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Solar panel installer SolarCity Corp filed with U.S. regulators to raise up to $201 million in an initial public offering that could help rekindle investor appetite for cleantech stocks. ....Companies including Google Inc and U.S. Bancorp have provided funds to finance SolarCity's projects. Those investors are able to collect a 30 percent federal tax credit for solar energy systems...... ...SolarCity was founded in 2006 by brothers Lyndon and Peter Rive along with their cousin, PayPal co-founder and Tesla Motors Chief Executive Elon Musk.... SolarCity hopes it can buck the lackluster trend among recent cleantech IPOs.... ....[SolorCity's] total revenue was $46.6...

Illegal immigrants could receive more than $7 billion this year in federal tax credits, according to one estimate, thanks to a loophole in the law that allows people not authorized to work to reap the government payments with no questions asked. Sen. Jeff Sessions' office calculated that, based on recent trends, illegal immigrants could receive roughly $7.4 billion through a provision known as the Additional Child Tax Credit. That's more than quadruple what the payout was four years ago, but the payments have been steadily increasing over the past decade. Though illegal immigrants are prohibited from receiving similar tax credits,...

Investigating the IRS: Why it gives billions to illegal immigrants INDIANAPOLIS - Why are many illegal immigrants getting a bigger tax refund than you? Blame it on the IRS and a massive tax loophole that's now being exposed by Eyewitness News. 13 Investigates has found the IRS is giving away your tax dollars to illegal workers and people who don't even live in the United States - and the problem is costing billions! We want you to see exactly where your money is going and why the IRS is allowing it to happen. From the homes of illegal workers in...

Illegal aliens working in the United States are technically required to fill out a tax return and pay their income taxes. We all laugh about claiming a additional deduction here or there for some neighborhood kid who eats the food out of your fridge and hangs out at your house all the time, but many of these workers are claiming deductions for children living in Mexico. Each spring, at tax preparation offices all across the nation, many illegal immigrants are now eagerly filing tax returns to take advantage of a tax loophole, using their ITIN numbers to get huge refunds...

Watch the newscast video and stay calm! TV investigation uncovers.....2 million illegal aliens collecting 4 billion in tax credits for dependent children living in Mexico

Millions of illegal immigrants are getting a bigger tax refund than you. Eyewitness News shows a massive tax loophole that provides billions of dollars in tax credits to undocumented workers and, in many cases, people who have never stepped foot in the United States. And you are paying for it! Note: This is part one in a two-part series. Read part two here. INDIANAPOLIS - Inside his central Indiana office, a longtime tax consultant sits at his desk, shaking his head in disbelief. "There is not a doubt in my mind there's huge fraud taking place here," he said, slowly...

Never on Sunday, apparently. So this year your income tax is due next Tuesday, April 17. Even if you pay none. And in fact, 41 percent of those filing last year, 2010, didn’t pay a dime in tax. But the government sent a good number of them checks for $105 billion...

(Excerpt) The U.S. does not have a significantly smaller welfare state than the European nations. We’re just better at hiding it. The Europeans provide welfare provisions through direct government payments. We do it through the back door via tax breaks. For example, in Europe, governments offer health care directly. In the U.S., we give employers a gigantic tax exemption to do the same thing. European governments offer public childcare. In the U.S., we have child tax credits. In Europe, governments subsidize favored industries. We do the same thing by providing special tax deductions and exemptions for everybody from ethanol producers...

Schools belong to taxpaying parents.

In a year where Solyndra became the face of the solar industry’s chronic failures, even the holiday season could not prevent one last flurry of layoffs in 2011. The Mountain Enterprise (based in Frazier Park, Calif.) reported over the weekend that First Solar, Inc. – which the media sometimes identifies as the largest solar company in the world – laid off half its employees on Friday at its Antelope Valley Solar Ranch One project. The facility has been the subject of controversy in the local community over the effects it will have on land use, wildlife, and water usage....

Solar Company Scraps Factory, Leaves Mich. in DarkGrant applications don't match up with solar company's other information. By Scott McGrew | Monday, Jan 2, 2012 | Updated 2:59 PM PST A San Jose-based company has pulled out of plans to build a multimillion-dollar solar cell factory in Saginaw, Mich. GlobalWatt CEO Sanjeev Chitre blamed the shutdown on the poor economy and competition from overseas; however, many critics are wondering if there really was much of a factory to shut down. Far from a mega-factory promised in early paperwork, GlobalWatt's Saginaw operations actually employed slightly more than a dozen workers. GlobalWatt...

