Free Republic

It’s time to end the Government Property Lease Excise Tax Michelle Bolton, Goldwater Institute Daily Email, April 22, 2008 Fair and equitable taxation is key to economic freedom and prosperity. Rules that favor a few special interests create an un-level playing field and put other businesses at a disadvantage. The Government Property Lease Excise Tax (GPLET) is a case in point. It allows cities to take title to land and buildings and then lease them back to a private company for a nominal fee. These businesses then pay a fraction--often one tenth--of what their property taxes would otherwise be. GPLETs...

China's Richest Ask For A Tax Break Shu-Ching Jean Chen, 03.04.08, 2:41 AM ET HONG KONG - No issue evokes more emotion in China than the widening gap between rich and poor. Zhang Yin, China's richest woman, touched a raw nerve on Monday when she effectively asked China's parliament for a tax break. At the opening session of the yearly meeting of the National People's Congress, the plain-talking female founder of Asia’s largest containerboard manufacturer, Nine Dragons, called for a reduction of the income tax rate for the country's top earners--those making a monthly salary of more than 100,000 yuan...

RUSH: Emily in Cary, North Carolina, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello. CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you? RUSH: Fine. Thank you. CALLER: Great. It's great to talk to you. I'm just calling because I finally have a reason to buy a hybrid. I've been waiting because I've been debating about it because I'm tired of the oil-rich countries, you know, becoming rich on the backs of Americans, so I've been wanting to buy something that, you know, would use less oil so we would in turn give more oil to, you know, Chavez or wherever, but now I have...

LOS ANGELES U.S. Rep. Gary Miller has avoided paying millions of dollars in taxes on real estate deals under a tax break that protects people forced to sell their property, but officials dispute they ever made him sell his land, a newspaper reported Sunday. Miller, R-Diamond Bar, sold 165 acres to Monrovia, a suburb about 10 miles east of Los Angeles, in 2002 for a profit of more than $10 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. Following the sale, he told the Internal Revenue Service and the state he was forced to sell under threat by the city of...

Another L.A. Times Unfounded Slur on a Republican Politician L.A. Times http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-miller13aug13,0,2223572.story?coll=la-home-headlines Official's Tax Break: on Firm Ground? Rep. Miller has avoided paying millions on real estate profits. He says the sales were forced; cities' officials dispute that. By William Heisel, Times Staff Writer August 13, 2006 When U.S. Rep. Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar) sold 165 acres to the city of Monrovia in 2002, he made a profit of more than $10 million, according to a financial disclosure form he filed in Congress. Ordinarily, he would have had to pay state and federal taxes of up to 31% on that...

For the second year, Florida is granting consumers a tax break on supplies for hurricane season, which starts June 1. The tax holiday starts Sunday and ends June 1, and consumers will save an estimated $41 million in state and local sales taxes this year. The list of items has changed little from last year. Storm shutters and cell phone batteries were added, and the cost of generators that qualify for the break was raised to $1,000. Plywood, that old hurricane standby, did not make the list again this year. For information, visit www.myflorida.com/

Utah has offered its largest economic incentive ever - an estimated $15 million - to high-tech giants Micron Technology Inc. and Intel Corp., which plan under a joint venture to add 1,850 new jobs in Lehi over the next 18 months to two years.    Members of the Governor's Office of Economic Development Board on Friday unanimously approved the incentive from the state's tax rebate program, which typically is reserved for companies that have not yet decided where they will expand. The board awarded the incentive even though the two companies' IM Flash Technologies partnership said months ago it would expand...

OVERVIEW One reason the U.S. government provides tax credits is to promote consumer behavior that benefits the greater good. While not many would argue with a tax credit that allows teachers to recover unreimbursed costs of school supplies, for example, some tax credits demonstrate a failure of our national priorities. The tax break given to small business owners that allows the entire purchase price of a sport utility vehicle (SUV) to be deducted is one of the most glaring examples of a good idea going in the wrong direction.

The one tax cut that just expired injected more money into the U.S. economy than all of the other Bush tax cuts combined last year. Initial estimates suggest that a steep tax cut on the repatriation of foreign earnings likely induced companies to bring home nearly $350 billion that they had permanently stashed overseas. The surge in repatriated funds was triggered by a provision in the 2004 American Jobs Creation Act that cut the effective tax rate on earnings of foreign subsidiaries to 5.25% from a maximum 35% for one year.

