by | ARTICLES, BLOG, CONSTITUTION, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, HYPOCRISY, LAW, TAXES
New York Governor Cuomo leads a four-state lawsuit against the federal government over the tax reform law that passed last fall. Governor Cuomo declared it “a practical act of self-defense against an adversarial federal government” and suggested that the bill was aimed to target left-leaning states.
But everybody who has any knowledge of taxation and its constitutionality knows that Cuomo’s assertion is ludicrous. The SALT deduction – and ALL deductions – are at the complete discretion of Congress. And as long as deductions apply under the same rules to every taxpayer no matter where situated, constitutionality can never be an issue.
Cuomo’s sudden role as tax crusader is laughable at best, hypocritical at worst. Cuomo and his cronies would do well to focus on reducing their states’ tax burden for their citizens instead of over something that is patently constitutional.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, CONSTITUTION, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, IRS, TAXES
The State Department, in tandem with the IRS, has stepped up enforcement of an Obama-era law that blocks Americans with ‘seriously delinquent’ tax debt from receiving new passports — and will, at some point — be allowed to rescind existing passports of people who fall into that category.”
The roots of this law began back in 2012, when a report issued by the GAO suggested the possibility of tying tax collection to passport issuance, in an effort to collect revenue. Soon thereafter, Senator Harry Reid introduced a bill in Congress that did just that, with a threshold of $50,000 in delinquency. The bill had been attempted several times in Congress over the last few years before finally being passed in late 2015; it was quietly tucked into a highway-funding bill (HR22).
Though there are exceptions to the rule (emergency and humanitarian travel, for instance), valid criticisms of the rule were raised. For instance the law isn’t limited to criminal tax cases or even situations where the government fears you are fleeing a tax debt; your passport can now get revoked merely because you owe more than $50,000 and the IRS has filed a notice of lien. Yet a $50,000 tax debt is easy to amass today and tax liens are pretty standard. The IRS files tax liens routinely when you owe taxes. It’s the IRS’ way of putting creditors on notice so the IRS eventually gets paid; the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the new law would raise about $400 million over the next decade.
A serious problem, however, looms for millions of U.S. citizens living abroad. Passports, obviously, are essential for travel, residency permits, banking, school, and work visas; yet, the IRS has documented trouble with getting mail properly to expats.
Furthermore, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, say the notices to debtors often come at the same time the State Department is notified of the taxpayer’s debt, in some cases leaving not enough time to resolve tax issues before passport problems occur.
None of that seems to matter to the IRS, which has reported that 220 people have turned over $11.5 million to repay their full debts as of late June, while 1,400 others had set up payment plans to reduce their debts. Essentially, more than 350,000 Americans face passport denial when applying or renewing, with little to no recourse for an agency plagued with problems.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, FED, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, HYPOCRISY
I’ve written about Andrew Weissmann in these pages before, and this article, written earlier in the year, recently came to my attention. Weissmann has a history of despicable lawyer practices, and this latest article shows growing concern about his past tactics — which could ultimately affect his role in the present investigation. I have reprinted the article below:
The top attorney in Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel’s office was reported to the Department of Justice’s Inspector General by a lawyer representing whistleblowers for alleged “corrupt legal practices” more than a year before the 2016 presidential election and a decade before to the Senate Judiciary Committee, this reporter has learned.
Described by the New York Times as Mueller’s ‘pitbull,‘ Andrew Weissmann, a former Eastern District of New York Assistant U.S. Attorney, rose through the ranks to eventually become Mueller’s general counsel at the F.B.I.
In 2015 Weissmann was selected to run the Department of Justice’s criminal fraud section and was later handpicked by Mueller to join the ongoing Special Counsel’s Office investigation into the alleged obstruction and alleged collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
But Weissmann’s rise to the top was rocky from the start. Although he’s been described as a tough prosecutor by some, his involvement in a case targeting the Colombo crime family in a New York Eastern District Court was the first of many that would draw criticism from his peers, as well as judges.
Civil rights and criminal defense attorney David Schoen, was the lawyer who reported Weissmann. Schoen met with Inspector General Michael Horowitz and several FBI officials to discuss Weismann in 2015. Schoen, who says he has never been a member of a political party, told this reporter his concerns about Weissmann do not stem from politics but from Weissmann’s ‘egregious’ actions in previous cases. He became involved in Colombo crime cases more than 20 years ago after evidence revealed that the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence in the case.
Schoen said he decided to revisit the case based on new witness information and “recent evidence that has come to light in the last several months.”
