Free Republic

BONN, Germany (AP) — Once booed at international climate talks, the United States won sustained applause Sunday when President Barack Obama's envoy pledged to "make up for lost time" in reaching a global agreement on climate change.

Marketplace, January 8, 2008—Mike Huckabee is right that our tax system badly needs reform. But his proposed plan, the FairTax, would be a disaster. Sure, the FairTax sounds great. Dump all current federal taxes. Abolish the IRS! And replace them with a simple 23 percent national sales tax. Every household would get an annual "prebate"—Free money!—to help them handle the tax. Only problem is that it really is just too good to be true. First, there's fuzzy math: Say you buy something for $10 and $3 is added to the price. That sounds like a 30 percent sales tax, but...

The D.C. auditor urged city government officials three years ago to "closely monitor" the flow of real property tax revenue after she noticed a spike in the amount of money refunded to property owners. Deborah K. Nichols's reports, made in the summer of 2004, did not suggest wrongdoing in the Office of Tax and Revenue, the department now at the center of the largest financial scandal in the city's history. But she noted that the amount of property tax refunds was 105.7 percent higher than projected over three fiscal quarters, a jump not easily explained. She suggested that officials take...

Two mid-level D.C. government employees used phony paperwork to collect more than $16 million from illegal tax refunds, avoiding detection for at least three years while issuing more than 40 checks cashed by friends and family members in on the scam, prosecutors said yesterday. By day, Harriette Walters and Diane Gustus worked at the District's Office of Tax and Revenue. In their free time, prosecutors said, they worked with others to raid the city's treasury to stock up on luxury items including fancy cars, homes, furs, precious jewelry, designer handbags and clothing. Walters alone spent more than $1.4 million at...

Members of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform on May 11 expressed concerns over the FairTax national retail sales tax, a plan that has emerged as an alternative with a major grass-roots push. Panel chair Connie Mack, vice chair John B. Breaux, and other members worried the plan would be difficult to enforce, would be regressive, and would require a high rate in order to take in enough money to fund the government. Breaux raised concerns that the proposed 23 percent (tax-inclusive) rate would not be sufficient to raise the revenue necessary to fund the government. The Joint...

As gas prices continue to top $2 a gallon, all those drivers of fuel-efficient cars may not have reason to gloat for much longer. Oregon is worried that too many Honda Insights and Toyota Priuses hitting the roads will rob it of cash it expects out of its 24-cent-a-gallon tax. So the Beaver State is studying ways to ensure that "hybrid" car owners pay their "fair share" of taxes for the miles they drive. That means allowing the taxman to catch up to hybrid owners just as often as he catches up to gas guzzling SUV drivers. And if Oregon...

A former IRS agent who once helped catch tax cheats will join some of them behind bars. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart sentenced former Utahn Marissa Hyde to three months incarceration and three months of home confinement for telling clients of her tax preparation business how to cheat the Internal Revenue Service. The judge also ordered her to pay a $5,000 fine. "This is not a small matter," the judge said in rejecting a defense request to sentence Hyde to probation. Hyde, 43, who now lives in Overland Park, Kan., and is studying to be a nurse, said...

For 28 years, Mr. Schneider promoted offshore tax schemes in books and seminars. SEATTLE, Nov. 17 - Jerome Schneider, the nation's best-known seller of fraudulent offshore banks, said in an interview today that he had helped hundreds of rich Americans evade taxes, including actors, celebrities and business owners. Mr. Schneider, who pleaded guilty in February to conspiring to help his clients evade the tax laws, said that he expected "every single one" of his clients to be prosecuted or sued for the taxes they evaded. He said clients sought to evade taxes on incomes ranging from $100,000 to $40 million,...

Last month a federal court in Richmond finally took action against one of the country's most virulent tax scams: the "black tax credits." Crystal Foster, 25, and her father and tax preparer, Robert Lee Foster, 51, were sentenced for claiming — and receiving — tax refunds as reparations for slavery. Crystal Foster claimed a taxable income of only $ 3,429 but demanded $ 500,000 from the government in reparations — and got it. The IRS actually paid her $ 507,490.91 to cover the interest due to the delay in sending her a check. Cases such as the Fosters' have fueled...

Gov. Calderon wound up her latest lobbying efforts here Tuesday for the island's Section 956 economic initiative, but so far the proposal had not surfaced in President Bush's tax cut plan undergoing scrutiny in both the House and the Senate. While the governor maintained, "We don't have any firm expectations" that the island initiative would become part of the massive tax program, sources report that efforts were being made to get the Puerto Rico provision attached to a new Senate version that was introduced Tuesday and will be marked up by Thursday in the Finance Committee. Finance Chairman Charles Grassley,...

The cleanup of Vieques will not be a New Year priority here for the Calderon administration, at least not until after May 1, when the Navy is supposed to end its exercises on the small island, Resident Commissioner Anibal Acevedo Vila has indicated. Congressional action on Vieques is now "closed" - as far as the Navy exiting the island is concerned, said the resident commissioner. He did not foresee trying to rally help for the cleanup in Congress for many months, if at all. "After May, we will have to sit down with federal agencies to talk about a cleanup,"...