Free Republic

Chicago owes former President Donald Trump a million-dollar tax refund but the Cook County State’s Attorney, which is typically focused on handling the city’s crime, will mount an effort to block Trump from receiving his check. The Hill reports that the “Cook County state’s attorney is seeking to block a $1 million tax refund that the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board ruled is owed to former President Trump on his Chicago skyscraper’s 2011 tax bill.” The building was “over-assessed” according to a unanimous vote of Illinois’ state property tax board, but the Cook County States Attorney says the city should...

I wish my last name were Biden. I could do anything and get away with it. Look at Hunter Biden. We had news about a Biden investigation in October 2020 concerning his foreign interest emails with China and a 2019 FBI money laundering probe. Still, the Big Tech companies did all they could to suppress it. Hardly anyone talked about it until Hunter Biden announced the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware opened an investigation into his tax affairs. Biden announced it on December 9, 2020, a month after his daddy won the election. We had Big Tech suppressing the news...

With U.S. debt having soared to all-time highs and massive budget deficits as far as budgeters can see, the progressive refrain is the same: "ensure the wealthy pay their fair share." But a new tax wish list put out by 80 progressive groups shows that the math simply doesn't add up. Even in their wildest dreams of taxing the wealthy, they can't close the current budget deficit, much less pay for their new spending priorities like Medicare For All or the Green New Deal. The progressive soak-the-rich fantasy includes a wealth tax, a higher corporate tax rate, a higher estate...

Following weeks of intense talks involving diplomats from more than 130 countries and jurisdictions, Washington has succeeded in winning international backing for a new global minimum corporate tax framework that, if implemented, would constitute the biggest shakeup in international tax rules in a century.The world took a critical step toward implementing the deal, which involves implementing an international minimum corporate tax rate in exchange for the US sharing the tax spoils from hundreds of the biggest American multinationals. The plan is a critical piece of Biden’s “Build Back Better” strategy, which involves passing trillions of dollars in “infrastructure” spending that...

About 36 million families can expect to receive some extra cash beginning on July 15, when the IRS will start distributing the expanded child tax credit. Eligible families will receive up to $1,800 in cash per child through December, part of the American Rescue Plan that President Biden signed into law in March. The $1.9 trillion relief bill boosted the child tax credit – previously worth up to $2,000 for every child under the age of 17 – to up to $3,600 for every child under the age of 6 and $3,000 for every child ages 6 to 17.

The oldest maxim in politics is “follow the money.” That maxim also applies to electric grids. Following the billions of dollars that have been spent on the Texas grid explains why the state continues to have electricity shortages. On Monday, ERCOT, the state’s troubled grid operator, asked Texans to reduce their electricity use. That request came exactly four months after Texas residents were asked to conserve electricity due to a massive winter storm. Before going further, I’ll give you the punchline: As I explained in these pages in April, about $66 billion was spent on wind and solar in Texas...

Pelosi rejects gas tax to cover infrastructure costs © Greg Nash Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that she opposes an increase in the gas tax as a way to pay for new infrastructure projects, joining other liberals in her caucus in rejecting a potential provision of a nascent public works package being negotiated in the Senate. "I'm not even sure if it's in, but one thing they were going to do was expand the gas tax. I would not be for that," Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. Among the offset provisions floated by a group of bipartisan senators...

With the 2021 Colorado regular legislative session concluded, lawmakers have approved tax and fee increases on Coloradans of up to $617 million annually without voter consent. The new revenues are enough to give every schoolteacher in Colorado a $11,343.65 per year raise. The tax and fee increases amount to an average of $430 per year for a family of four. New and Net Revenue.. This session, 83 bills passed by the legislature would increase state revenue. Senate Legislative Council (SLC) included revenue projections for 45 of these in fiscal notes for each. Some fiscal notes provide an estimated range rather...

Democrat Rep. Thomas Suozzi is exploring a one-time tax on wealthy Americans as Democrats are looking for ways to pay for their partisan wish list while they control Congress. Suozzi (D-NY), who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, told the Hill he is looking into a one-time tax on millionaires, called the “patriot tax.” The tax would be a “one-time surcharge of 2.5 percent on wealth between $50 million and $100 million and a 5 percent tax on wealth above $100 million.” According to Suozzi, the affected Americans would be able to pay the tax over a five-year...

