Free Republic

There’s something about eating a hot dog at a baseball game that makes those tubes of meat hit different, and the Brewers recently took advantage by launching a new promotion that lets fans get a free one at every contest they attend. However, it was greeted with some backlash after people who signed up discovered they still had to pay sales tax on each purchase.

Legislation Reversing $600 Threshold for Reporting Payments to IRS Filed by U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty April 11, 2025 Tom Pappert Bill Hagerty U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) filed legislation on Thursday to reverse the decision to require third-party payment processors to report transfers more than $600 to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Hagerty called the three-year-old policy an “egregious and unwarranted overreach” into citizens’ privacy. Hagerty introduced the Stop the Nosy Obsession with Online Payments (SNOOP) Act, which his office said would remove the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code created by former President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan (ARP),...

Wagoner County residents will be voting February 11th on a sales tax that would pay off a $13.5 million settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit involving the jail. That, according to a growing number of concerned residents and business owners, is only one of the more visible symptoms of systemic mismanagement and possible corruption in county government. [Hear the KRMG In Depth Report on a possible conflict of interest in Wagoner County HERE] Recently, business owner Rebecca Olson announced plans to build a new business complex in downtown Wagoner (related story here). As part of that process, she asked the...

Los Angeles County voters have chosen to pass Measure A, which will raise sales taxes by a quarter of a percent to fund homeless services. The referendum, which seemed in doubt until recently, passed with 57% support. CalMatters.org reported (original emphasis): Measure A, which is leading in the ballots counted thus far, would end the county’s existing quarter-cent sales tax for homelessness that was scheduled to expire in 2027 and replace it with a half-cent tax that would begin immediately and continue in perpetuity. That new tax is expected to raise $1 billion a year, and since it has no...

Voters in Los Angeles are expressing skepticism of Measure A, a ballot initiative that would raise sales taxes in the county to provide more services to the homeless, expanding Measure H, which was passed by referendum in 2017. Measure H raised sales taxes by a quarter of a percent — and the homeless population kept rising. That rise was driven by a variety of factors, but access to generous services — like hotel rooms — may have been one of them. While opinion polls suggest that support for Measure A is near 50%, that is far lower than the nearly...

Former President Donald Trump is putting American workers first— unlike the incumbent leader in the White House now. Trump discussed the proposal of eliminating taxes on servers' tips in his pitch for a new policy position that could inch him closer to victory in November. The former president introduced the idea during a rally in Nevada over the weekend where many Americans work at hotels, restaurants, and in the entertainment business and rely on tips to make ends meet. “This is the first time I've said this and for those hotel workers and people that get tips, you're going to...

Key Points -Donald Trump discussed the idea of imposing an “all tariff policy” that would ultimately enable the U.S. to get rid of the income tax, sources told CNBC. -He also talked about using tariffs to leverage negotiating power over bad actors, according to another source in the room. - Trump championed tariffs during his first term in the White House.Donald Trump on Thursday brought up the idea of imposing an “all tariff policy” that would ultimately enable the U.S. to get rid of the income tax, sources in a private meeting with the Republican presidential candidate told CNBC. Trump,...

So why am I telling this story? Because there is a tax benefit if you have an accident that is a total loss, and you receive an insurance payout for said loss. It’s called a “sales tax affidavit” and is available by law in all 50 states. There are some variations depending on the state, the model year of the vehicle, damage assessment, etc., but it is still the law of the land.

12 year old goes Shopping Alone for First Time!

Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and a likely 2024 candidate for president, delivered on an earlier promise Wednesday when he said new gas stoves — in fact, all gas appliances — should be exempt from his state’s sales tax. DeSantis rolled out the first budget of his second term, and among the proposed breaks for taxpayers is a $7 million permanent exemption on appliances fueled by combustible gas, such as natural gas propane, butane, liquefied petroleum gas and syngas. The move comes as the debate over gas stoves has heated up in recent weeks. In an interview with Bloomberg...

BOISE, Idaho — A House committee on Friday introduced sweeping tax legislation that would raise Idaho’s sales tax to the highest in the nation while eliminating most property taxes on owner-occupied homes. The House Revenue and Taxation Committee approved a possible hearing on the bill that also uses some of the increased sales tax money to raise the grocery sales tax credit from $100 to $175. The move will bump Idaho’s sales tax from 6% to 7.85%, the highest in the nation, according to the nonprofit Tax Foundation group that analyzes tax policy. California currently has the highest sales tax...

