Well, knock me over with a feather:
The Internal Revenue Service on Friday said that it inappropriately selected tea party political groups for special scrutiny in the 2012 campaign, an admission likely to fuel long-simmering suspicions among conservatives that the IRS has been singling them out for unfair treatment.
The IRS official who oversees tax-exempt groups, Lois Lerner, acknowledged at a conference on Friday the actions were wrong and apologized, according to the Associated
Well, it’s semi-official. The Senate has approved the Marketplace Fairness Act. This act, strongly supported by the likes of Amazon.com, would force online businesses to pay sales taxes based on the location of their customer. Supporters say it is critical to bring needed revenue to local and state governments and to protect the brick-and-morter mom-and-pop stores that are losing out to internet sales.
The supporters are also full of shit.
There are innumerable problems with … Read more
Robert Samuelson has an opinion piece at the WaPo dealing with death tax reform. This is one of the main taxes that the rich tax hike proponents like Buffet wants to go up. In Buffet’s case the reason is blatant: that’s so his insurance company can make a killing selling policies to fat cats that need protection from the confiscatory fleecing government will impose on their property before the body is even cold.
There … Read more
Looks like a NYC hallmark business has closed it’s doors:
The famous Stage Deli in Manhattan has closed. Visitors on Friday were greeted with a hand-written sign on the door that said “Thanks for 75 years!” The deli, on Seventh Avenue near 54th Street, got its start 75 years ago. It was known for overstuffed sandwiches named for celebrities. It was popular with Broadway audiences. Co-owner Paul Zolenge says the dining landmark had been
Fiscal policy intended to separate people from their assets/wealth, because we need to spread that wealth around, you know, by stupid government entities thinking they can play Santa Clause with other people’s money, has consequences. Always! Nobody is going to just accept the loss of their wealth that these wealth redistribution schemes assure, and even the LSM is forced to report that’s what’s happening right now:
For many of the wealthy, 2012 is becoming
The Congressional Budget Office has just released new estimates of the number of people who will be subject to the individual mandate penalty tax for failing to obtain qualifying health insurance in 2016. According to CBO’s new analysis, the penalty tax will be paid by six million people. The penalty tax will generate an estimated $7 billion for the U.S. treasury and 80 percent of those paying the penalty tax will earn less
You’ve certainly heard about this by now:
During a private fundraiser earlier this year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a small group of wealthy contributors what he truly thinks of all the voters who support President Barack Obama. He dismissed these Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, who don’t assume responsibility for their lives, and who think government should take care of them. Fielding a question from a donor about how he could
There’s been a bit of a furor lately over Olympians having to pay taxes on cash bonuses they get for winning medals. Yglesias has the details:
In this particular case, the issue is that the U.S. Olympic Committee—the nonprofit group that organizes Team USA for the games—rewards athletes with cash bounties for medals won. Gold medalists receive $25,000, silver medalists get $15,000, and bronze medalists receive $10,000. That’s income, so come spring of 2013
I tweeted about this a couple of days ago, but the more I think about it, the more I see it as the perfect confluence of government stupidity:
Heirs to important art collections are often subject to large tax bills. In this case, the beneficiaries, Nina Sundell and Antonio Homem, have paid $471 million in federal and state estate taxes related to Mrs. Sonnabend’s roughly $1 billion art collection, which included works by Modern masters
A couple of days ago, George W. Bush pointed out — correctly at it happens — that if the Bush tax cuts were not called “the Bush tax cuts”, they wouldn’t be so controversial. Ezra Klein affirms, pointing out that the Democrats have basically conceded at least part of the issue.
Most of his tax cuts are, at this point, an almost foregone conclusion. No one is talking about taking the 10% bracket and raising
