CALIFORNIA -- Proposed Tax and Fee Increases By Subject (unfreakingbelievable)

CAL TAX DOT ORG ^ | unknown date | staff

[FreedomCalls]

George Harrison's old song about the taxman appears prescient.

Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
'Cause I'm the taxman
Yeah, I'm the taxman

Should five percent appear too small
Be thankful I don't take it all
'Cause I'm the taxman
Yeah, I'm the taxman

If you drive a car I'll tax the street
If you try to sit I'll tax your seat
If you get too cold I'll tax the heat
If you take a walk I'll tax your feet

'Cause I'm the taxman
Yeah, I'm the taxman

Don't ask me what I want it for
If you don't want to pay some more
'Cause I'm the taxman
Yeah, I'm the taxman

Now my advise for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes

'Cause I'm the taxman
Yeah, I'm the taxman
And you're working for no one, but me

[FreedomCalls]

How about we impose a $10,000 tax on all new bills introduced in a legislative session? The fee would have to be paid individually out of personal funds by the legislator sponsoring the bill and would be levied on each co-sponsor as well. It would have to be re-paid each time the bill moved forward through the process of committee hearings and all. The tax would be waived if the bill reduced spending and would be tripled if it called for an increase in spending. All other legislation (new state insect, declaration of state pickle week, etc) would be taxed at the standard rate. Each word in a bill would have an additional $5 per word tax to make economy of thought and expression a virtue (compare the number of words in the whole of the Constitution to the number of words in any of the above mentioned bills).

[Munson]

I want to see projections that would eliminate any new governmental program proposed after 1998. I would like to see the 1998 budget with costs allowed for inflation in the next state budget. Maintain our standard of living, spend less and cut government.

[Spyder]

Yes, I remember that - the anti-Jerry Brown sticker was specifically meant to make fun of the mantra ;-)

[MissAmericanPie]

Move to Texas and let's close our borders and leave the Union. We have oil, ports, farm/ranch land, industry, high tech, our own airforce, it'll be fun.

[anymouse]

Every time I entertain the idea of moving back to Kalifornia, you guys remind me of why I left. :)

[WRhine]

california won't allow new off-shore oil drilling. they could run the public schools, colleges and universities with taxes from oil.

That's only because the Communists that run the state think they can keep on robbing Peter to pay off Freeloader Paul FOREVER. They can't and CA will allow off-shore oil drilling when their financial crisis hits the sufficient pain level to motivate the intelligent course of action...if only out of survival, which is about what it would take. Hard times has a way of getting people to think rationally.

[2nd_Amendment_Defender]

I hear the sound of a toilet flushing and it is California going down the commode. I got out of there in 2002 and haven't ever even considered going back. The state is just over run with socialists.

What can you do if most of the people vote Democrat or don't vote at all? The people who don't vote or vote for socialists are deserving what they get.

Now that I have moved I can buy a rifle like this which makes me very happy.

[Myrddin]

I was born and raised in California too. I took my 6 figure salary to Idaho. Like you, my work is all over the country. I picked a nice house in a small town just north of Pocatello. It's 7 miles to the airport, but it takes a puddle jumper down to Salt Lake City for most flights. Sometimes it is cheaper to make the 172 mile trek by car to Salt Lake City for the cheaper air fare. I'm a mile from the central office, so my DSL runs at max rate. Fallback to cable modem or wireless Ethernet (T1 bidirectional rates).

Idaho has had hard times in the tax department too. The consequence is that we are going face a 1% increase in sales tax to 6% to compensate. Personal income tax tops out at 7.8% for everything over 40,000. My residential property tax is steep at around $3,000 on a $179,000 house. BTW, $179,000 buys 3900 sq ft on 1/3 acre in a very nice neighborhood.

The list of new tax proposals in breathtaking. The one that caught my eye was the local income tax. A city will be allowed to levy up to 8%. The county up to 2%. You could conceivably lose another 10% of your income.

The push for state mandated socialized medicine is going to be very destructive for businesses. It will probably be the straw that breaks the camel's back for small businesses that are barely surviving in the current market.

I was reading through this thread and sharing the tax proposals with my wife. More than ever, she is comforted that we made the right decision to leave California in 2000. Idaho has its share of problems, but they are totally insignificant compared to what has transpired in Calfornia since left.

