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taxgirl® - tax news, tax info and tax policy

Archive for the ‘tax policy’ Category

June 20th, 2008

Ask the taxgirl: Second Stimulus Check

Taxpayer asks:
Our first check came and went. I have heard that they are considering sending another one. Do you think that they will send a second check?
Taxgirl says:
No. I don’t think a second check is in the cards - for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the economy.
Like […]

By Kelly -- 1 comment

June 20th, 2008

$300,000 Is Rich: Don’t Deny It

Guest Post by: Kate Olson
This article in a recent BusinessWeek magazine instantly made me bristle – “Taxing the Not-So-Rich Rich” makes the case that families bringing in a combined income of greater than $250,000 aren’t necessarily wealthy and shouldn’t be taxed as such under presidential nominee (D) Barack Obama’s proposed tax plan. This plan would […]

By Kelly -- 9 comments

June 14th, 2008

McCain Backs Off Repeal of AMT

Senator McCain has - until now - included a promise to repeal the AMT in his economic plan.
However, a few days ago, he introduced the idea of a phase out, rather than a repeal. In a June 10 speech, he said, “I will also propose … a phase-out of the Alternative Minimum Tax.”
In 2007, […]

By Kelly -- 1 comment

June 12th, 2008

McCain v Obama on Tax: Is It Really Just the Lesser of Two Evils?

Obama and McCain continue to battle it out about the issue that most Americans seems to care about right now: the economy.
To hear each talk, it just can’t get much worse (can it?). McCain spins Obama’s tax proposal as “the biggest tax increase since World War II.” Obama compares McCain’s […]

By Kelly -- 8 comments

June 11th, 2008

Rebates Push Deficit to Record Highs

The economic stimulus payments - which qualify more or less as “free money” from the government - pushed the federal budget deficit to an all-time high of $165.9 billion in May.
The increase in the deficit includes $48 billion already paid out of the $168 billion planned payments for the economic stimulus plan.
Receipts for […]

By Kelly -- 5 comments

June 10th, 2008

GOP Blocks “Extra” Tax on Big Oil

Senate Republicans blocked a proposal today that would tax the windfall profits of the country’s largest oil companies. The GOP put together 43 votes, which left the Democrats 9 votes short of what they needed to break a filibuster and bring the proposal to a vote.
Democrats had urged Congress to pass the bill, with […]

By Kelly -- 5 comments

June 7th, 2008

Fat? TV Addict? Should You Be Taxed on Your Lifestyle?

This week, I happened to notice a series of ads running in my local paper (The Philadelphia Inquirer) for Derrie-Air airlines. There were two features that distinguished Derrie-Air from, say, USAirways and United. One was the method of determining fare:
The magic comes from our one of a kind “Sliding Scale”—the more […]

By Kelly -- 12 comments

June 2nd, 2008

Who is Most Responsible for the Reagan Tax Cuts?

Quick: Who is most responsible for the Reagan tax cuts?
Donald Regan, Secretary of the Treasury during Reagan’s administration?

Nah, the real force behind the Economic Recovery Act of 1981 was Jodie Foster, according to Robert Mundell, Columbia University’s Nobel laureate economist.
The Financial Times reports that Mundell cites the Oscar winning actress as most responsible for […]

By Kelly -- 6 comments

May 29th, 2008

It’s My Party and I’ll Get Drunk (Cheaply) If I Want To

Australia is one of many countries taking aim at so-called “alcopops”, pre-mixed alcoholic drinks that tend to resemble sodas. Australia, like Germany before it, has imposed a tax increase on alcopops in an effort to decrease dangerous underage drinking. It is believed that underage drinkers tend to purchase more alcopops than older drinkers […]

By Kelly -- 3 comments

May 26th, 2008

Canadians Support Carbon Tax, eh?

A new study suggests that Canadians may be in support of a “carbon tax” on activities that cause climate change. The McAllister Opinion Research survey, commissioned for the Pembina Institute, revealed that Canadians would not expect such a tax to offset current taxes and would, instead, prefer that the revenue be used to improve […]

By Kelly -- 7 comments

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