China's first foray into the American auto-market, the all-electric Coda, is now being sold at a dealership in Los Angeles, but it's not the vehicle some imagined. With a base price of $44,900, the Coda is $5k more than the Chevy Volt, almost $10k more than the Nissan Leaf, and is far from the cheap model competitors feared would kill their profits. In fact, much of the car is not even made in China. According to USA Today the Coda's innovative lithium ion phosphate that gets about 100-miles more per charge than competitors is made by a contractor in China,...

Individuals who are not authorized to work in the United States (i.e. immigrants in the country illegally) last year collected $4.2 billion in tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service, according to a new audit from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).A little something called the Additional Child Tax Credit is to blame. The audit explains (emphasis mine): Many individuals who are not authorized to work in the United States, and thus not eligible to obtain a Social Security Number (SSN) for employment, earn income in the United States. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provides such individuals with...

“The White House doesn’t create jobs,” President Obama’s spokesman, Jay Carney, said last week. He’s more right than he knows. The policies the administration and Congress put into place have a profound effect on job creation - a profoundly negative one. Gimmicks like tax credits for hiring veterans and another short-term extension of the payroll tax cut aren’t going to jump-start the sagging economy or do anything to get the unemployment rate below even 9 percent, let alone anything approaching the 5 or 6 percent levels that would be considered full employment.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is asking Congress to approve new initiatives to help some of America's 1 million unemployed military veterans find work, including tax credits for companies that hire out-of-work vets. The proposal Obama is to outline Friday is part of the president's efforts to return to a focus on jobs after spending weeks mired in the contentious debt-limit debate that consumed the White House for much of the summer. His announcement was to come shortly after the Labor Department releases a new round of nationwide unemployment data. Last month's jobs report was dismal, with the country's...

BMW North America chairman and chief executive officer, Jim O'Donnell, told the Detroit News that he's "far more optimistic" about diesel vehicles boosting the automaker's U.S. market share than electric vehicles (EVs) and added that the U.S. government should cancel its $7,500 tax credit for electrified autos: "I believe in a free economy. I think we should abolish all tax credits. What they are doing is putting a bet on technology, which is not appropriate. As a taxpayer, I am not sure this is the right way to go." But that's not all that O'Donnell had to say. The CEO...

The company that produced Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s TLC reality show, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” received $1.2 million in state tax credits for filming in Alaska through a government program Palin signed into law as governor in 2008. The Anchorage Daily News first reported the story in February, but after an analyst at the Tax Foundation posted a blurb on the group’s blog linking to the piece Tuesday, Palin faced a fresh heap of criticism from Washington conservative pundits who may have been a bit late to the fight, but were not shy to throw punches. The state legislature passed...

Illegal immigrants cashing in on federal tax credits, study shows. Large numbers of illegal immigrants file tax returns using phony Social Security numbers to cash in on the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, thanks to lax government management, according to the author of a new study.   “Technically, only people authorized to work in the U.S. are eligible for the credit, you need a valid Social security number,” said Ed Rubenstein, a financial analyst and economist, speaking at a news conference Tuesday at the National Press Club.   “But identity theft, stolen Social Security numbers, and other scams effectively nullify...

"Obama Bolsters U.S. Hybrid Automobile Sales in Waning Consumer Market" reads the headline. The hybrid market is now 13 years old. Hybrids have never made economic sense, either for manufacturers or consumers, and the latter have figured that out: "Consumer sales of hybrids are headed for their third consecutive yearly decline." So here comes a metrosexual in a limo tossing fistfuls of stimulus dollars from the window to bail out the faltering market. I'm from the government, and I'm here to help. "About 3,100 of the hybrids purchased by GSA were paid for out of $300 million that the agency...

ObamaCare's Tax Credit System Will Make April 15 Even Harder Due to ObamaCare, millions of Americans may need to spend even more time on the income tax returns that they file in 2015 and beyond -- and many will discover they owe the tax man more than before, says Investor's Business Daily (IBD). * Beginning in 2014, individuals and families earning 100 percent to 400 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible for a federal tax credit to buy insurance via a health insurance exchange. * The amount of the credit is based on a sliding scale and decreases...

Under mounting pressure to intensify his focus on the economy ahead of the midterm elections, President Obama will call for a $100 billion business tax credit this week, using a speech in Cleveland on Wednesday to launch what administration officials said was a new policy push. The business proposal - what one aide called a key part of a limited economic package - would increase and permanently extend research and development tax credits for businesses, rewarding companies that develop new technologies domestically and preserve American jobs. It would be paid for by closing other corporate tax loopholes, said the official,...