“The issue with Weissmann both pre-dates and transcends any of these current political issues,” said Schoen, who also used to represent the ACLU in Alabama. “I have met with Senator (Charles) Grassley’s staff and the DOJ IG about these issues and that was well before all of this…I care about these issues as a person who chose this profession and am otherwise very proud to be able to practice law, as the proud son of an FBI agent, and as a civil rights attorney dedicated to doing my part in trying to improve public institutions.”
John Lavinsky, a spokesman for the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General, declined to comment on Schoen’s meeting with Horowitz.
Weissmann also declined to comment for this story.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, ECONOMY, FREEDOM, POLITICS
The Wall Street Journal published a ridiculous article, “The Gender Pay Gap Is a Lot Bigger Than You Think” that used every possible misconception, misstatement, and lie about the gender gap.
The author, Maddy Dychtwald, talks about an 18 cent pay gap differential, but instead of acknowledging that any differentials that exist relate to choices, the article only focuses on retirement funds.
There are many reasons for a pay gap – but it isn’t merely because of one’s gender. It has been shown time and again that many women have alternative career paths by choice: different jobs, amounts of time worked, lifestyle flexibility, and risks in occupation to name a few; therefore, any difference in the pay is a result of those choices and not some sort of discrimination. Dychtwald’s conclusion implies that a gender wage gap is “damaging to women” because women will likely have substantially less money saved and earned over her lifetime. Yet she doesn’t even consider that, for many women, working full time may be “damaging” to women who have alternative life goals — such as raising a family — and that amassing retirement funds might not be the ultimate end focus.
Wage gaps exist as a result of job choices, not gender. It is totally distressing that the Wall Street Journal’s typically consistent and balanced reporting on the concept of gender pay gap allowed this outrageous article to be published — without response.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, ECONOMY, FREEDOM, HYPOCRISY, TAXES
FEE.org recently shed light on the ridiculous behavior of Oxfam, a charity that is supposed to be dedicated to fighting poverty. Indeed, their statement of purpose proclaims “The purpose of Oxfam is to help create lasting solutions to the injustice of poverty. “
However, careful reading of their most recent report show that Oxfam spends most of its time, energy, and our donated funds monitoring and writing about the false “need” to reducing wealth and income inequality – the very opposite of fighting poverty. If poverty is the “state of being very poor” then it follows that the elimination of such destitution would mean moving from being very poor to less poor, i.e., increasing wealth. Thus, it would follow that an increase of wealth would to be an inherently good as a means to achieve the goal of poverty reduction, right? Not so with Oxfam. Growing wealth is increasingly seen as a bad thing.
Indeed, last year, Oxfam seemed preoccupied with the notion that some people have too much wealth. In their 2017 report, “Oxfam condemns the fact that there is now a dramatic increase in the number of billionaires around the world. It considers this phenomenon as indicative of “extreme wealth.”
The fact is that economic growth is NOT a zero sum game – the more growth there is, the more benefits to all levels of society. There is no doubt that the creations of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have had enormous effects in reducing world poverty – despite the fact that they became billionaires in the process.It is also the fact that an increase in the amount of wealthy persons indicates that upward mobility can and is being achieved by more people. In fact, “global extreme poverty has fallen dramatically over recent decades. It is likely that extreme poverty will be eliminated within the current generation. This won’t satisfy Oxfam, however, because it concerns itself with the rich, not the destitute.”
Not content with having mismatched priorities, Oxfam has also cobbled together a list of suggestions for global, national, and local governments, suggestions that do not relate to poverty reduction. Oxfam urges “policies to tackle all forms of gender discrimination, promote positive social norms and attitudes towards women and women’s work, and rebalance power dynamics at the household, local, national and international levels.”
When a charity loses its purpose and becomes a social engineering, social justice organization, one should not be supporting it. Poverty is egregious. Lifting folks out of poverty is important. To not realize that increasing world economic growth and wealth – yes, and even making many more billionaires – has been what has been so effective in reducing world poverty, simply shows economic illiteracy. berate an increase in wealth and instead desire to “level the playing field” betrays its mission; Oxfam is to be avoided.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, CONSTITUTION, ECONOMY, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, SCOTUS, TAXES
This week, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of taxation for businesses that lack a physical nexus. Justices Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch, writing for the majority opinion, believed that the emergence of the internet as a mainstream medium for interstate commerce caused the physical presence rule to become further removed from economic reality and resulted in significant revenue losses to states.
The revenue loss argument is nonsense; it is a back-door way for states to add additional levies on their citizens under the guise of leveling the playing field . For years now, we’ve been hearing the protestations that there is dearth of tax revenue from which states are suffering terribly.
