Free Republic

The White House's new health-care proposal promises the "largest middle class tax cut for health care in history," which is a creative way of describing a vast taxpayer-subsidized insurance entitlement. Naturally, the fine print goes on to describe one of the largest tax increases for health care in history, too. This new ObamaCare bargain would for the first time apply the 2.9% Medicare payroll tax to "interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents," so-called passive income that we are told includes capital gains, though the latter wasn't explicitly mentioned in the proposal. This antigrowth investment tax would apply to singles earning...

Taxes: On the eve of President Obama's first State of the Union address, two Democratic congressmen are advising him to extend the Bush tax cuts instead of letting them expire. Now that's a stimulus. We hear that the administration is considering taking a more populist tack as it sails the choppy political waters of 2010. Some of President Obama's plans reportedly include several tax tidbits for the "middle class," including a doubling of the child care tax credit for families below $85,000 in income, and $1.6 billion for child care and a cap on student loan payments. Such transparent populism...

Bonds are a risky venture when inflation is set to explode at any moment. Play it safe. Go for dividends. Even as the Dow sits above 10,000, the public remains justifiably anxious about the state of the economy. The Federal Reserve has worked overtime to convince the public that it has saved the economy from a meltdown, but with unemployment at a 26-year high and the dollar tanking, it's a hard sell. What most people easily understand is that the Fed has produced a monetary time bomb. Since August 2008 the monetary base (bills in circulation plus bank credits at...

The German government's purchase of data stolen from a Liechtenstein bank has reinvigorated longstanding debates about privacy, law enforcement and international relations. Much of the fallout has followed predictable patterns. Some argue that Germany's richest citizens should be brought to justice for failing to comply with the tax laws, while others point out that it is unseemly for a nation to spy on a peaceful neighbor. The conflict between Germany and Liechtenstein also has triggered a broader debate about tax competition and the role of so-called tax havens. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is trying to use...

I don't know when we'll see the next bear market. But like you, I know it's coming ... it's not a matter of "if," but rather a matter of "when." And today I'll tell you how you can prepare your portfolio so you'll not only survive the bear, but also be better off than if it had never happened at all. Siegel says I had the pleasure of hearing one of the world's great investing minds deliver the keynote speech at a Fool investing seminar. Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel is well known for his book Stocks for the Long Run,...

I have an interest in the Federal Budget, being a sort of busmans holiday to my professional duties. I have been following the Congressional Budget Office postings for several years. In the course of a discussion on budget deficits, I decided to look into whether tax cuts do or do not raise tax revenues. The conventional wisdom today is that they don't. It seems to me, after examining the evidence in specific cases, that we have solid evidence to the contrary. This particular case can be traced to specific provisions in a specific piece of legislation, the Jobs and Growth...

Over the years, Peter Lynch has taken some flak for suggesting that investors looking for ideas should open up the fridge and make a list. Some of that flak wasn't entirely fair, because Lynch did caution that this maxim was merely a starting point. In fact, if you open your fridge and cupboards today and make a list of ideas to invest in, you'll do reasonably well. A number of well-known companies such as Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Clorox (NYSE: CLX), Church & Dwight (NYSE: CHD), and Motley Fool Inside Value selection Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) trade at prices that...

3/28/2006 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- A little-known capability here is paying big dividends for warfighters on the ground. Air National Guard F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 332nd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron are using the Theater Airborne Reconnaissance System, or TARS pod, to provide high-quality still imagery to ground commanders to help them achieve their tactical objectives. The TARS pod, mounted on the centerline of the F-16, contains a sophisticated photographic system that records high-resolution images which can be exploited by users on the ground within hours of landing. Because the pod is mounted on the centerline, the aircraft...

This is getting to be a habit, albeit mostly a pleasant one. The government revised its measure of first quarter economic growth again yesterday to 3.8%, up from its previous estimate of 3.5%, which was above its initial estimate of 3.1%. You may recall that the initial estimate inspired a great deal of fretting that the current economic expansion was heading south. But the 3.8% figure -- despite high oil prices -- matches the rate for the fourth quarter of 2004 and means that growth has now averaged close to a 4% annual rate for eight consecutive quarters going back...

China was considering canceling the dividend tax paid by shareholders to liven the laggard stock market. Unidentified sources said that the State Council met last Tuesday and decided to remove the dividend tax beginning June 1. Officials from the central bank and the securities regulator attended the meeting. The securities regulator would hasten its steps in carrying out favorable tax policies for investors, said Shang Fulin, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Analysts think it signals a possibility that the dividend tax might be cancelled. At present, shareholders are levied a 20 percent tax for any dividends received, a...