The state of Arkansas embarked on its biggest highway construction program ever undertaken by the Arkansas Department of Transportation, and the people couldn't be more excited. "Arkansas is a small state with a population of just three million, but this project touches every corner of the state, with a total of 36 projects in 19 corridors," said Keli Wylie, administrator of the CAP Program and alternative project delivery administrator. The goals of the Connecting Arkansas Program include improving transportation connections between cities; increasing capacity by widening highways to four or more lanes; improving safety; and easing congestion. Supplementary aims of...

The Louisiana Legislature voted overwhelmingly Thursday to move approximately $300 million annually from a fund that pays for higher education and health care to a fund that pays for large transportation projects. Supporters have said the spending will not only improve the state’s infrastructure system, but that it will also create construction jobs. Critics are concerned the proposal would exacerbate an already expected budget deficit in July 2025 affecting state universities, hospitals and other health care programs. Gov. John Bel Edwards needs to sign the legislation for it to become law. Edwards hasn’t decided if he approves of the bill...

Nowadays, the government needs more than gasoline taxes to fund its vast mission to expand, replace and preserve transportation routes in Washington state. Legislators have drawn up a menu of 33 tax and fee increases under the proposed 16-year Forward Washington plan, updated last week by Senate Transportation Committee Chair Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens. That way, perhaps no single cost will provoke enough public fury to torpedo the plan. “Nobody likes to be taxed, but we also want to make this fair as we spread it across different sectors,” Hobbs said Friday. His approach holds direct gas-tax hikes to 9.8...

Washington solidifies goal to end sale of new gas-powered cars by 2030 A bill to promote hydrogen-powered vehicles is now a state law. “Giving residents more access to purchase greener vehicles is one more way we can work together to lower greenhouse gas impacts across the state,” Gov. Inslee said, as he signed the bill. Senator Brad Hawkins sponsored the bill, SB 5000, which creates an eight-year statewide pilot project for the reduction of sales tax on purchases of fuel-cell electric vehicles. “It’s had a long journey through five different committees, but it’s definitely generated a great deal of conversation...

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL — Western Springs and Hinsdale appeared to have found agreement on the style of the new pedestrian bridge over Interstate 294. This week, the Western Springs Village Board received more detailed numbers on the village's cost of maintenance for the bridge, which would be next to 47th Street. Western Springs was told a couple of months ago that its costs would amount up to $250,000 in 25 years to repaint the entire bridge with a painted finish, plus $60,000 for picket-style fencing. But Illinois Tollway official Nicole Nutter told the Western Springs Village Board on Monday that...

On Election Day, Americans will cast their vote for President of the United States. While easily the most high-profile thing on the ballot, this is not the only important decision voters will be making. State politicians -- rather than reform government to cost less -- are angling for higher taxes. In Arkansas, for example, voters will be asked if they want to write a permanent sales tax increase into the state constitution. If “YES” wins the vote, the people of Arkansas will see their state sales taxes hiked by about 9%, taking roughly $300 million a year away from residents...

Is it better to live in a state with no income tax? It’s a great question considering we already have to set aside a portion of our paychecks for the federal government. The case for removing an individual income tax typically goes like this: states that don’t dip directly into their residents’ pay become beacons for growth. They’re better at creating jobs and keeping a core of young, educated workers from moving to other states. The American Legislative Exchange Council reports that over the past decade the nine states without a personal income tax have consistently outperformed – on GDP...

Three years after the colossal failure of demonetisation the Narendra Modi government has embarked on a similar venture, the FASTag programme, this time targeting road users across the country. But just a day before the November 30 deadline, by which date all vehicles plying the highways would have been mandatorily required to affix an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag on their vehicles, the government blinked. And, like demonetisation, the design of this scheme also reflects a simpleton’s naivete. The announcement that those without the tag would be charged double the tariff at the toll gates set off a firestorm of...

EBay Inc., the online auction company with 180 million buyers around the world, earned $34 million of profit in Florida in 2014, according to state auditors. At Florida’s official corporate income tax rate of 5.5 percent, eBay should have paid more than $1.8 million in state taxes -- enough money to hire 40 new teachers. But records show eBay actually paid $18,810 -- not even enough to hire one. It’s not an isolated example. Auditors say Sanofi Pasteur Inc., one of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturers, earned an estimated $55 million of profits in Florida between 2008 and 2013 --...