Posted on 03/20/2013 6:10:14 AM PDT by listenhillary
California's top-end taxpayers -- already steamed over a recent hike in the nation's highest state income tax -- are now fuming over a new $120 million retroactive tax grab on small business owners.
In December, the state's tax authority determined that a tax break claimed over the past few years by 2,500 entrepreneurs and stockholders of California-based small businesses is no longer valid and sent out notices of payment.
"How would you feel if you made a decision, which was made four years ago, (and) you absolutely knew was legally correct and four years later a governing body came in and said, 'no, it's not correct, now you owe us a bunch more money. And we're going to charge you interest on money you didn't even know you owed'," Brian Overstreet told Fox News from his office north of San Francisco.
Last year, Overstreet and his fellow investors sold Sagient Research Systems and immediately reported the sale to the California Franchise Tax Board, the state's version of the IRS. "It was good for the shareholders, it was good for the employees and good for those of us who founded it," Overstreet said about the sale of the data mining company. "We paid the tax based on the law at the time."
But the FTB changed its interpretation of the law after a state appeals court ruled unconstitutional a qualifying provision of the break requiring companies to maintain 80 percent of their workforce in California. Instead of asking the legislature for guidance on what to do, the FTB suspended the break in its entirety and ordered anyone who's claimed it in the last five years to pay up.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Paraphrasing St Augustine——”Without a system of justice, what is the state but a marauding band of thieves.”
That Reminds me of something I read in my misspent youth. It was something along the lines of:
Government is primarily a band of Vandals and Vikings searching for something to loot and the taxes we pay are the Danegeld to keep them away from our every day lives.
Of course I know now that the Danegeld wasn’t enough in the end and that they resumed raiding England and Europe eventually. What put a stop to that was armed resistance everywhere they showed up. Eventually there weren’t enough survivors to go Viking any more.
Kind makes you think doesn’t it? (With a beatific grin)
Hey, as long as Sacramento can keep the welfare monkeys happy, that’s all they care about. It’s all about buying enough votes to stay in office. What do they care about the future of their once great state?
Ex post facto applies ONLY to statutes unless you go to court. The situation here is the administrators collected the wrong taxes ~ now they have to collect the right taxes.
The same repetition of Liberal thugs in office decade after decade and their cronies follow up when THEY leave... it is a perpetual merry go round of corrupt and incompetent Liberal thieves... how could ANYTHING improve?
Why do you care.
NOT! The state is dominated by the takers! It will never happen. They need to move out to a red state.
Amazing. Stogner vs Calif., was overturned by the US Supreme court several years ago, due to ex-post facto. That ruling allowed 880 convicted serving and sentenced child molesters to go free, without parole, probation or registration. Yet, this state will go after undue monies, by legal trade, by even worse subversion.
CA is trying to destroy small businesses.
And succeeding.
Roll over and take it time has passed. Now it is time for the tar and feathers.
The things that happen in democrat controlled states are never for the people.
>Why do you care.
Because I want democrats to fail and fail big. No matter where they are doing their democrat dirty work. The more failures that are seen as the democrats fault, the fewer people will vote for their evil, thieving ways.
There are so many ways our states and feds can $crew us.
In California, the left wingers in control of the capitol are trying to enforce back taxes on tech start up investors.
Not only are they after the so called back taxes, they want penalties for late payments for past refunds:
“Engineers and hackers don’t think much about tax policy, but there’s a bizarre development in California that they should know about, since it could reduce the pool of angel-investment money available for tech startups. Under a tax break available since the 1990s, startup founders and other investors in California were allowed to exclude or defer their gains when they sold stock in California-based small businesses. Last year, a California appeals court ruled that the tax break was unconstitutional, since it discriminated against investors in out-of-state companies. Now the Franchise Tax Board, California’s version of the IRS, has issued a notice saying how it intends to implement the ruling — and it’s a doozie. Not only is the tax break gone, but anyone who claimed an exclusion or deferral on the sale of small-business stock since 2008 is about to get a big retroactive tax bill. Investors, entrepreneurs, and even the plaintiffs in the original lawsuit are up in arms about the FTB’s notice, saying that it goes beyond the court’s intent and that it will drive investors out of the state. This Xconomy article takes an in-depth look at the history of the court case, the FTB’s ruling, and the reaction in the technology and investing communities.”
California now leads nation in unemployment at 9.8 percent
How many of the job holders in Californicator land have two basic part time jobs or one full time job with a part time job to make ends meet.
Earlier, this year, a 20 something grandson of a close friend ended up in a hospital basically due to over working. He and his young uncle both had full time jobs and worked on the weekends or their time off with a full time job. These are the young men who work and have no problem finding jobs.
Recently at a social event, I got to talk to both of them, and according to them they are probably very common workers with a good work history today with two jobs. How many people are like them in California, and are they/each counted as two job holders.
A young relative, who used to work in the premium restaurants said Obozo health care is forcing many good waiters, cooks, chefs and others to have two jobs as employers are refusing to pay anyone for more than 30 hours per week to avoid the Obozo health care costs. He said some restaurant owners are working with other owners to basically share good workers to avoid the over 30 hour/week trap.
u-haul
but but .. it’s for the illegal chilrun yaknow.. when Bill Maher gets an upset tummy,, yaknow it’s close to meltdown time..
Didn’t Clinton do something really similar in....1994, or something?
“Congress has been adopting retroactive tax increases for a very long time, essentially since the 1930s. The 1913 Revenue Act was the first one with an effective date before the date of the actual enactment. Generally, the increased tax rate is applied retroactively to the year in which it is enacted. But in 1918 and 1926, each of the Revenue Acts was applied to the entire calendar year that had preceded enactment. As early as 1935, one commentator pronounced restrictions on retroactive taxation to be “dead.”
From
http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/retroactive-tax-increases-and-the-constitution
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.