Free Republic

One million American citizens in Canada face double tax troubles. Max Reed explores these challenges in a spring series. This spring, a new tax law hangs heavy over U.S. citizens who call Canada home. The U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, has generated a lot of attention because, as of July 1, 2014, it requires Canadian financial institutions to send information about their U.S. account holders to the Canada Revenue Agency, who will hand the info off to the Internal Revenue Service. It’s all part of an IRS crackdown on foreign tax evaders that began in 2011. FATCA,...

Despite the European accord last month to extend a financial lifeline to Greece, Athens is rapidly running out of cash. So it is scrambling to find new, even radical ways to fill the shortfall — including a proposal to recruit citizens and tourists to spy on suspected tax evaders. Greece’s coffers may be empty before the end of this month, as tax receipts shrink and the economy shows signs of lapsing back into recession. Athens officials have hinted they may have trouble repaying or refinancing a total of about 7 billion euros, or $7.7 billion, owed in March to the...

If you picked up a Star Tribune last weekend, you might have read two seemingly unrelated stories. On Saturday, news of a $1.9 billion surplus, with the state budget growing to $42.5 billion for the next two years (“Surging surplus raises the stakes, Feb. 28). On Sunday, a solid piece of investigative journalism about political cronyism on the Iron Range (“Range agency deep into DFL politics, pockets,” March 1). What if these two stories were related? Researchers at Indiana University published a study last year that explored the impact of public officials’ corruption on the size and allocation of state...

The first civil war was truly about state’s rights. The next one will be also! The president is not a stupid man. He may be cunning, devious, easily given to retribution, a monstrous ideologue, an Islamic terrorist denier, and a socialist at heart. But he is not stupid. On the other hand he is not that smart. His actions betray his intellect. What he does with executive orders and lawless edicts and vetoes shows that he is more of an accomplice than a leader. In his measured and reluctant “fight” against ISIS, Obama shows his deference to Islam. By setting...

"....[Scott Walker] has proposed eliminating the long-standing racial integration program, a move that could redirect $60 million in school funding and have a cultural and financial impact on Milwaukee, nearby suburban school systems and districts like Racine, Madison and Wausau. The proposal has districts analyzing the complicated structure of school funding to try to get their arms around the potential impact of ending Chapter 220. "It's hard to speculate," said Bob Lang, director of the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, which has yet to complete its own analysis of the legislation. The governor's proposal calls for phasing out the Chapter 220...

Mark Everson, a former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, is throwing his hat in the ring and running for president of the United States. Everson was IRS commissioner from 2003 to 2007 and left to become president and CEO of the American Red Cross. He is currently vice chairman of the tax consulting firm alliantgroup and lives on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. He recently gave an interview to Accounting Today about the impact of budget cuts on his old agency...

One keeps wondering why politicians of any stripe will not do what is right in regard to governing and especially in regard to the subject of illegal immigration. The basic principle of governing was founded on Biblical principles and had in mind the well-being of the people. However, over time, that changed dramatically. Greed overwhelmed the Biblical principle concept and Pandora's Box was opened. Those needing cheap labor in order to make more profit began looking for illegal immigrant labor to meet that goal and desperate individuals from mismanaged countries poured in. As a result, even more greed (and evil)...

A former substitute teacher in Ohio has been sentenced to 90 days in jail after she was found guilty of showing students a graphic horror movie during class. Sheila Kearns, 58, was convicted in January of four counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The judge reportedly placed her on probation for three years but made the jail time a condition of her probation. Ms. Kearns apologized in court, saying she was aware of “The ABCs of Death’s” content but hadn’t actually watched it prior to showing it during five separate Spanish classes at Columbus’ East...

Mayor Nutter will ask City Council on Thursday to approve a 9.3 percent increase in property taxes to fund the beleaguered School District. In his final budget address as mayor, Nutter will ask Council - in an election year - to approve a $3.95 billion spending plan that would raise property owners' taxes by hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year. Currently, the tax bill for a home assessed at the median of $113,000 is $1,112. If Nutter's proposal was approved, it would go up to $1,216. Details of the budget were disclosed to Council members Wednesday morning in...

