A recent Gallup Poll found that only 1 percent of Americans rated taxes the nation's top problem. In a Pew poll, respondents ranked "reforming" the tax system 16th out of 24 problems. Indeed, Gallup reports that roughly half of Americans think their income-tax burden is about right. Of...

With the federal budget debate underway in Washington, both political parties are certainly sparring over different fiscal visions for the country. There is, however, a chance for rare bi-partisan agreement: repealing the federal death tax. This unpopular tax has long had an adverse impact on small, family business owners who want the next generation to continue the family legacy. Currently, the federal government seizes over 40 percent of an individual’s estate when they die. While the President wants to destroy so many of those legacies and raise taxes, Congress has the chance to go in a different direction. Federal lawmakers...

Michigan business owners are running into problems with the state’s new online system for filing sales, use and payroll taxes, and some are worried that if they can’t make timely payments, they will be stuck with fines and interest charges. Asked if the state would waive penalties, Michigan Department of Treasury spokesman Terry Stanton said the “penalty and interest waiver will be accomplished systematically on a case-by-case basis.” The Treasury Department has also changed its stand on mail-in tax payments. Before the system went online, businesses were told the electronic system was mandatory. Now, Treasury is only requiring it for...

Let's take a look at some freebies and deals offered on Tax Day. Pizza Hut is getting creative with their P-2 form. Customers will fill out the P-2 form that asks questions like "how many pizzas did you order in 2014?" and "how many different combinations did you try in 2014?" ....Head over to McDonald's for the ultimate Big Mac deal. Buy one Big Mac or Quarter Pounder on Tax Day and receive a second sandwich for just one penny... Boston Market is offering a free dinner with a purchase of an individual meal.... Staples knows that after customers have...

...Some people are hard up and can’t afford to pay their taxes. But others simply choose not to pay. When traditional enforcement strategies, like charging above-market interest rates on the debt, don’t work, the government uses a number of tools to collect these taxes. But traditional collection methods don’t always work. In a recent study, we used another strategy that got results: publicly shaming tax delinquents. It should be a key part of government efforts to increase the collection of tax debts, and thanks to the Internet and social media, the government has the means to make it even more...