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the most striking. Blogger Miguel Octavio in Caracas, Venezuela, has suggested the best way for Venezuela to draw some earnings from its Citgo refineries here in the U.S. is to sell shares. Houston-based Citgo has been in the news lately, with Hugo Chavez "threatening" to sell its eight U.S.-based refineries. Chavez says he doesn't get enough money out of them, and the U.S. markets suspect he'd like to sell to more easily cut off oil to the U.S. There are a lot of horse laughs in Houston, of course, given how much money he'd lose...

Already depressed by the nation's huge budget and trade deficits, the U.S. dollar is being undermined by American mutual fund investors: More of them are funneling money into foreign stock funds, a shift that hurts the greenback. • Latimes.com home page • Subscribe to the Los Angeles Times Thanks in large part to the dollar's weakness, returns on foreign shares overall have significantly outpaced U.S. market returns since 2002. Foreign stock mutual funds have gained 12% a year, on average, over the last three years, compared with a 4.9% average annual gain for domestic stock funds, according to Morningstar Inc....

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 - Victory may have a thousand fathers, but if President Bush's triumph this week had a Big Daddy it was indisputably Karl Rove - the seer, strategist and serious student of politics and the presidency that a grateful Mr. Bush himself referred to as the architect of his winning campaign. And with Mr. Bush's re-election, Mr. Rove has not only cemented his reputation as one of the canniest campaign gurus in a generation but has also put himself in position to shape second-term policies that could help realize his longtime goal of consolidating a broad Republican electoral...

The Job Growth and Taxpayer Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA) substantially reduced the individual income tax burden on dividends. It also reduced tax rates on capital gains from the sale of corporate stock. Before JGTRRA, an individual investor in the top federal income tax bracket received after-tax dividends equal to 61.5 percent of his pretax dividends. After-tax capital gains, by comparison, were at least 80 percent of the pretax gain. Proponents of tax relief argued that lowering the dividend tax would raise corporate payout by reducing the cost of paying dividends and that would encourage investment. A new paper...

[Partway down page] Kerry's dividends Sen. John Kerry's campaign Web site has wiped out past information about his record, including a 2002 speech opposing the income tax on dividends. He changed his position after President Bush in January 2003 proposed repeal of the dividends tax. In a speech prepared for delivery to the City Club of Cleveland on Dec. 3, 2002, Kerry said: ''We should attempt to end the double taxation of dividends.'' That position by the prospective Democratic presidential nominee goes back to 1990 during his first Senate re-election campaign in Massachusetts, when he claimed pro-business credentials by saying:...

You may know by now that you'll benefit from a lower tax rate on qualified dividends, thanks to this year's tax cuts. But there are some exceptions to this general rule. As I've previously discussed, not all dividends are created equal. Some may qualify for the lower tax rate, but some may not. It depends on a number of factors. ADVERTISEMENT One of the barriers to a lower dividend tax rate occurs when you loan out your shares of stock to another person who might be selling the stock "short." If you loan out your shares in such a manner,...

The dividend and cap gains tax cuts are nice to have. But they just don't make up for the depressed earnings yields and dividend yields on stocks. More From A. Gary Shilling Does the new tax law make the current rally rational? It would be nice to think so. Signed into law by President George W. Bush on May 28, the legislation reduced the top rates on both dividends and capital gains to 15%. Before, we were paying 38.6% on dividends and 20% on cap gains. That's a nice benefit for investors, but the unfortunate truth is that it falls...

Warren Buffett has drawn criticism in the past for supporting pro-choice causes, but it never affected Berkshire Hathaway's charitable giving—that is, until Cindy Coughlon, a 34-year-old stay-at-home mom in Peoria, Ariz., came along. Now, as a result of her campaign against pro-choice donations, the most powerful man in business has terminated Berkshire's entire contribution program, which distributed nearly $200 million over the past two decades to institutions ranging from schools to groups on either side of the abortion debate. The unusual program—call it a charitable dividend—allowed Berkshire shareholders to designate $18 per share annually for up to three charities of...

I am not surprised to see a sharp recovery on Wall Street following the passage of the Bush tax cut. It should be called "The Investors Tax Relief Act of 2003." I firmly believe that the sharp reduction on capital gains and dividends will, frankly, pay dividends way into the future. Indeed, subscribers to my newsletter have profited handsomely so far. For years investors took a back seat when it came to tax relief. Now investors are getting the breaks they desire under President Bush. Consider: 1. 15% Maximum Rate on Dividends: This is a remarkable tax break, considering that...

First stock options, then earnings guidance, and now taxes on dividends. America's most successful investor has taken positions on key issues that could harm businesses and their shareholders. According to our latest Billionaires List, Warren Buffett is the world's second-richest person. He got that way by being a very savvy investor. However, it seems that the severe bear market, the dozen or so corporate scandals that have taken place in recent years, and the "unfair" distribution of wealth have convinced Mr. Buffett that systemic reforms are required, that corporate managements cannot be trusted and that the double taxation of corporate...