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To equally incentivize savers regardless of what they earn, Biden proposes a credit of approximately 26% to replace the deduction savers get for putting money in a 401(k) plan, according to the Tax Policy Center’s analysis. “The biggest thing that stands out to me, by contrast to other proposals, is that it limits the benefit for the highest earners and gives the benefit to the lowest earners,” said Jeffrey Levine, CPA and director of advanced planning at Buckingham Wealth Partners in Long Island, New York. “It’s a true redistribution of wealth proposal,” he said.

Renowned economic advisor to late President Ronald Reagan Art Laffer remains very optimistic about a rapid economic recovery, which flies right in the face of the apocalyptic narratives put out by the media. Laffer concluded that once big states “get pro-growth, once they get the restrictions removed because the disease incidence is less, you’re going to get that economy continuing to boom. I think we’re perfectly poised for a very, very rapid, continued recovery in this economy. “I am very optimistic about the country and the economy,” Laffer said.

Round about a month ago, I took a closer look at Joe Biden’s retirement-related policy proposals, or, more specifically, those of the “Unity Task Force,” which had just released its final document. One of the items in that document and on the Biden campaign website is a promise to “equalize the network of retirement saving tax breaks” — a proposal that generally translates to eliminating the tax advantages currently enjoyed by retirement savings accounts and replacing them with a “credit” or “match.” The idea is that the tax advantages, or “tax expenditures,” as they’re called, disproportionately accrue to relatively higher...

With the trajectory of the U.S. economy uncertain, Americans saved a record portion of their monthly income in April. The savings rate for that month hit an all-time high of 33.5 percent, according to USA Today, citing Commerce Department data. In the months after, that rate fell, but the June rate of 19.5 percent remained nearly triple the normal rate. The average monthly rate of savings was 7.5 percent of income before the pandemic began. “We’ve never had this much savings,” Tom Porcelli, chief economist of RBC Capital Markets, told the newspaper. “It’s uncharted territory.” An analysis by Moody’s Analytics...

As of June, the average retired worker was bringing home $1,514 a month from Social Security. This works out to all ost $18,200 a year. All things considered, this isn't very much -- but for 62% of retired workers receiving a Social Security benefit, their monthly payout will account for at least half of their income. The critical role Social Security plays during retirement for so many elderly Americans demonstrates just how important your claiming decision can be. Claiming age plays a big role in determining your Social Security payout Although there are more than a half-dozen factors that can...

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will speak Thursday during a virtual version of the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole, Wyoming, conference. He is expected to outline what could be the central bank’s most active efforts ever to spur inflation back to a healthy level. “Average inflation” targeting means the Fed will allow inflation to run higher than normal for a period of time. The effort will be the reverse of former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker’s rate hikes instituted to quash inflation in the 1980s. History will remember Paul Volcker and Jerome Powell as standing on the opposite ends of the inflation canyon,...

More and more Americans are being given the option to retire early due to the economic setbacks of the coronavirus pandemic, FOX Business’ Gerri Willis told “FOX News Rundown.” “This is fascinating. These numbers are sky-high,” she said on the daily podcast. “We didn't really understand the number of people that were being offered early retirement. And it's still not entirely clear. But what is clear is that there is a greater proportion of people going into retirement than we thought.” Willis said younger Americans in their 40s and 50s are being offered early retirement since so many industries like...

PHOENIX - The Arizona Supreme Court on August 19 rejected a lower court ruling and restored a citizen’s initiative that would raise taxes on the wealthy to help boost education funding to the ballot. The unanimous ruling is a major victory for proponents of the initiative who turned in signatures from more than 400,000 voters to qualify it for the ballot. The Secretary of State’s office has not yet completed its review of those signatures to determine if it will go before voters on November 3.

A pack of Democratic lawmakers in California are proposing a wealth tax for the state's richest citizens, forcing them to pay more essentially just for owning a lot of stuff. They also, amazingly, want the tax to follow Californians who flee the state in response, attempting to make them continue paying taxes on wealth that's not even in the state. Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D–Oakland) is blunt about his reasons for introducing the California Wealth Tax (A.B. 2088). Rich people have money. He wants more of it to pay for and expand state services. And that's it. "The California Wealth Tax...

The fastest economic recovery in U.S. history Under President Trump, America built the strongest economy the world has ever seen. The stock market broke records, the unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level in half a century, and income inequality fell as blue-collar jobs returned to our country. Then, as a pandemic from China spread across the globe, President Trump made the difficult but necessary decision to shut the economy down to slow the spread of COVID-19. 🎬 President Trump: We are witnessing the fastest recovery in history! Now, as we safely reopen, our economy is surging back faster than...

