State and local tax news — from state income tax quirks to property tax fights, because not all tax battles happen in Washington.
A number of Republican governors have indicated that they will turn down federal money offered to states as part of the stimulus package. The Republican governors of Alaska, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas have signaled that they will pass on the money because it could lead to a tax increase in the future….
Taxpayer asks: What are community property states? Taxgirl says: Argh. This is like an evil bar exam question (my personal theory on community property states is that they exist just to confuse innocent law students on exams). Arizona California Idaho Louisiana Nevada New Mexico Texas Washington Wisconsin And though it’s not a state, Puerto Rico…
DC residents may have had to put up with lost tourists crowding the Metro during the Inauguration but they do get a little bit of a break. The District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR) had previously announced that sales tax on property rentals during Inauguration festivities would be suspended. This applies to…
Taxpayer asks: Can I deduct state sales tax for 2008 and deduct state income tax paid for another year (2007)?? Taxgirl says: Absolutely! There is no rule that the taxes must have been assessed in 2008 in order to take them as a deduction. Assuming that you itemize your deductions, you can deduct state and…
With very little fanfare, a tax case in New York may shake up the online world as we know it. In April 2008, New York passed a new law targeting online sales and requiring that online retailers collect and remit sales tax to the state. Amazon.com balked at the new law and later filed suit…
With very little fanfare, a tax case in New York may shake up the online world as we know it. In April 2008, New York passed a new law targeting online sales and requiring that online retailers collect and remit sales tax to the state. Amazon.com balked at the new law and later filed suit…
There has been a lot of discussion lately about increasing the national gas tax. In fact, a proposal to increase the tax, which currently stands at 19 cents per gallon, has been touted as recently as last week. The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission (NSTIFC) has reported that the current infrastructure is dated and…
NOTE: This is from 2008. Welcome to my fourth in a series on state taxes! For information about what I’m trying to do, read my introductory bit. Next on the agenda, the bane of every elementary aged school child when it comes to spelling: Arkansas! ARKANSAS Population: 2,834,797 (32nd) Capital: Little Rock Largest City: Little…
Okay, so maybe they didn’t say it quite like that… But farmers in Minnesota are taking it that way. A program in Minnesota called the Green Acres Program was supposed to offer property tax relief to farmers in the state, much like programs in other states. In Pennsylvania, for example, there is a similar “Clean…
Governon Paterson raised quite a stir after he suggested a “fat tax” to raise revenue combat obesity. But that may not be the most controversial local tax measure to make news this December. Rep. Darryl Rouson, a Democrat from St. Petersburg, Florida, has proposed House Bill 99 to add a “surtax of 5 percent” on…