Free Republic

Tyranny by the Numbers: The Government Wants Your Money Any Way It Can Get ItThe government wants your money.It will beg, steal or borrow if necessary, but it wants your money any way it can get it.This is what comes of those $1.2 trillion spending bills: someone’s got to foot the bill for the government’s fiscal insanity, and that “someone” is the U.S. taxpayer.The government’s schemes to swindle, cheat, scam, and generally defraud taxpayers of their hard-earned dollars have run the gamut from wasteful pork barrel legislation, cronyism and graft to asset forfeiture, costly stimulus packages, and a national security...

Wealth taxes are like a specter in search of a host, and an already overtaxed New England state may be the first to succumb. Vermont lawmakers want to tax residents’ unrealized gains, hoping to finally break the barrier that’s kept them from draining asset values year after year. The state’s top tax legislator has spent recent weeks pushing bills that would dial up taxes on high earners. The biggest reach is a proposal to tax the paper gains from assets above $10 million. The plan would slap Vermont’s 8.75% top income-tax rate on half of those gains. That means a...

A new bill making its way through the legislature in Columbus could change how much you bring home on payday. And lawmakers are hopeful it could bring a new frontier to Ohio. The proposed bill would slowly cut state income tax before completely getting rid of it in 2030. The lawmakers who introduced the bill told Dayton 24/7 Now reporter Malena Brown it's worked in many other states and can work in the Buckeye State. Those states include Texas, Florida, Nevada and Tennessee. The Volunteer State axed its income tax three years ago. Poll reveals dissatisfaction and mistrust in government...

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) plans to roll out a free way to file federal taxes, much to the chagrin of tax preparation firm TurboTax. The IRS is launching a pilot plan, known as Direct File, that will offer a free way to submit taxes for U.S. workers. In December, the agency published its plans for an in-house filing system that taxpayers can use to submit their federal tax returns at no cost. Residents of 12 states that meet certain income criteria will be able to try the new service. To qualify, filers need to opt for the standard deduction...

In the days ahead, it should be borne in mind that in 1923 the federal government, with the exception of war widows, did not pay the personal living expenses of non-federal persons and their families. People back then worked to get the things and services they desired, and America was the greatest nation on Earth thanks to their efforts. WHY WE MUST FIGHT I believe the Democrats did not raise the maximum debt authorization amount when they controlled the House, Senate and White House (and had the absolute ability to do so) because they wanted to play their previously succcessful...

@POTUS Look, I think you should be able to be a billionaire if you can earn it, but just pay your fair share. I think you ought to pay a minimum tax of 25%. It’s about basic fairness. @ElonMusk Replying to @POTUS I paid 53% taxes on my Tesla stock options (40% Federal & 13% state), so I must be lifting the average! I also paid more income tax than anyone ever in the history of Earth for 2021 and will do that again in 2022.

Republicans in the House of Representatives will vote on a bill that would abolish the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), eliminate the national income tax, and replace it with a national consumption tax. Fox News Digital has learned that the House will be voting on Georgia Republican Rep. Buddy Carter's reintroduced Fair Tax Act that aims to reel in the IRS and remove the national income tax, as well as other taxes, and replace them with a single consumption tax. The vote on the bill was made as part of the deal between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and members of...

The final act of the Democrat majority on the House Ways and Means Committee was to make public several years of Donald Trump’s tax returns, which the Committee obtained after a prolonged legal battle. The tax returns confirmed that, despite being one of the richest people in America, Donald Trump paid very little in federal income tax. In fact, in at least one year he paid under a thousand dollars.Trump’s success in minimizing his tax liability without ever being audited is surprising only to those who think IRS audits are mainly used to catch rich “tax cheats.” According to data...

WASHINGTON — Before Donald Trump became president and after, his exceedingly complex and voluminous tax returns came under regular scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service. The number of agents assigned to the audit team: one. After Trump left office, the IRS said it was beefing up the audit team, to three. The tax agency itself acknowledged that it was still overwhelmed by the complexity of Trump’s finances and the resistance mounted by the former president and his sophisticated army of accountants and lawyers, which included a former IRS chief counsel and raised questions early last year about why even three...