WASHINGTON – Seeking ways to spur economic growth ahead of the November elections, President Barack Obama will ask Congress to increase and permanently extend research and development tax credits for businesses, a White House official said Sunday. Obama will outline the $100 billion proposal during a speech on the economy Wednesday in Cleveland, the official said. The announcement is expected to be the first in a series of new measures Obama will propose this fall as the administration looks to jump-start an economy that the president himself has said isn't growing fast enough. In addition to making the research credits...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. businesses eligible for a new employment tax credit hired 4.5 million new employees from February to May, the Treasury Department said on Monday -- but it declined to draw a cause-and-effect conclusion. "I would say that the jury is completely out on the number of jobs that will be added on net because of the HIRE Act," Treasury Assistant Secretary Alan Krueger said, referring to the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act passed in March. Under the act, businesses that hire people who have been out of work for at least two months do not have...

Are you a giver or a taker? No, that is not a bad pickup line from an Internet dating site — it's a question every American should be asking themselves these days. "Do I take more than I give?" I'm sure most of us want to be considered givers, not takers. After all, we grew up with the old adage that "it is better to give than receive." But we all know people who are more takers than givers. We've all seen someone who brings a small salad to the potluck but piles lots of your casserole on his...

MADISON, Wis. – Democrats who control the Legislature pushed Wednesday for an election-year package of tax credits for economic development projects and key Wisconsin industries like dairy farming and food processing. ... "Today is sort of like 'Jobapalooza'," said Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, a committee co-chair. "We are doing everything we can to see the economy turn around." Republicans complained the bills were too little, too late and were designed to prop up the political standing of the majority party rather than fix the economy. "Spinapalooza," according to Rep. Robin Vos, R-Racine. The bills still need approval from both houses.

President Obama once again insulted the intelligence of the American people today when he offered a few shiny beads instead of sound economic policy. In a preview of his upcoming State of the Union address, Mr. Obama proposed an expansion of tax credits and other initiatives supposedly designed to help the middle class. But these small ideas will likely add to the already record deficit and do nothing to promote job creation.

Oh, if you haven’t heard about this one yet… you’ll love it! The government has mismanaged $98 billion dollars for the year of 2009 and it’s only November! Just can’t account for it. Poof… There goes the 98 billion on “questionable claims for tax credits and Medicare benefits” AND these people have the answers to fix our economy and health care? Are you frick’in serious? Just a thought BUT I think the GAO should look in a few freezers. Read more...

Treasury Blocks the Sale of Tax Credits by Fannie By NICK TIMIRAOS The U.S. Treasury blocked Fannie Mae's proposed sale of nearly $3 billion in low-income housing tax credits to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. on Friday after concluding that the deal was too costly for taxpayers. The extraordinary move was the latest sign of tensions within the Obama administration over how to balance political and financial pressures resulting from the housing crisis. Fannie Mae had agreed to sell roughly half of its $5.2 billion tax-credit portfolio and had received approval to proceed with the sale from...

... For decades there has been debate about how to help the poor without discouraging work, saving or marriage. Yet with almost no notice just such disincentives have crept up the income ladder, observes economist C. Eugene Steuerle, a former Treasury official and expert on the taxation of families. At first blush it would be hard to argue with anything that might help Lederman get back on her feet. Mortgage relief? The voters clamored for it. Scholarships for less-prosperous students? Everyone wants poor kids to get the same chances in life as rich ones. Add up all these good intentions,...

Yet another bullet to fire at the housing problem. Read » The government continues its desperate effort to make the cost of dwelling more expensive. There's already an $8,000 homebuyer tax credit, but it's obviously not done enough, so Senators Johnny Isaacson and Christopher Dodd are proposing to up it to $15,000. And, perhaps more importantly, they're eliminating the income requirements. Under the previous tax credit, a couple had to have a combined income of less than $150,000. Now any upper-middle class homebuyer is eligible, and hopefully this will get the McMansion sales going again. If you think about it,...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- It's getting more rewarding to be a home buyer. There's the $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time home buyers. ....There's just one hitch: You have to buy a newly-constructed home that's never been lived in. (And later in the story) There are some other limitations: The credit is available for just one year. Also, the state allocated $100 million to the credit -- once the funds run out, so does the tax break. And taxpayers must live in the home for two years or pay the credit back, Morris said. The state tax agency will pay...

