Free Republic

My wife and I are in our mid fifties. We are grandparents. We have tried to play by the rules. Yesterday, I came home from lunch to find his and her notices in our mailbox from the IRS. The fiends have recalculated our income from a few years back and now suddenly want over 21,000 dollars in fees and penalties. They don't even audit you anymore. They just recalculate and demand payment. This is how they operate. So if this thing is worked out, we will pay five hundred bucks a month to the IRS for most of our remaining...

We have previously discussed the dangers of increasing taxation in places like New York city. Now it appears that the city is facing a tax-version of the China Syndrome where over-taxation may be causing wealthier families to flee, which increases the need for higher taxes on those remaining. I remain concerned about the incredible spending in Congress and rising taxes in the states as politicians seem to have lost any sense of proportion or balance in buyouts, recovery bills, and public spending. Even the Washington Post is now warning of a “debt tsunami” as the Administration drives up the deficit...

WASHINGTON – In a triumph for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed sweeping legislation Friday that calls for the nation's first limits on pollution linked to global warming and aims to usher in a new era of cleaner, yet more costly energy. The vote was 219-212, capping months of negotiations and days of intense bargaining among Democrats. Republicans were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in the midst of a recession while burdening consumers with a new tax in the form of higher energy costs. The House's action fulfilled Speaker Nancy Pelosi's vow to clear...

Behold, America: the taxman cometh. Even as taxpayers are struggling to make ends meet in a crumbling, tumbling economy, your friendly neighborhood (and state and federal) government is having a hard time making do with the meager trillions you're throwing its way, so it's relying on an old maxim: If it exists, it can be taxed. New York's resident grinch, Gov. David Paterson, tried suggesting a kind of omnibus fun-busting budget that would have taxed New Yorkers for skiing, golfing, camping, being fat, being skinny, going to the movies, going to plays, wearing clothing, going to strip clubs and having...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's top economic officials on Tuesday vigorously defended the administration's $3.6 trillion budget against Republican claims that it contained overly optimistic economic assumptions and included stealthy tax increases that could end up hitting most Americans. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House Budget Director Peter Orszag, in separate appearances on Capitol Hill, stuck to the administration line that the president's budget would benefit 95 percent of working Americans. Higher taxes for affluent Americans would not come until 2011 once "we are safely into recovery," Geithner told the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. "I'm confident this...

ATLANTA - All of the talk among political candidates about a federal gas tax holiday to offset soaring prices at the pump misses a critical fact: state taxes are, for the most part, even more costly for drivers. And in some states, gas taxes are rising even higher, with a handful set to jump at the height of the summer driving season. The average state sales tax on gasoline is 28.6 cents a gallon, according to the American Petroleum Institute. That's a dime more than the federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents a gallon. (snip) The national average price rose...

"2:00 U.S. Treasury posts record $383.6 bln receipts in April" This bulletin, on the rolling bulletin board of the BigCharts.com site a few minutes ago... NOTHING FOLLOWS!!! (except endless diversions from a growing flood of "revenue streams" to an engourged GovernMental milking machine of gargantuan proportions! Suffer babies!!!

Two cigar stores snuffed out A hike in the state cigar tax has caused the owners of at least two cigar stores to say they are closing their doors by July 2 when the new tax goes into effect. Both Stogie Bros. in Buffalo and Smokin Flamingo in Clarence say the tax going from 20 percent to 37 percent on the wholesale price of a cigar makes it impossible for them to compete with cigar catalogs, Internet sites and Indian reservations that pay no tax. "It gets to a point where it's not worth swimming uphill," said Rick Fickhesen, owner...