Free Republic

During a Sunday interview on Fox News Channel’s “The Next Revolution,” Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) sounded off on the Democrats’ massive $3.5 trillion spending bill. Hagerty argued that Democrats are “waging war on American capitalists” through the tax system. He lamented that President Joe Biden is in “lockstep” with the far-left wing of the Democratic Party. “It’s the biggest bait and switch I think that we’ve seen in American politics,” Hagerty declared. “If you look at how Joe Biden campaigned in 2020 as a moderate, as a centrist versus what we are getting, Bernie Sanders is the author of this...

As we turn the page on yet another inspiring tax day, let’s look into who is really bearing the burden of the individual taxes in the United States. In 2014’s tax year, the federal government took in a then-record $1.377 trillion in income taxes from individuals, according to a report published by the Internal Revenue Service. And of the 148,606,578 individual tax returns filed that year, 52,062,499 of them (35 percent) filed “nontaxable returns,” which means they paid no net individual income taxes. The rest of us, the 65 percent who did pay income taxes, paid an average of $14,271,...

Each year we produce the Index to enable business leaders, government policymakers, and taxpayers to gauge how their states' tax systems compare. While total taxes paid is a relevant measure, another is how the elements of a state tax system enhance or harm the competitiveness of a state's business environment. The Index looks at over 100 variables in individual income tax, corporate income tax, sales tax, unemployment insurance tax, and property tax to reduce these many complex considerations to an easy-to-use ranking. The 10 best states in this year's 2013 Index are Wyoming, South Dakota, Nevada, Alaska, Florida, Washington, New...

How many pages does it take to lay out the insanely complicated rules and requirements of our tax code? According to tax publisher CCH, the total number of pages devoted to federal tax code rules, IRS rulings, and regulations has grown to 72,536:It's no wonder that even the government's own experts and officials can't figure it out. Any system of rules that requires in excess 72,000 pages to explain and understand borders on useless. At this point it might as well be Calvinball. Via Cato's Chris Edwards.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer, and the bill for all tencomes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would gosomething like this: The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7. The eighth would pay $12. The ninth would pay $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every dayand seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one...

It contains such off-putting phrases as "average growth and standard deviation" and "short-term elasticity," but a 20-page report issued Thursday by the Legislature's budget analyst is one of the most important documents ever to surface in the Capitol. The report, entitled "Revenue Volatility in California," provides statistical proof for what followers of state budgetary politics have known for years: California's state and local tax system is a mess and lies at the heart of its chronic budget crisis. A complex, intertwined set of political, economic and demographic factors has changed a once-stable system of taxation - personal and corporate income...

When liberals in the media or in politics start being alarmed about the national debt, it means just one thing: They want higher taxes. The thought of reducing spending would never cross their minds. As we are endlessly reminded, the federal government's debt has reached record levels during the Bush administration. That enables the liberal media to use their favorite word -- "crisis" -- and adds urgency to doing their favorite thing, raising taxes. Since we have a larger population than ever and a larger national income than ever, it should hardly be surprising that we also have a larger...

If someone was performing a top-to-bottom "performance review" of state government with the declared goal of making it more efficient, effective and accountable, a critical examination of its system of levying and collecting taxes would be, one would think, a cornerstone task. What is, after all, more fundamental to the relationship of government to the governed than taxation? And California's system of state and local taxation, which collects roughly $100 billion a year, is particularly worrisome. It has evolved over decades and has become a monument to arbitrary, often nonsensical, policy-making - the disparate sales-tax treatment of hot and cold...

A 71 year old man has been banned from driving for warning other motorists of a speed trap up the road - even though he wasn't in his car at the time! He was also ordered to pay £364 in costs. Stuart Harding stood on the A325 near Farnborough with a sign saying "Speed Trap - 300 yards ahead". He had stood there on previous occasions warning motorists to slow down because of a car boot sale up the road which generated a lot of pedestrian traffic. Police however took exception when Harding warned of their speed trap. The court...

<p>So far, California's politicians have reacted to the deepening state budget crisis with the same expedient attitude that created the mess in the first place.</p> <p>The state fell into this seemingly bottomless pit because Gov. Gray Davis and lawmakers of both parties made long-term spending and tax-cut commitments based on a short-term spike in revenues, largely income taxes on stock options and capital gains in the highly volatile high-tech sector of the economy.</p>