(Washington DC-1/17/09-SPAN) Excerpts from Nancy Pelosi's House Floor Speech :"The election last year is historic. The middle class has finally stood up for their interests on election day. Polls overwhelmingly call for congress to pass the economic stimulus plan proposed by President Barack Obama. " "I promised the voters that if they increased the democrat majority that the congress would work together in a bi-partisan fashion. In the spirit of bi-bipartisanship democrats are willing to call the tax rebate welfare checks "tax cuts". And we will remove more of the lower income voters from the income tax roles to free...

"Barack Obama will provide a tax cut for working families: Obama and Biden will restore fairness to the tax code and provide 95 percent of working Americans the tax relief they need. They will create a new 'Making Work Pay' tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family" campaign promise on Barack Obama.com You see right now democrats are offering tax credits (aka tax rebates, tax relief, aka income tax cuts) to those that pay no income taxes. Obama keeps repeating the phrase tax relief for hard working Americans (aka middle class). This sets up...

When Diana Higley received her September utility statement from Sheffield Utilities, she thought it was a mistake. It showed a $6.30 credit. But there was no mistake, the Tennessee Valley Authority's Sheffield affiliate assured her. Advertisement "I was shocked, amazed and thrilled," said Higley, who adopted her three grandchildren, ages 9, 8 and 4, to raise as a single mom. "I couldn't believe it. I never dreamed they would owe me money." Higley's dream came courtesy of Habitat for Humanity. In August she moved into a newly built 1,200-square-foot Habitat house in Tuscumbia. It is the first zero-energy, solar-powered Habitat...

New Welfare: Tax Cuts for Paying 0?

Hey, Senator Obama, three words … wrong, wrong, wrong! On Saturday, one-tenth of a million faithful Obama-maniacs gathered in St. Louis, Missouri to hear their man claim that his proposed tax cuts for ninety-five percent of American working families are not welfare payments, as correctly asserted by Senator John McCain. Said The One: I'm not giving tax cuts to folks who don't work, I'm giving tax cuts to people who do work. John McCain is so out of touch with the struggles you are facing that he must be the first politician in history to call a tax cut for...

The recently released details of Barack Obama's tax plan, published on his campaign website, along with an article by his top economic advisers in the Wall Street Journal, confirm that Obama makes Mondale look like a moderate. For Obama pledges not just to raise taxes. He proposes to raise every major federal tax. -The big trick behind the Obama tax plan is that his refundable tax credits would primarily go precisely to those who pay little or nothing in federal income taxes. -When "tax credits" primarily go to this group in the form of checks from the government rather than...

Barack Obama's tax plan is the opposite of supply-side economics. He proposes to raise marginal rates for just about every federal tax. He also proposes a raft of tax credits that taxpayers can receive if they engage in various government-specified activities. Moreover, the tax credits would mostly go to those who pay little or nothing in federal income taxes. His trick is to make the tax credits "refundable." Thus, if the tax credit is for $1,000, but the taxpayer would otherwise only pay $200 in taxes, the government would write a check to the taxpayer for $800. If the taxpayer...

PHOENIX (Reuters) - John McCain will push on Monday for car makers to build more environmentally friendly vehicles, threatening new legislation if they do not comply and proposing tax breaks to encourage consumers to buy "cleaner" cars. According to excerpts of his speech obtained by Reuters, the Republican presidential candidate will call for auto manufacturers to speed up the process of making engines that can use alcohol-based fuels. "Whether it takes a meeting with automakers during my first month in office, or my signature on an act of Congress, we will meet the goal of a swift conversion of American...

COLUMBIA, S.C. --Parents who home school their children should get a tax credit to help offset the expense of teaching, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Wednesday. "I also believe parents who are teaching their kids at home, homeschoolers, deserve a break, and I've asked for a tax credit to help parents in their homes with the cost of being an at-home teacher," he said. Romney supports giving parents more educational options, through charter schools or vouchers, but he said legislation should be done on a state level. "I really hesitate to have the federal government become too involved in...

Take a deep breath. Now exhale. Does that make you feel like you deserve a raise? If so, you understand the concept of the so-called "breathing bonus." And you also understand one of the main reasons New Jersey has the most expensive public school system of any state. One of the few useful results to come out of those legislative committees on property tax reform was an admission of just how costly it is to put a kid through New Jersey's public schools: $16,000 a year. That figure was included in the report of the Joint Legislative Committee on Public...

