Deep dives into tax policy — the laws, proposals, and reforms shaping the tax code, explained without the jargon.
There’s a bag of used clothes on my porch that it is on its way to the Salvation Army (though not in this snow!). Like many Americans, my family makes an effort to give to a variety of charitable causes throughout the year. But why do we do it? I was raised to believe that…
Every year, you hear a bunch of folks, supposedly on the fringe, touting the advantages of the legalization of marijuana. And every year, bills come and go with proponents wondering exactly what it would take to convince legislators to take them seriously. Maybe what it would take is a budget crisis. With a major budget…
As of this evening (Monday), it seems that the Senate version of the housing bill will make it intact to the vote tomorrow. And you know that I’m not a fan. I promised that I’d explain why I think it’s a bad idea. It’s taken a few extra days (yes, a plague of biblical proportions…
It’s Fix the Tax Code Friday! Over the last few days, there has been a lot of focus on Obama’s nominee for Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, and his tax woes. Geithner’s tax problems still from the failure to pay self-employment taxes during his stint at the IMF. Critics on both sides have seized…
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 sued the…
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…
I don’t get folks some times. All you hear anymore is how we don’t want more government… And then the National Retail Federation, which claims to be the world’s largest retail organization, goes and asks for more government. Let me back up. The NRF has asked President Elect Barack Obama to include a national sales…
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…