If ordinary taxpayers fail to file returns, congressional Democrats hire 87,000 new IRS agents to punish them. Yet if the IRS destroys 30 million “tax information” returns without even processing, those Democrats actively block attempts to demand an explanation. Apparently, Democrats think transparency is unnecessary for tax collectors for the welfare state. For those who missed the original story, some background is in order, especially to understand how astonishingly brazen the Democrats are in refusing to hold the IRS accountable. On May 22, the treasury inspector general for tax administration reported that the IRS deliberately destroyed 30 million returns in...

PHOENIX — Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake wants Arizona to join nine other states in not having an income tax — if she can make it work.“I want to eventually get rid of the income tax if we can do that,” Lake told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show on Thursday. “I haven’t made that promise because I don’t want to make a promise that I can’t keep.“But I want to get it down to as close to zero as possible so we can compete with some of these other states.”Lake didn’t detail how she’d make it a...

The IRS is underfunded and understaffed, and had to deal with new pandemic responsibilities. The result has been a massive backlog of unprocessed tax returns, many of them on paper. A photo from the agency's Austin facility shows just how much paper the IRS is dealing with. The IRS is still full of paper. The agency has been contending with a historic backlog of unprocessed tax returns amidst new pandemic responsibilities, understaffing, and underfunding. The result: A massive build-up of unprocessed tax returns, many of which belong to Americans who have been waiting on refund checks. Natasha Sarin, a tax...

Rhode Island Democrats want to punish the parents of children who refused to submit to the COVID vaccine mandates. If passed, the bill will financially cripple individuals by doubling their personal income tax and requiring them to pay a monthly fine of $50. State Senator Samuel Bell is the lead legislator backing the bill, which mandates all Rhode Island residents, workers, and taxpayers receive a COVID-19 vaccine as well as any subsequent boosters that the state’s director of the department of health shall require. The bill’s text can be read here. (See link) The law will apply to every person...

Went from receiving over $4K in tax refunds to paying over $4k in one year. I knew I was going to take a hit, but didn't expect quite the doozy! What has been your experience this tax season?

Should Income Tax Be Paid on Social Security?

For several years I have advocated a Shallow Exponent Flat Tax. Instead of 4 or 5 tiers, there would be only ONE tier that we all face. But the more money you make, your burden goes up slightly higher than as a flat percentage. The tax would look something like: Tax = 10% X {[Income]^1.05} The exponent could be set by congress every 10 years or during wartime. The flat exponent perhaps should be on a longer timeframe for revisiting, because 10% is very easy to do in your head. As you go up higher in income, your tax burden...

Incredibly, in 2020, approximately 61% of Americans paid no federal income taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center. Therefore, approximately 39% of Americans paid all federal income taxes. They are rewarded for this staggering largess by being told they need to "pay their fair share." Their "fair share," one might logically surmise, would be around 39% of the federal income taxes paid, not 100%. The top 20% of income earners pay about 67% of federal taxes. "Progressive," you know. They should be lauded as pillars of the community, as not only the most productive, but the most charitable folks in...

Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-NY) said Tuesday he would not support the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill if Democrats would not increase the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, which primarily benefits wealthy Democrat states.

The highest earners paid a greater share of income taxes after the Republicans’ 2017 tax cuts than they paid after the Democrats’ 2013 tax increase.In a speech last week introducing his proposed $6 trillion 2022 budget, President Biden claimed that the benefits of the Republican Party’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act “went to the wealthiest 1% of America.” It’s not the first time he’s made this claim. In his first speech to a joint session of Congress, Biden described the TCJA as a “huge windfall” for “those at the very top.” To right that wrong, he proposes getting rid of...

A high-level U.N. panel .. made a series of sweeping recommendations aimed at reforming the global financial system, which includes the implementation of an international corporate tax rate. The High-Level Panel for International Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity for Achieving the 2030 Agenda (FACTI) said a 20% to 30% global corporate tax on profits would “help limit incentives against profit shifting, tax competition and a race to the bottom.” The panel recommends the creation of a body that collects and disseminates data about corporate profits, where the assets of multinational corporations are located, as well as which entities own them,...