I know that a lot of tax reform hawks were hoping for more of a complete overhaul, perhaps taking the form of an entirely new system which replaces the progressive tax code with a completely alternate structure. (Something along the lines of a flat tax, consumption tax, etc.) It doesn’t look like that will be happening any time soon, but Marco Rubio and Mike Lee are at least looking at some simplifications. GOP Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah are rolling out an overhaul of the tax code on Wednesday that, among other things, consolidates...

Raw Power: The White House press secretary has acknowledged that President Obama is indeed interested in using executive orders to raise taxes. The long national nightmare that is the Obama presidency gets worse. All those speeches Obama made years ago about being unable to unilaterally decree laws that his supporters wanted him to enact were merely a setup for him doing it. It's clear he wanted to appear as if he respected his constitutional limits as president so that when he did what he said he couldn't do, he would look like he was operating within the law. No one...

BOSTON – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has closed to within one point of favorite son former Gov. John Ellis (“Jeb”) Bush in Bush’s home state of Florida, according to a new poll of GOP voters in the Sunshine State. Bush leads Walker, 23-22, in a poll this week of 508 Florida Republicans by Gravis Insights, a Florida-based non-partisan research firm. The poll was conducted for the Howie Carr radio show. In third place was another favorite son, FL Sen. Marco Rubio, with 11 percent. Former AR Gov. Mike Huckabee had 10 percent, ahead of retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson with...

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's budget proposal unveiled Tuesday drastically changes education funding and represents a windfall for Harrisburg residents, said Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse. The new governor's proposal completely wipes out school property taxes for Harrisburg homeowners. School taxes currently represent the bulk of homeowners' property taxes. "This is news everyone in Harrisburg needs to hear," said Papenfuse, who could hardly contain his enthusiasm. Harrisburg was among several distressed cities whose residents would get to zero out their school property taxes. Specifically, Harrisburg is in line for a 155-percent property tax reduction. That means the state would provide relief representing...

‘We were never going to win’: House GOP caves on immigration Mar. 3, 2015 9:00am Pete Kasperowicz House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has told Republicans that he would call up and pass a “clean” Department of Homeland Security spending bill this week, and give up the fight to use that bill to defund President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration. The decision marks the end of a standoff that has lasted for several weeks — a standoff Republicans will lose to Democrats when the clean DHS bill passes.

Talk radio host and author of “The Liberty Amendments,” Mark Levin criticized the media for focusing on the House of Representatives in the DHS funding battle instead of President Obama considering unilateral tax increases on Monday.

Five days after an open letter was posted online, the number of people at University of Wisconsin -- now including not only faculty, but staff, students and alumi -- demanding that UW System president Ray Cross oppose Gov. Scott Walker's plan to restructure UW in his budget rose to 484. Some 88 of them were at, or graduated from UW-Madison, where faculty were scheduled Monday to vote on a resolution asking Cross to delay restructuring. Seventy-four University of Wisconsin faculty members from campuses across the state signed an open letter to UW System president Ray Cross, “insisting in the strongest...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker delivered his budget address in February, presenting a $68 billion, two-year spending plan that he said would “assist small businesses and farmers.” .... watch Walker’s speech

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Monday that President Obama is "very interested" in the idea of raising taxes through unitlateral executive action. "The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle class Americans," Earnest said in response to a question about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calling on Obama to raise more than $100 billion in taxes through IRS executive action. "Now I don't want to leave you with the impression that there is some imminent announcement, there is not, at least that I know of,"...

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Monday that President Obama is "very interested" in the idea of raising taxes through unitlateral executive action. "The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle class Americans," Earnest said in response to a question about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calling on Obama to raise more than $100 billion in taxes through IRS executive action.

The trio of Republicans tasked with shaping GOP senators’ response if the Supreme Court voids many of the Obama health law’s tax credits have thrown their weight behind a short-term extension of financial assistance. [Snip] Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Orrin Hatch of Utah and John Barrasso of Wyoming gave their backing to such a plan in an op-ed published Sunday night in the Washington Post. “Republicans have a plan to create a bridge away from Obamacare,” wrote the men, who were tapped by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell with devising a strategy for GOP senators.