Free Republic

The French government is considering extending the television licence fee to include computer screen owners to boost revenues for public-sector broadcasting operations, the culture minister said on Saturday. President François Hollande's Socialist government aims to raise an extra €7.5bn (£6bn) this year through tax rises included in an amended budget bill to be unveiled next week. "Is it necessary to extend the fee to [computer] screens when you do not have a television? It is a question we're asking ourselves, but obviously it would be a fee per household and you would not have to pay an [additional] fee if...

The French aided the Americans in their revolution against their British oppressors. Now Benoît Pous-Bertran de Balanda, the descendant of a French general who fought for the Americans, is trying to help his wealthy countrymen escape what he calls the tyranny of a new Socialist government primed to severely tax the rich. And France’s loss could be New York’s gain. Mr. Pous-Bertran de Balanda, 30, is a broker for wealthy French clients looking to buy apartments in Manhattan. With the election of the Socialist François Hollande as president this month, the wealthy in France are suddenly scrambling for places to...

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) said he welcomed Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed 1-cent sales tax hike as “a start,” but feared it wouldn’t be enough to meet the government’s needs. “I’m glad the governor has come around to saying publicly what we’ve known all along--that people aren’t doing enough to support us here at the state,” Perata said. “But we have to take even bolder steps to ensure we have sufficient resources to fund our programs.” Perata said that the Democratic caucus was “looking at the vast hoard of money stashed away in savings accounts, mutual funds, and...

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett will present an alternative personal income tax plan to Maryland lawmakers today that would tax the state's highest earners at a rate one percentage point lower than Gov. Martin O'Malley has proposed. Lawmakers from Montgomery have voiced concern that O'Malley's proposal to redistribute the tax burden to Maryland's most affluent residents would affect Montgomery more than any other jurisdiction and threaten the economic interests of the state's largest and wealthiest county.... Under Leggett's alternative, single filers reporting taxable income above $500,000 and joint filers reporting a combined taxable income above $1 million would be taxed...

DENVER - 9News has learned that 43 states have joined together in a coalition to collect sales tax on all Internet purchases. You already pay sales tax when you go online to buy from an established business like Eddie Bauer or Wal-Mart. But a lot of small Internet businesses and individual transactions float under the radar.

WITH April 15, comes the perennial debate over the fairness of the tax burden. Liberals say the rich pay too little; conservatives argue that the rich get soaked. Conservatives often cite these statistics: the top 5 percent of taxpayers pay 57 percent of federal income taxes, the top 1 percent 36 percent, and the bottom 80 percent a trifling 17 percent. But this argument ignores the payroll tax, which finances Social Security, as well as excise taxes on things like liquor or tobacco. These take their biggest bite, proportionally, from lower-income Americans. Income tax will account this year for 42...