Free Republic

The new Republican-controlled House of Representatives got off to a bumpy start by attempting to repeal last year’s addition of of $71.5 billion to the IRS budget. It’s a political stunt with no chance of passing the U.S. Senate. Hamstringing the taxman doesn’t make taxes go away, but it does make it harder for taxpayers to pay them, the government to collect them and public agencies to function. Defunding the IRS would aggravate an already egregious problem: Billions of dollars of uncollected taxes, mostly from corporations and the wealthy. From 2014 to 2016, the IRS estimated $500 billion per year...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide a property rights dispute on whether government entities violate the Constitution when they seize homes for failure to pay taxes and then keep all the proceeds or allow private investors to profit. The justices will decide whether such seizures violate the takings clause of the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, which requires that the government pay compensation when property is taken. They will also weigh whether government action could be viewed as an excessive fine under the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment. The justices will weigh a claim brought by Geraldine Tyler, a 93-year-old...

The Biden administration is apparently looking to ban gas stoves, calling them a “hidden danger”. But while that sounds bad enough, a deeper dive shows – as usual – it’s not really about what they say it’s about. Talk of banning gas stoves and “unregulated indoor air quality” could be a Trojan horse designed to get even more “smart” monitoring technology into your home. Let’s jump in.

CNN Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans had a hissy fit over House Republicans voting to gut the $80 billion IRS funding following their pledge to nix plans to hire 87,000 new employees over the next ten years. Romans flailed at House GOP “pass[ing] a bill based on a demonstrable falsehood. There is no army of 87,000 IRS agents coming after American families and small businesses.” Of course, Romans said nothing about how 57.3% of the estimated “86,852 new IRS” hires, “(49,754 in total) would be assigned to enforcement,” according to The Heritage Foundation. Romans instead chose to gaslight on the...

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...

On Dec. 30, as Washington shut down for the Christmas-New Year holidays and Republicans prepared to take over the House of Representatives, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, in their final days of power, released copies of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns from 2015 through 2020.Democratic lawmakers had fought for years to get the documents. They claimed they needed them not for partisan political reasons but in order to oversee the Internal Revenue Service more effectively. The “legislative purpose” rationale was always a joke; everyone knew that, once they had the returns, Democrats would release them to...

Despite $80 billion in new funding, the agency is living up to its reputation of hassling low-income taxpayers over rich people...On Wednesday, Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) released data provided to it by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on audits performed by the agency in fiscal year 2022. Despite the infusion of new funding earmarked for the IRS via last year's Inflation Reduction Act, the agency continued historic trends of hassling primarily low-income taxpayers, with relatively few millionaires and billionaires getting caught up in the audit sweep."The taxpayer class with unbelievably high audit rates—five and a half times...

This abuse is intentional and must come to an end. ... In 2015, officials in Hennepin County seized an elderly woman's condo and sold it, over about $2,300 of unpaid property taxes, plus $12,700 in penalties, interest and fees. They sold that home for $40,000 and kept every penny, robbing elderly Geraldine Tyler of her home equity. And that's just one example. From 2014 through 2021, local governments in Minnesota seized and sold at least 1,350 Minnesota homes. The lost savings amounted to an average of $155,000 per home, or 90% of the home's value. Minnesota is one of 12...

In the Matter of Blair S. Bindley, OTA Case No. 18032402 (May 30, 2019), a sole proprietor performed all of his services outside of California, but some of his customers were in California. Is that enough for the poor guy to attract California tax liability? The California taxing authorities said he was operating a "unitary" business. Therefore, his tiny business was subject to California's apportionment rules. The FTB would not budge, so Mr. Bindley went over their head to the state’s Office of Tax Appeals (OTA), but it agreed with the FTB. This case has precedential effect, so it is...

Forty-five million dollars to address erosion at Camp Ellis. Thirty-five million for Wolfe’s Neck Farm to promote climate-friendly farming practices nationwide. Twenty million to protect vital infrastructure from the effects of climate change. Five million to aid farmers affected by PFAS contamination. The money came from a variety of sources, for projects large and small, scattered across all 16 counties. More than $250 million for Maine projects (not all of it climate or environmental related) came in the form of earmarks in the $1.7 trillion federal spending bill passed in December. On the energy and environmental side, research and training...