CAMBRIA, N.Y., July 31 — Reaching out to rural voters in New York and elsewhere in the nation, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Monday for increasing federal support for struggling farm communities to revitalize rural America. In a speech delivered on a 152-year-old family farm, Mrs. Clinton called for major federal investments to expand broadband Internet access in rural communities, promote the development of alternative fuel sources like corn-based ethanol and encourage medical school graduates to practice in agricultural areas. “We can build a new rural future,’’ Mrs. Clinton said, after listing economic problems that she said have led...

The effort to make cellulosic ethanol into a full-blown power source to run America's cars is embryonic, and its outcome uncertain. But the fuel has two big things going for it: High oil prices and backing from the Bush administration, which sees it as a potentially important part of future energy supplies and is putting up money to help launch the first "biorefineries" to make it. Adherents think it could reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil, cut emissions that cause global warming and shore up the nation's rural economy. Already, the race is attracting big names, with the likes of...

Dear Colleagues, Despite the accounts that education “won” with the passage of the state budget, we have precious little to celebrate and every reason to question the agreement reached by Governor Janet Napolitano, President Ken Bennett, and Speaker Jim Weiers. The Arizona Education Association opposes this budget and takes offense that it was negotiated in secrecy, voted on in the middle of the night, and that educators were not consulted about, or alerted to, the inclusion of vouchers. Specifically, Arizona is looking at more than $1.5 billion in lost revenue over the next three years, the continued expansion of corporate...

EVER since the first Prius rolled off the assembly line almost a decade ago at the Takaoka plant not far from Toyota City, hybrid cars have basically been a luxury item. If you owned one, you could feel good about using less gasoline and being a trendsetter, but you couldn't expect the fuel savings to make up for the thousands of extra dollars that the hybrid cost. There was no financial reward for environmental virtue. But in the last few months, something important has changed. Gas prices have settled in at close to $3, which is enough to make a...

Toyota hybrids have hit the ceiling - the tax break ceiling. The limit of 60,000 cars was surpassed already, BUT, because of some funky law, buyers have until Sept. 30th to buy a Prius and still qualify for the $3,150 government tax credit. After that they can only get half a credit. Qualifying for the credit is easy -- finding a Prius is the hard part. I got an email from a fellow in Canada who says they have a bunch of them just sitting around. Would anybody like to fund bringing them here to the Bay area of San...

Queens County Conservative Party Thomas M. Long, Queens County Chairman Raquel Lacomba Walker, Political Affairs Chairwoman For Immediate Press Release Contact: Thomas M. Long (718) 748-6505 April 12, 2006 **FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE** EDUCATION TAX CREDITS Queens County Conservative Party leaders are urging elected officials in the New York Senate and Assembly to make Governor Pataki’s education tax credit proposal a part of this year’s final budget. Governor Pataki’s proposal provides a $500 tax credit to low and middle income families with children in elementary or high school in order to lower costs related to private/parochial schooling, including after school programs,...

In what could be the first big legislative test for New Jersey's school voucher supporters, a pair of bills was filed that would provide privately funded scholarships for 4,000 children in four cities to attend schools of their choice. The proposed Urban Schools Scholarship Act would create pilot programs in Newark, Orange, Camden and Trenton where low-income children could tap scholarships of up to $9,000 to attend private schools or public schools outside their district, backers say. They would be funded entirely by corporate contributions that, under the new bills, would in turn qualify for state tax credits of up...

The first federal energy law in more than a decade doles out tax breaks of all sizes, designed to encourage everything from buying a fuel-efficient car and installing a solar water heater in a home to building more power lines and new nuclear reactors. The bill, signed into law by President Bush on Monday in New Mexico, was passed during a year in which the price of everything from oil and natural gas to gasoline and electricity has escalated. Before signing the bill, Bush said: "This bill is not going to solve our energy challenges overnight. It's going to take...

More than 1,000 Celebrate Fourth Anniversary of Pennsylvania Tax CreditOn what turned out to be a stunningly beautiful day, more than 1,000 parents and children joined state legislators at Pennsylvania’s Capitol in Harrisburg on May 10 to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the state’s landmark Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program (EITC).Signed into law in 2001 by former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge (R), the EITC provides tax credits ranging from 75 percent to 90 percent to companies contributing to nonprofit scholarship, educational improvement, and pre-kindergarten scholarship organizations. Nearly $27 million is allocated annually for scholarships, a little more than $13 million...