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Mending America’s broken tax code Published: April 13 2009 19:16 | Last updated: April 13 2009 19:16 The approach of tax-filing day on April 15 invariably lowers spirits in the United States. Many taxpayers expect a refund when they have finished their calculations, but even this does little to improve the mood. The system’s surreal complexity is enough to defeat candidates for senior positions in the Treasury, let alone Joe the Plumber. Struggling with it arouses the suspicion that the income tax code is chiefly an instrument of political repression – a reminder of who is in charge. Ceaseless meddling...

MORE than anything else, business needs a predictable environment if it is to create jobs. Changes in the regulatory environment and the tax code make it almost impossible for businesses to make investments. Yet President Obama seems to ignore this reality. Each day's news brings another bold and far-reaching proposal to change the fundamentals of the US economy. And each time he indulges his personal ideology with such a pronouncement, businesses all over the world cut back on their planned investment until the dust settles. Most incredible was the fact that he chose the middle of a deep recession to...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The White House Wednesday announced a new task force headed by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to reform the Byzantine US tax code in the hope of recouping billions in lost revenue. White House budget chief Peter Orszag said Volcker and four other top economists will report their recommendations back to President Barack Obama by December 4, and their review will cover three main areas. "One is tax simplification, the second is closing tax loopholes and reducing tax evasion, and the third is reducing corporate welfare," the director of the Office of Management and Budget told...

“Let's take a look at the top 1 percent, the truly "evil" in the Obama-Pelosi-Reid worldview. According to the IRS, they earn about 20 percent of the income in America, but pay 40 percent of the income tax. The top 5 percent pay 60 percent of the income tax. The top 10 percent pay 70 percent of the income tax.”

For Dale Allee, a second-generation cattle rancher in southern Colorado, the idiom that nothing is certain but death and taxes is now a reality. "I just turned 80 last week. You know what that means? That means I'm not going to be around here very long, and somebody's going to have to pay those taxes," said Allee, who fears federal estate taxes will thwart his plans to pass his 4,200-acre Pueblo County ranch to his children. Land-rich but cash poor, Western ranchers are lobbying Washington to exempt them from the estate tax, which can force heirs to sell their inheritance...

Think that class warfare and mindless anti-business hatred don’t have real-life consequences? Think again: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Much political hay has been made in Congress about “unpatriotic” corporations that move operations abroad. Weatherford International is the latest, taking its headquarters from Houston to Switzerland. The oil services company said that it wants to be closer to its markets. But what it really meant was that it no longer saw the future in the U.S. In a political atmosphere of blaming corporations, it’s no wonder. Halliburton fled to Dubai in 2007. Tyco International, Foster Wheeler and Transocean International all went to Switzerland. As...

Lou Dobbs Tonight -- CNN -- November 14 "They're using identities of American citizens and the IRS is allowing it to happen." Casey Wian: More than 1,300 illegal aliens near Greeley, Colorado, have been using either stolen or phony Social Security numbers to receive at least $2.5 million in tax refunds, according to local law enforcement officials. (unbelievalbe video clip) Chief Jerry Garner, Greeley PD: These folks that are here illegally are victimizing American citizens by stealing their identity. Very, very often they are victimizing American citizens who are Latino. John Cooke, Weld County Sheriff: They're using identities of American...

Housing Numbers Were Skewed, Lehman Says (RTTNews) - Housing starts were biased higher in June due to a change in the building code in New York City, observe the analysts at Lehman Brothers. Starts jumped 9.1% to 1.066 million in June as multi-family construction in the Northeast surged 102.6%. Effective July 1, the 421-a tax incentive program for multi-family construction in NYC will expire, encouraging builders to rush to start construction. This also pushed up permits for multi-family construction in the Northeast, which jumped 73%, as developers rushed to lay foundation after receiving permits. We expect a reversal in multi-family...

SACRAMENTO -- One severely broken part of California's state government is the tax code. It's antiquated and unreliable. Government financing is too heavily dependent on the rich, who have good and bad years, causing roller-coaster tax trauma in the Capitol. And there isn't enough help from the creaky old sales tax. The volatility of the tax system keeps getting worse, making it increasingly difficult for policymakers to plan ahead. New Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) has taken up the cause and is bent on creating an independent blue-ribbon commission to overhaul the tax code. "The economic crisis is national,...

Incoming state Assembly Speaker Karen Bass on Tuesday said one way to solve California's continual budget mess is to revamp the state's tax code, possibly raising income taxes on the wealthy, levying sales taxes on services and closing tax loopholes. In an interview with The Associated Press, the Los Angeles Democrat said she wants a bipartisan panel to examine the code and recommend ways to change it. "The state of California is in a crisis," Bass said. "I want to set up a commission outside of the Legislature that will look at more long-term solutions and evaluate whether the tax...