Most people have a dream home in mind for retirement. It might be a quaint beach house, a log cabin deep in the woods, or a penthouse high in the sky. But no matter where you plan to live during your golden years, make sure you check out the local tax situation in your dream destination before packing your bags and relocating. If you don't, and you end up in one of the least tax-friendly states for retirees, you might end up with a hefty state and local tax bill. State and local taxes can vary greatly from one place...

Democrats claimed the Inflation Reduction Act would help ordinary Americans, but new analysis suggests people making less than $400,000 a year could end up paying $20 billion of the new tax revenue it brings in. President Joe Biden signed the act into law in August, injecting $473 billion of new spending on climate and healthcare, yet there are strong concerns it will do little to reduce inflation. In fact, middle class Americans will pay new taxes - directly contradicting Biden's promise to not raise penalties on people earning under $400,000.

$6.5 Billion Natural Gas Tax Which Will Increase Household Energy Bills Think your household energy bills are high now? Just wait until the three major energy taxes in the Inflation Reduction Act hit your wallet. The first is a regressive tax on American oil and gas development. The tax will drive up the cost of household energy bills. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the natural gas tax will increase taxes by $6.5 billion. $12 Billion Crude Oil Tax Which Will Increase Household Costs Democrats are imposing a 16.4 cents-per-barrel tax on crude oil and imported petroleum products that will be...

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...

...Neal, D-Mass., said Tuesday that the move -- done along party lines -- was overwhelmingly in the public interest despite federal law that generally prohibits disclosure of individual Americans' tax returns without their permission or a court order.... In October, the House panel told the U.S. Supreme Court that Trump's records were essential to "examining the need for 'legislation on equitable tax administration..." ..."The Chairman's request robustly articulated and documented the legislative need for the request," the committee told the high court. The justices ultimately sided with the committee.... ..."The judges and justices who reviewed this case took the committee...

The amount of income, deductions and taxes paid by or refunded to former President Donald Trump while serving in the White House was detailed in a new report released Tuesday night. The report reveals that Trump on his federal tax returns declared negative income in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2020, and that he paid a total of $1,500 in income taxes for the years 2016 and 2017. On their 2020 income tax returns, Trump and his wife Melania paid no federal income taxes and claimed a refund of $5.47 million, according to the report by the staff of the Joint...

...six years of former President Donald Trump's tax returns will be released by the Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee, which voted 24-16 on Tuesday to release the years of tax records Trump has has long tried to shield. The vote was along party lines. After a years-long legal battle, the Supreme Court cleared the way last month for the Treasury Department to send the returns to Congress. The committee received six years of tax returns for Trump and some of his businesses. Democrats are under pressure to act quickly, since only two weeks remain until Republicans take control of...

The majority of Japanese people do not support raising taxes to fund military expansion, Kyodo reported on Sunday, citing a survey the news agency conducted after the government announced Japan's biggest military build-up since World War Two. Japan on Friday announced a $320 billion (S$435b) military spending plan to buy missiles capable of striking China and to ready the country for any sustained conflict, as missile tests by nearby North Korea, China's claim over Taiwan and the invasion of Ukraine by Japan's western neighbour Russia stoke fear of war. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida this month said his government would not...

CHICAGO -- A Chicago family said their latest property tax bill increased 440% and now their modest apartment complex could go bankrupt. A one bedroom apartment will now cost Michael Markellos $17,494 in property taxes for one year. "This has put us in a tremendous financial bind, the building has gone negative in the bills," he said. He and his mother own the 10-unit Lincoln Park apartment complex. Last year's tax bill for all 10 units combined was $23,674, but now the same 10 units are $128,282 dollars this year; up 440%. "I was outraged. These are basically simple one...

A new city analysis shows that a huge chunk of high-income earners fled in 2020. Yet progressives refuse to hear the alarm bell: They’re pushing to “tax the rich” yet again instead. The study by the city’s Independent Budget Office shows a 10% plunge in taxpayers who made over $750,000, and 6% of those with incomes between $150,000 and $750,000. These now-former New Yorkers will no longer pay hefty taxes to the city or state, leaving significantly less revenue to fund progressives’ pet projects. Kathryn Wylde of the Partnership for New York City calls the trend “ominous.” Clearly, many taxpayers...