A majority of registered U.S. voters support President Trump's recent enactment of a payroll tax cut, according to a new Just the News Daily Poll with Scott Rasmussen. Trump earlier this month announced the cut via executive order, a measure the president took as negotiations stalled between Republicans and Democrats over a new coronavirus relief package. Asked whether they either "favor or oppose cutting the payroll taxes for all workers and businesses," 26% of registered voters responded that they "strongly" favored it, while 26% said they "somewhat" favored it. Slightly over a third of respondents were opposed to the measure,...

One of the great puzzles of politics is why so many are against President Trump's idea of cutting payroll taxes. The puzzle starts from the fact that this is simply the standard Keynesian thing to do to boost demand in a recession, and as President Richard Nixon said more than a generation ago, "We are all Keynesians now." The vehement reaction that has greeted this executive order to defer certain payroll tax obligations (though Trump wants to forgive them permanently if he wins the election) is over the top. Maybe an executive order isn't quite the way to do it,...

President Trump opened the door this week to a capital gains tax cut, saying he's "seriously" considering it as a way to help the U.S. economy recover from coronavirus-induced recession. “We’re looking at also considering a capital gains tax cut, which would create a lot more jobs,” Trump said Monday during White House press briefing. “So we're looking very seriously at a capital gains tax cut and also at an income tax cut for middle-income families." Trump cannot use executive authority to slash the 20% long-term capital gains rate without Congress, but he could try to bypass Congress and lower...

FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early), a flourishing lifestyle movement, has crept its way into mainstream culture throughout the past decade. As we've seen the pandemic spark a renewed push for people to create more autonomy in their lives, there is continued debate about the most sensible way to invest if FIRE is your goal. Real estate proponents advocate for potentially robust monthly cash flow, price appreciation, and tax advantages, whereas index fund adherents cite minimal expenses, a lack of constant oversight, and efficient trading as reasons to invest. In reality, there are benefits to both strategies, which might lead you...

Talks between the White House and congressional Democrats have hit several snags, and while the negotiations are continuing, Democrats are refusing to budge on a number of issues. Democrats have rejected a White House offer to extend the special $600/week unemployment benefit by one week to give lawmakers some breathing room to negotiate a much larger aid package that would include assistance to states and local governments as well as an extension of the moratorium on evictions. But Democrats have dug in their heels about wanting all or nothing. Republicans are refusing to walk the plank and give their political...

The Department of Energy reached a settlement Thursday to recover $200 million in taxpayer funds from a loan the Obama administration distributed in 2011 to finance a $1 billion solar power plant that was deemed obsolete before it could officially go online. The settlement between DOE and Tonopah Solar Energy must now be approved by a bankruptcy court, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported. The DOE provided a $737 million loan to Tonopah in September 2011 for the purposes of financing the $1.1 billion Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project in Nevada. The agency disbursed funds for the plant in 2011 and...

I celebrated this New Year’s Eve in Ghana, Africa. I’d grown up poor with a mom addicted to drugs but started this decade far from the South Side of Chicago and amongst some of the most “elite” black people in the world. With me was one of my best friends, Nate, an executive for one of the largest technology companies in the world and former Obama administration attorney; his brother-in-law, a neurosurgeon who graduated from Harvard; a billionaire whose house party we all attended to ring in 2020; and many Hollywood celebrities, including Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker. This...

President Donald Trump has signaled to Hill Republicans that he will not sign a new coronavirus stimulus package without the inclusion of a payroll tax cut, according to three sources close to the issue. This new red line from the White House serves to illustrate the challenges that lay ahead in negotiating another Covid-19 relief package. GOP and Democratic congressional leaders are trillions of dollars apart in funding goals for the package, as well as how those funds will be spent. Republicans have pushed for an overhaul to liability laws, which Democrats are skittish of, and Democrats are insisting on...

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is pushing for a repeal of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap in the next round of coronavirus relief — giving a tax cut to the wealthiest 1% of taxpayers, especially in “blue” states. In his landmark tax reform law, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, President Donald Trump and the Republicans offset some of the revenue losses from low tax rates by restricting deductions. The law capped the SALT deduction at $10,000. Previously, those taxpayers wealthy enough to file a list of itemized deductions could count all of the...

Video at link. (CNSNews.com) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) said in her press briefing on Thursday that “a trillion dollars” is “an interesting starting point” to talk about another spending bill, but indicated that she wants more than that. “What doesn't measure up is: ‘Oh, it can only be a trillion dollars,’” Pelosi said. “No, we need a trillion dollars for state and local,” she said. “We need another trillion dollars, another trillion dollars for Unemployment Insurance and direct payments. Something like that, but probably not as much for the testing, tracing, treatment, etcetera. “So, a trillion dollars is:...