Free Republic

Two things keep the IRS out of most people's hair: the annual gift tax exclusion and the lifetime exclusion. Nerdy takeaways: * A gift tax is a tax owed on the transfer of money or property to another person while receiving nothing or less than full value in return. * The gift giver is the one who generally pays the tax, not the receiver. * If you give more than the annual gift tax limit, you may have to file a gift tax return, but this does not necessarily mean that you'll owe taxes on the gift. * The 2024...

Federal investigators are examining financial transactions made by President Joe Biden's brother Jim Biden as part of an ongoing criminal investigation, according to a new report. Federal investigators in South Florida and Justice Department officials investigating Medicare fraud in Pennsylvania recently probed transactions linked to Jim Biden, according to a Politico report published Tuesday, citing three sources familiar with the ongoing investigations. The investigations involve Americore, a hospital chain that paid Jim Biden to help obtain foreign investments for the troubled company before it collapsed. A lawsuit filed in 2022 alleges that Jim Biden received improper payments from investors of...

Judge Arthur Engoron has issued an order that will allow former President Trump’s finances and assets to be monitored for three years. In other words, Trump’s estate will be babysat by Barbara Jones, a retired federal judge. The judge will also have full authority over giving suggestions for court-ordered changes in how the Trump Organization operates. The order comes after Trump is facing a $464 million judgment paid in his New York civil fraud case despite his appeal still pending. On Thursday, the judge ruled that the court must monitor and notify the watchdog about any efforts Trump makes to...

A finance expert is sounding the alarm over America’s growing debt, predicting the $34 trillion burden could trigger a meltdown as early as next year if more isn’t done to curb spending. According to Joao Gomes, a senior vice dean for research and academic initiatives at Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, the United States’ growing debt could upset global financial markets in 2025 should the next president announce a raft of expensive policies following an election win in 2024. “The lack of concern by the media and politicians about the U.S. Federal Debt is shocking,” he said...

A new Florida law that requires small-town officials to disclose their financial information has sparked a wave of resignations from small-town governments. The new law is called Form 6, and it's the top issue for many small-town governments across the state. St. Pete Beach was one of the latest cities to see a mass resignation when four out of the five city council members decided to quit their jobs this week instead of complying with the new disclosure rules. According to St. Pete Beach Vice Mayor Mark Grill, the resignations shouldn't come as a surprise to state officials. Grill said...

The last few years have been a whirlwind for Americans’ finances, with inflation, fluctuating unemployment, public health crises and natural disasters making it hard for people across the country to pay their bills. Ultimately, many people have ended up in financial distress, which WalletHub defines as having a credit account that is in forbearance or has its payments deferred, meaning the account holder is temporarily allowed to not make payments due to financial difficulty. In order to shed light on the financial troubles experienced by people across the U.S., and to show where those difficulties are most pronounced, WalletHub compared...

A political committee that helped expand the Democratic majority on the Illinois Supreme Court and was backed by Illinois Senate President Don Harmon emptied its bank account just weeks after being notified it faced one of the largest state election fines ever for failing to timely disclose millions of dollars it spent until after last November’s election. On Tuesday, the State Board of Elections issued a final order assessing $99,500 in fines against the All for Justice political action committee. The action followed a Tribune story earlier this year detailing the PAC’s reporting deficiencies as it spent more than $7.3...

On Monday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” White House National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard reacted to negative poll numbers on the economy by stating that “the economy is performing exceptionally well” but “people have been through a very challenging few years between the pandemic, and then the oil price spikes associated with Russia’s war. It’s going to take a while for them to feel really confident,” and most people “feel like their personal finances are better now than they were before.” Co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin said, “Speak to this, though, because I think there [are] a lot of folks...

During an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reacted to negative sentiment on the direction of the American economy by stating that people “have been through a lot with the pandemic and the lockdown for almost two years, then a period of high inflation” and there are structural issues that have existed for a while, but people “do seem to feel good about their own personal finances.” Yellen said, “I think Americans have been through a lot with the pandemic and the lockdown for almost two years, then a period of high inflation. And, as you say,...

September 20, 2023 Washington, D.C. – Today, the House Financial Services Committee considered Majority Whip Emmer’s (MN-06) CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act. The bill was passed out of the Committee and reported favorably to the House floor during the markup session, an important step toward passing this legislation through Congress. Transcript of Remarks: Thank you, Chairman McHenry. I’m extremely proud to have this legislation, that frankly, I have been working on for three years at least, the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, included in your markup today. It’s the first anti-central bank digital currency legislative effort introduced in the United States and...