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) issued a strong statement Sunday night saying the high inflation rates that have started to destroy the United States have been caused by the “Democrats’ reckless policies” after Operation Warp Speed helped bring the country back. McCarthy said former President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed had helped stop the country from collapsing under the coronavirus pandemic. He said, throughout the country, there are “retail and restaurants operating at full capacity” along with Americans letting life return to normal while they are “shedding masks at the grocery store and barber shops,” with “kids returning to...

Let’s see if you can find a common theme of what the Colorado State legislature thinks of you and the will of the voters. Voters soundly rejected Prop 112 which would have created large setbacks for oil and gas operations, enough to chase the industry out of Colorado. The legislature’s and governor’s retort was to pass Senate Bill 181, which was even more brutal to Colorado’s oil and gas industry. And yes, the industry is leaving. It’s one of the reasons Colorado’s unemployment is worse than most all other states. Just last November voters passed Prop 117 to end the...

Democrats in the General Assembly have managed to give every explanation imaginable for why you have to pay more — during an economic crisis — for what should have been a top spending priority for Colorado lawmakers over the last decade. They’ve done a fine job at gaslighting the people of Colorado into believing that not only is there no other solution to funding our roads and bridges than Senate Bill 260, but that the shortage of funds we’re experiencing today is indeed your fault. It’s not the only solution, and it is not your fault that our roads and...

President Joe Biden proposed a major concession on paying for an infrastructure bill according to a new report on details of private negotiations between the White House and Senate Republicans. The Washington Post reports that Biden would not raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and instead propose a minimum corporate tax of 15 percent — for companies like Amazon that pay little to nothing in federal taxes.

President Joe Biden has proposed changes to 401(k) retirement savings plans that will have a big impact on the tax break provided to 401(k) participants. If the Biden 401(k) plan were to become law, the tax deduction for contributing to a 401(k) would be replaced with a tax credit. This 401(k) change would likely result in high earners getting less of a tax break on their 401(k) savings and low and middle earners getting a bigger tax benefit.

Gwen Inglis, a national cycling champion, was training on familiar roads when a driver hit and killed her after drifting into the bike lane, Lakewood (Colo.) Police said. Inglis was riding with her husband, Mike, in the Denver suburb around 10 a.m. on Sunday when the Nissan sedan driven by Ryan Montoya, 29, veered into the lane. He remained at the scene. Inglis, 47, was taken to the hospital, where she died of her injuries. Inglis is the reigning 2019 U.S. road race champion in the 45-49 age group and her husband won the national title in the 50-and-over category...

Today, United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, introduced the Restoring the IRS Act of 2021, which would provide the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with the resources it needs to go after wealthy tax cheats and close the tax gap. The bill would rebuild and strengthen the IRS by permanently removing the IRS's base budget from the annual appropriations process and providing $31.5 billion in mandatory annual funding. This funding will allow the IRS to fairly enforce the tax code, modernize its IT systems, and improve taxpayer services. -snip- The bill would also improve...

The U.S. is asking other countries to agree to a 15% global minimum corporate tax, as part of international efforts to dissuade companies from seeking lower taxes outside of their home nations, Bloomberg News reported. “A global corporate minimum tax rate would ensure the global economy thrives based on a more level playing field in the taxation of multinational corporations,” the Treasury Department tweeted.

Biden is seeking higher taxes on real estate transactions with gains of more than $500,000, a target aimed directly at the heart of small real estate investors, family farmers and owner-occupied businesses. In combination with his plans to eliminate step-up basis on the resolution of estates, the Biden tax proposal will greatly increase the cost of farmland and thus food prices, property prices and rental costs in some markets. The strategy on the political chopping block is the so-called like-kind or 1031 exchanges, which allow investors to defer paying taxes on real estate by rolling profits into their next property....

May 17 (UPI) — Almost 40 million American families will begin receiving the new monthly child tax credit payments in less than two months, the federal government announced Monday. The White House said the payments, part of the expanded child tax credit program in President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, will begin on on July 15.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has called for a new carbon tax in a recent social media post, just days after announcing that Tesla would no longer be accepting Bitcoin as payment due to environmental concerns. Breitbart News recently reported that Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated in a tweet that the company has “suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin,” out of worries related to the “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining.