Free Republic

Germany taxes the internet The power to tax is the power to destroy. The internet has proven rather a bother to many of those with power, allowing anyone with a computer to reach a worldwide audience. Now, our friend David Kaspar, of Davidsmedienkritik, a fine site keeping track of media and events in Gemrany, brings news of Germany’s plans to tax the internet. Germany’s 16 states agreed on Thursday to introduce from January 1 a licence fee of 5.52 euros (3.70 pounds) a month on computers and mobile phones that can access television and radio programmes via the Internet. Any...

Here's a sobering economic forecast: If the United States doesn't get control of health-care spending, Social Security and other expanding federal programs in the near term, it will face a financial catastrophe when 77 million baby boomers retire. Such is the dire prediction of Professor Laurence Kotlikoff of Boston University. Similar prophesies have been pronounced over the past decade or so. Unfortunately, Washington doesn't hear - or want to hear - about the potentially devastating impact of long-term obligations involving Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Those who could make the necessary changes, such as privatization of Social Security and implementation...

SOAK THE POOR The Treasury Department recently issued a news release showing that the very people opponents of the Bush tax cuts purport to be so concerned about will see their tax bills go up if the tax cuts are not made permanent, says Investor's Business Daily (IBD). If the tax cuts lapse, the tax bills for many Americans who can use the relief will rise in 2011, including: A family of four with two children making $56,300 in 2011 will be hit with a tax bill that's bigger by $2,092, a 132 percent hike. That same family making $67,600...

Tom Wright, who is the Executive Director for the Americans For Fair Taxation http://www.fairtax.org announced on the Neil Boortz's radio show this afternoon that AFFT is adding approximatley 5,000 members each day since the FairTax Book was released!. One estimate put the total number of Fair Tax Volunteers prior to the Fair Tax book release at approximately 600,000. It will take slightly less than three months(400,000/5,000) to reach 1,000,000. We're on a roll!

I have discovered a fool-proof strategy for beating the income tax, the Social Security tax and the Medicare tax: Lower your income. Lowering your income is much easier than increasing your income. And it helps you avoid the nasty traps Congress sets to catch those foolish enough to earn too much money -- phasing-out deductions and exemptions, selectively repealing deductions with an alternative minimum tax, limiting the share of income you can put away in a 401k plan, and denying eligibility for tax-financed benefits such as student loans and scholarships. Lower your income and these problems disappear. To do this...