I moved around the U.S. quite a bit when I was growing up. Watching snow fall was always intriguing to me as a California native. Our total annual precipation in the Pocatello area is around 15 inches...just like San Diego, CA. Summers vary between 86 and 103 degrees with no annoying humidity. My primary annoyance is having to drive 46 miles north to Idaho Falls to indulge in a Barnes & Noble bookstore. Online purchases from Amazon can fill the void if you know exactly what you want, but its not quite like shopping in person.

We don't have silly firearm regulations either. Buy it and take it home the same day. A CCW requires the same questions to be answered as any form 4473, a set of fingerprints, a $56 check and 90 days wait while the FBI does the background check. The local outdoor range has a club house, covered shooting bays, special concrete support bays for bench rest shooters, a full set of silhouette critters and special rails at 50 yard intervals and a total distance of 1000 yards. It costs $35 per year for unlimited use for the whole family. Class III is Ok in Idaho too.

[AnimalLover]

REVOLUTION? Maybe that's why they want to take the
guns away from everyone.

Maybe we should plan a "California Tea Party"!

[AnimalLover]

I believe you missed one other tax item, Bill AB 2065. I had
it book marked but, it is no longer there. (Page Not Available) Fortunately, I had saved it in My Documents so
here it is. Happy reading!

Posted on Sun, Oct. 13, 2002

Mark Schwanhausser: State's new real estate law mugs taxpayers

By Mark Schwanhausser
Mercury News

Getting a big tax refund is one of the more benign mistakes you can
make with your money. Although you're giving the government an
interest-free loan, psychologically it's worth it to avoid straining
to pay April 15. For countless taxpayers, it's an effective way to
force themselves to save.
But how would you feel if California demanded that you ``lend'' it
thousands of dollars -- and then charged you higher taxes for your
super-size refund?
That outrage is exactly what will happen to many Californians who
sell real estate next year. Starting Jan. 1, the state will require
that 3 1/3 percent of the entire sales price -- not just the gain --
be withheld on the sale of most vacation homes and investment
properties.
That means that if you sell a $500,000 rental unit, the state will
demand $16,650 in withholding -- even if you make only $1 in gain.
Here's another way to look at it: To owe $16,650 in tax, you would
need to pocket a gain from the sale of nearly $180,000.
Real estate agents, escrow companies and tax preparers are crying
foul. The California Association of Realtors and Spidell's
California Taxletter are negotiating with the Franchise Tax Board to
find wiggle room in the law. Currently, the FTB routinely grants
waivers to non-resident sellers who can prove the withholding will
exceed their ultimate gains. But the FTB says the new law bars it
from extending the same courtesy to residents.
``It's egregious,'' said Kitty Wright, a tax attorney and Cal
State-Hayward professor who contends the state's practice is illegal
and discriminatory. ``To mandate overpayment of tax is something
I've never heard of.''
Critics fear the tax change could have wide repercussions. Sellers
who are thin on equity will be forced to dig into their pockets to
pay the withholding. If they can't, some sales will fall through,
triggering lawsuits. Other sellers will sidestep the withholding by
retitling their property into, say, a partnership that is exempt
from withholding. Others will manipulate their estimated tax
payments to pare their refunds.
Many Californians will pay higher taxes because of these oversize
state refunds, too. Some will be forced to pay the higher federal
Alternative Minimum Tax in the year of the sale. For others, the big
refund will boost their adjusted gross income in the following year,
which could whittle down their deductions and exemptions, expose
more Social Security benefits to taxation, and make them ineligible
for a Roth IRA conversion.
There are some notable exceptions to the new rule, which was
inserted quietly in the omnibus budget bill (AB 2065) approved on
the last day of the legislative session. The withholding will not be
required, for instance, if it's your principal residence, if you
sell at a loss, if it's part of a real estate exchange, or if the
sale is less than $100,000. (In Silicon Valley? Get real.)
Despite those exemptions, the FTB estimates the change will affect
300,000 transactions worth at least $6.8 billion in sales. More
important, it will raise $225 million to help keep the state
running.
I've got no quibble with withholding taxes promptly in our ``pay as
you go'' tax system. That's just a cash-flow timing issue.
But there's a stark difference with this real estate withholding. In
many -- if not most cases -- the state will withhold for taxes you
won't owe.
``It's pay as you go, not overpay as you go,'' said Spidell's
California Taxletter editor Lynn Freer, who was livid when she heard
Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, describe the
overpayments as a loan. ``It's morally wrong.''
It's also no way to fix a broken budget. In essence, the state will
mug a batch of taxpayers in 2003, then mug a second set in 2004 to
repay the earlier victims. As soon as someone with a conscience
changes the law, the state will have to scrape up $225 million from
somewhere else.
``On the one hand you have the Legislature saying we have to go
after Enron and accountants for bogus accounting,'' Freer said. ``On
the other hand, they're balancing our budget by collecting tax
revenue from people who don't owe it. . . . It's smoke-and-mirrors
accounting.''
I lean toward San Jose real estate broker John V. Pinto's take on
it: ``It is a Ponzi scheme.''