Tax Policy: The "rebate" side of the economic stimulus package would split the nation about equally between payers and takers. Will we now get a taste of class warfare to come?Leona Helmsley once notoriously proclaimed that "only the little people pay taxes." Turns out she was wrong. Not only did the billionaire end up going to prison for federal tax evasion, she didn't even get the trend right. When it comes to federal income taxes, Leona's "little people" have been migrating off the rolls in large numbers for a couple of decades. Now it's the "big" (i.e., rich) people who...

WASHINGTON -- The IRS is making a big push this year to make sure certain taxpayers know they can take the earned income tax credit, a benefit for lower income workers and working families that goes unclaimed by up to 25 percent of those who are eligible.The EITC is intended to offset a portion of Social Security and Medicare taxes, thus boosting take-home income in low-wage jobs and providing an incentive to work. It's a "refundable" credit, meaning that after it is figured against your tax liability, the IRS sends you any money you're due.For 2007 tax returns, the maximum...

The Alternative Minimum Tax may be the all-time winner of Good Ideas Gone Bad award. Written to make sure tax-dodgers didn't pile up deductions to escape the IRS, it's now threatening to sweep in 25 million taxpayers, up from four million last year. This headache of a tax grew in scope thanks to inflation and rising incomes as lower-earners graduated into a higher tier. But it's also provided a stage for Congress to display a knack for feuding instead of fixing. The result could be a longer tax season, ample confusion and deepening voter resentment. Since it was passed in...

Republicans have rejected a request by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that the Senate approve by unanimous consent a one-year patch to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) with no accompanying tax increases. Democrats quickly made political hay of the GOP move, which contradicted earlier Republican calls for extending tax relief with no offsets. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) blamed Republicans for obstructing tax relief, and called Reid’s request a “huge concession” on the part of Democrats. “If the AMT hits more taxpayers next year, it’s because of the Republican caucus. That’s clear,” said Baucus, who chairs the Senate’s tax-writing committee. Sen....

Washington – The Club for Growth praised Senator Fred Thompson for the release of his pro-growth tax reform plan this morning on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. The seven-part plan is the most comprehensive tax reform plan offered to date by a presidential candidate. The plan will: Permanently extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts Permanently repeal the Death Tax Repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax Reduce the corporate tax rate to no more than 27% Permanently extend small business expensing Update and simplify depreciation schedules Expand taxpayer choice Most commendable is Thompson’s plan to expand taxpayer choice by adopting...

One advantage of having a subscription to The Atlantic is finding out what the Democrats propose to do next. Clive Crook in under the rubric of "The Agenda" wrote a recent article on homeownership called Housebound. After agreeing with some benefits of homeownership he then lists the reasons why this is a bad idea. Among his complaints are: Homeowners are less mobile. Homeowners act as cartels interfere with zoning changes, suppress new developments, etc. And, not the least is that they have an unfair advantage in mortage-interest deductions. The last of these, interest deduction for mortgage interest, seems to be...

Senior Democrat proposes U.S. tax overhaul Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:51am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. congressional tax writer proposed sweeping tax legislation on Thursday that would repeal a tax for the rich that has been hitting more middle-class Americans and replace it with a new tax on high-income earners. The $1 trillion bill proposed by Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, would also reduce taxes for millions of middle- and low-income taxpayers. Private equity fund managers who pay a 15 percent capital gains rate on earnings from...

When 2008 rolls around, investors who anticipated a capital gains tax exemption on the sale of their investment real estate may run across a kink in their plans. HR 3648, a bill working its way through Congress, would alter the requirements for exemption on primary residences so that many investment properties will no longer qualify, leaving investors to pay a capital gains tax from which they would previously have been exempt.

Folks who move into their second homes and later sell won't get as big a tax break as they may be expecting, thanks to legislation that Congress will pass this fall. A provision in a pending mortgage relief bill blocks homeowners from excluding all of their gain on a second home, even if the home is sold more than two years after it becomes their primary residence. Here's how the change will work: Currently, you can sell your primary residence and exclude up to $500,000 of gain ($250,000 for singles) if you lived there for two out of the past...

The Tax Foundation has published Summary of Latest Federal Individual Income Tax Data: New data released by the IRS today offers interesting insights into the distributional spread of the federal income tax burden, new analysis by the Tax Foundation shows. The new data shows that the top-earning 25% of taxpayers (AGI over $62,068) earned 67.5% of the nation's income, but they paid more than four out of every five dollars collected by the federal income tax (86%). The top 1% of taxpayers (AGI over $364,657) earned approximately 21.2% of the nation's income (as defined by AGI), yet paid 39.4% of...