(AP) — Congress passed nearly $8 billion in tax breaks for Gulf Coast businesses on Friday but denied federal help for casinos, liquor stores and golf courses. Almost four months after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the coast, destroying businesses and jobs, lawmakers responded to President Bush's appeal for revitalizing the region with a special enterprise zone. Both the House and Senate passed the bill by voice vote on Friday. "It'll help to get our local government back on its feet, and it'll help to get our businesses incentivized to come back," said Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. "It'll make a huge...

American workers have been getting the short end of the stick since 1943. That's when the United States Congress, in response to the costs of World War II, passed the Current Tax Payment Act. The act requires employers to withhold taxes from their employees' paychecks, overturning the previous system in which workers were paid first and settled their tab with the government later. The Current Tax Payment Act is why so many people look at their paychecks and wonder where all their money has gone. My poor dad -- who also happened to be my real dad -- often said...

The state government continues to spend beyond its means, with Republicans calling for cuts in government, or at least cuts in its rate of growth, and Democrats pushing for tax and fee increases to make up the difference. But apparently there is one area of agreement between members of both parties: They would like to cut down on so-called tax cheats who are estimated to cost the state $6.5 billion a year. A particularly dismaying plan now being pushed by Controller Steve Westly would encourage Californians to snitch on people who might not be paying their proper amount of taxes....

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is poised to throw his star power, and political clout, behind tax breaks for the entertainment industry aimed at keeping film productions in the state. ``It is extremely important that we continue supporting our motion picture industry and that we, as a state, do everything that we can,'' he told a mostly entertainment-industry crowd at a glittery, Hollywood-style premiere Tuesday night. To help the state create jobs for everyone from caterers and janitors to make-up artists and gaffers, Schwarzenegger said, ``we are working right now through the legislators on a bill to give tax credits,...

LITTLE ROCK — A judge Tuesday ordered the state to grant a $3.5 million tax break to the foundation that is building Bill Clinton's presidential library. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Willard Proctor Jr. ruled that the state Department of Economic Development improperly denied the nonprofit foundation's 2002 application under the Arkansas Enterprise Zone Act, which the judge concluded made no distinction at the time between for-profit or nonprofit businesses. Skip Rutherford, president of the library foundation, welcomed the judge's decision just over a month before the library's Nov. 18 opening. "We're pleased and we're grateful," Rutherford said. "Our finance...

Last night John Kerry, the carnival barker(let me guess your weight/age for a quarter) guessed that only three people in the room earned more than $200,000 last year. Betcha a quarter he is wrong on that one. The real issue is that he will roll back taxes for those earning under $200,000. He just gave himslef a tax break. According to his tax returns he only reports since 1999 his earnings as a senator except last year when there were sales of trust and other properties, a one time event. So he is wrong on the number of people earning...

Over the next few weeks we will do a four-part series of articles, highlighting the major legislation that passed during the 2004 legislative session. This week is the first in this series, it will focus on efforts that the Legislature made to provide lower taxes to Florida’s residents wherever possible. Lower Taxes During this past legislative session, House members fought hard to maintain a low-tax, business-friendly approach to government that ensures Floridians have the freedom to pursue their hopes and dreams. Recognizing that Florida families have worked hard, played by the rules, and consistently created quality communities, the Legislature created...

ASHINGTON, March 25 — Responding to widespread anxiety about the movement of American jobs overseas, Senator John Kerry plans to propose on Friday a sweeping revision of international corporate taxes intended to prompt companies to invest more money in the United States. Aides said Mr. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, would also challenge President Bush by saying his administration would spawn 10 million additional jobs over four years. Democrats often point out that more than two million jobs have been lost since Mr. Bush became president. In a speech he is scheduled to deliver at Wayne State University in...

Funding the UN

Bawling out old, bawling in new Stroke of midnight divides 2 births into different tax breaks By Jim Sheeler, Rocky Mountain News January 2, 2004 As the clock neared midnight in the maternity ward at University Hospital, Ellen Hoehne thought of asking to move her bed closer to a window, so she could watch the fireworks. Twenty miles away, at Littleton Adventist Hospital, Susan Romero looked at the clock and then at her husband. "This might just happen," they thought. "Baby New Year." By the end of the night, one of the women would have the metro area's first baby...

When Congress this year decided to allow small-business owners, doctors, lawyers and real estate salespeople to deduct up to $100,000 from their taxable income for the purchase of a luxury SUV, Texas car-dealership magnate Jerry Reynolds could hardly believe his good fortune. HE TOOK to the radio to spread the news, drafted a treatise for the Internet, and last week, the man known around Dallas simply as “the car guy” began advertising in the Dallas Morning News. “It’s a loophole,” the ad proclaims, “and this weekend, we can show you how to make that loophole big enough to drive a...