The Money Manual appears every other Sunday, or online at
www.siliconvalley .com/mld/siliconvalley/business/
columnists/Mark_Schwanhausser. Contact me at mschwanhausser
@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5543.

© 2001 siliconvalley and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.siliconvalley.com

[heleny]

AB 0992 (Ridley-Thomas) Ammo Tax: 10 cents per Bullet.Imposes a 10 cents-per-bullet tax on ammunition sold to consumers, to fund trauma centers.

AB 0602 (Koretz) New Bullet Tax: 10 Cents a Bullet.Imposes a bullet tax (called a fee) of 10 cents a bullet. Funds are earmarked for trauma centers. Legislative counsel has keyed this bill a majority vote bill.

SB 0035 (Scott) New Firearms Fee: $1 per Transfer.Authorizes the Department of Justice to impose a $1 fee on the purchase or transfer of each firearm.

AB 0050 (Koretz) Rifle Registration Tax of $25.Imposes a registration fee up to $25 for registration of a .50 BMG rifle.

(Most of these are de-facto registration efforts that will cost money, not raise revenue!)

First institute a new fee, next increase the fee. Incremental steps are easier for them to sneak through than a sudden imposition of a new, high fee.

Why can't we require 2/3 legislative majority for fee increases, too? Then we could avoid the legal disputes between "fees" and "taxes."

[FrogMom]

Next it going to be at Tax on taxes

That's in there, it's called a surcharge.

[goldstategop]

The Democrats have been ingenious in trying to squeeze more out of a skinny golden goose. If they push far enough, they may end up killing the source of their spending spree. Now THAT I would call poetic justice.

[Publius6961]

This list confirms my suspicion that the sole purpose of the California Legislature is finding new and creative ways to separate the gainfully employed from their hard-earned cash.

[freedumb2003]

The push for state mandated socialized medicine is going to be very destructive for businesses. It will probably be the straw that breaks the camel's back for small businesses that are barely surviving in the current market.

The push for socialism in general is going to bankrupt all of the USA. For those who think that a big economy can't collapse all at once, look to the USSR.

I appreciate the info about Idaho. I chose Texas because it is central and you can get a great house 5 miles from DFW for about 1/3 to 1/4 of what one costs here in Los Angeles. Also, Texas doesn't have income tax. I spent almost a year in Fort Worth, so I am familiar with the aream and that helps.

Of course, the downside is that Texas is filled with Texans, but that can't be helped... ;)

(Note my soon to be new neighbors -- it's just a joke, folks!)

[Mister Baredog]

This list confirms my suspicion that the sole purpose of the California Legislature is finding new and creative ways to separate the gainfully employed from their hard-earned cash.

Continuing your thought: in order to provide as many benefits as it takes to BUY the votes of the non-taxpaying public, which is getting larger daily. And of course providing "illegal aliens" enough incentives to get them to REGISTER and VOTE for them. What's that? You say illegals can't vote, on the contrary in California they are just another DEMONCRAT interest group. This states voters need only claim citizenship, without verification to be registered. THEY CALL IT THE HONOR SYSTEM, and of course if you challenge this sort of thing you are conveniently "labeled a racist".

[Jhoffa_]

Hey, when it comes to taxes, I am in your corner..

I was being sarcasitc and my post was meant as humor, as I have never heard of this "delinted, cottonseed" whatever it is.

But if it and this tax affects you, then I am concerned about it.

[oceanview]

when you see the media coverage of what is happening when CA defaults, you will change your mind.