I’ve spent two decades consulting extensively for consumer packaged goods companies. Early in my career I gathered some data for a client on cooking. This research found that consumers fell into one of three groups: (1) people who love to cook, and cook often, (2) people who hate to cook, and avoid that activity by heating up convenience food or outsourcing their meals (by ordering out or dining in restaurants), and, finally, (3) people who like to cook sometimes, and do a mix of cooking and outsourcing, depending on the situation. At the time, the sizes of the three respective...

The Connecticut Centinal has viewed internal text messages (on PV devices/servers) between former Project Veritas (PV) head James O'Keefe and board members at PV. What emerges is an image of O'Keefe constantly traveling and fundraising, while at the same time relaying the stress he is under to deliver large donations to the board. [embedded texts] In the fall of 2022, O'Keefe begins to complain of firm management stamping large checks with his signature (illegally according to O'Keefe) and lack of cash flow analysis on a timely basis. [embedded texts] On February 21, 2023 declared on social media he had been...

A political committee, funded in part by Senate President Don Harmon’s campaign that helped expand the Democratic majority on the Illinois Supreme Court, failed to file timely campaign reports as required by state law and didn’t disclose the bulk of its $7.3 million in spending until after the election. The committee — All for Justice — spent heavily on television ads in support of winning Democratic Justices Elizabeth Rochford and Mary Kay O’Brien. The commercials painted Republican opponents as virulent anti-abortion candidates, politically potent attacks given the U.S. Supreme Court decision that sent the issue of abortion rights to the...

Audits of 12 school districts has state Auditor General Timothy DeFoor believing school boards are playing a “shell game” with taxpayer funds by moving money into reserve accounts to allow them to make a case for raising property tax rates. State laws limit how much school districts can raise property taxes and sets limits on those increases but allows for exceptions to be granted in one of two ways: ask voters’ permission through a referendum or ask the state Department of Education for a referendum exception. “These 12 districts collectively raised taxes 37 times during the four years we reviewed...

The Walt Disney Co. is shaking up its board of directors, tapping Nike executive chairman Mark Parker to be chairman, effective as of its next annual meeting. Susan Arnold, who has been chair since Bob Iger retired from the company at the end of 2021 (and who asked him to return last year), will step down from the board at that time. The company says her departure is consistent with Disney’s 15-year board term limit. “Mark Parker’s vision, incredible depth of experience and wise counsel have been invaluable to Disney, and I look forward to continuing working with him in...

The U.S. Department of Defense has, once again, failed a comprehensive financial audit. The audit is the fifth comprehensive review the department has completed, and the fifth where auditors were unable to find sufficient record keeping for the DoD to pass off on a clean audit.This year’s DoD-wide audit report involved 27 smaller component audits, of which seven component audits received “unmodified opinions,” which mean that auditors determined the underlying military financial information was recorded fairly and in line with U.S. accounting standards. One component audit received a “qualified opinion,” meaning auditors found material accounting misstatements that were not pervasive.The...

Several charity auditors have expressed concern over how Black Lives Matter’s $60 million in donations was managed after it emerged that some people announced as the organization’s leaders never actually took on the position, and no one seemed to know who handled the finances. Tax documents for the BLM charity, from 2019, mention an address in Los Angeles that does not exist, and the remaining two directors were unable to provide information – with one even removing BLM associations from his social media accounts after being approached by the Washington Examiner. BLM has yet to submit its 2020 tax return,...

Dozens of federal lawmakers and at least 182 top staffers have violated a conflict-of-interest law. Numerous members of Congress personally invest in industries they oversee. Few face serious consequences, legally or otherwise. The nation is unabashedly polarized. Republicans and Democrats enjoy little goodwill and less commonality. But in Washington, DC, a bipartisan phenomenon is thriving. Numerous members of Congress, both liberal and conservative, are united in their demonstrated indifference toward a law designed to quash corruption and curb conflicts-of-interest. Insider's new investigative reporting project, "Conflicted Congress," chronicles the myriad ways members of the US House and Senate have eviscerated their...

Former President Donald Trump provided “misleading information about the financial situation” of his hotel in Washington while he was in office, according to the House Oversight and Reform Committee. The committee, which recently obtained documents from the General Services Administration, found that Trump reported his hotel in downtown D.C. brought in $150 million in income while he served in the White House, but the hotel actually incurred more than $70 million in losses. “By filing these misleading public disclosures, President Trump grossly exaggerated the financial health of the Trump Hotel,” the committee said Friday in a news release. The Trump...

Given the future plans of that Joetato in D.C. regarding the economy and USA life in general: would it be better to keep funds in a local financial institution or purchase farmland?