But this is simply and patently untrue. State legislatures have always set their tax rates with the full understanding that they would not actually collect that supposed billions of internet “slippage”. It’s not like there is a line item in state budgets that lists “uncollected online tax” or “tax cheats” with a number attached. Sales tax is merely one of many levies whose revenues positively fund government spending. This online tax will now just be yet another tax (and therefore revenue) for the coffers. Higher marginal rates exists because state-government spending levels are higher — not because of some “absence of tax” nonsense that forces states to raise rates.
In our states’ budgets, current taxes rates (income + sales, if applicable) are set at levels appropriate to cover the calculations of state spending. 49 out of 50 states require a balanced budget. These states are fully aware that taxes are “avoided” (internet and out-of-state) and therefore don’t even count them in their budget calculations. So there is no concrete “absence of revenue”. Instead, by passing this new internet tax, states are now given free reign to add a tax without taking the political heat for it, under the guise of “fairness”.
Looked at it another way, it is unconscionable for this ruling to stand without Congressional action that requires states to lower their marginal rates so that the new tax makes everything revenue neutral. Higher marginal rates as they are already burden taxpayers. This internet tax doesn’t fix anything — because there is nothing in their budgets to be “fixed”. True tax reform (a true “fix”) always means broadening the base and thereby reducing the overall burden of taxes. Instead of that, what we have with ruling will be a revenue grab.
Another fallacy for supporters is that including the internet tax in transactions is simply a matter of adding a quick, little tax line where there was none before. But it is highly irrational for legislators to believe that compliance with multiple tax jurisdictions for vendors will be an easy and unburdensome process. The recordkeeping will be excruciating. From an accountant’s perspective, here’s how:
The effect of distressing our businesses to comply with this online tax collection will be a drag on the economy. Can you imagine vendors needing to figure such things as whether marshmallows are a taxable food/candy in some jurisdictions while it might be a non-taxable food in others? To think that software can seamlessly make this distinction is ludicrous (especially software run by the government.) When has the government ever actually streamlined anything?
Internet tax collection for 10,000 local tax jurisdictions or even just 50 states is too much. If such a tax is to be implemented, it should be either a tax in which every state accepts one set of rules OR a tax payable to the state-of-sale only — which would ultimately be better for tax competition overall. Without a fix, compliance will certainly be massive and burdensome — which will hurt this economy that is slowing but surely recovering from the last ten years.
Arthur Laffer observed that “the principle of levying the lowest possible tax rate on the broadest possible tax base is the way to improve the incentives to work, save and produce which are necessary to reinvigorate the American economy and cope with the nation’s fiscal problems”. But a hodge-podge “internet tax” doesn’t do that. Without a solid Congressional solution for correctly calculating and remitting sales tax in 10,000+ jurisdictions, we will have a nightmare for accountants and businesses — at the cost of grabbing another revenue stream for our bloated, overspending government.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, ECONOMY, FREEDOM, TAXES
Now that home-buying season is upon us, is it any wonder that high income tax states and property tax states are again seeing an exodus from the excessive burden? With the Jobs and Tax Cut Act — which rightly capped deductions of state and local taxes — some taxpayers are feeling a “disproportionate” share of cost as taxation is properly realigned. It’s no wonder that high tax states such as New York and California are being traded for places like Florida and Nevada. When lawmakers recklessly spend their constituents money and then finally have to reconcile it, taxpayers who are fed up with mismanagement are smart to seek refuge elsewhere.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, ECONOMY, FED, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, HYPOCRISY, OBAMA, POLITICS, POTUS, TRUMP
George Will shined the light on yet another disturbing case of civil asset forfeiture a practice that denies citizens the right to due process. In this particular instance, a border agent on US soil unlawfully demanded the password a citizen’s phone; when he refused, they searched his truck and then seized possession of it after finding five .380-caliber bullets (and no weapon) in the truck’s center console. Their rationale? He was transporting “munitions of war.”
Civil asset forfeiture allows law enforcement to take money or property from a citizen who is merely suspected of criminal activity — not charged or convicted. Though original asset forfeiture laws were aimed at drug cartels to interrupt their business and money, it use has expanded rapidly in recent years. It’s not being used just for “organized crime” anymore; that’s a red herring that gives police a green light to continue to abuse citizens and take their property without due process. Citizens are guilty until proven innocent and have to prove that they were not involved in any criminal activity, which can be a long and expensive process against the government.
Outrageously, the citizen had to petition to get a judicial hearing about his truck (after paying a bond of 10% of his truck’s value) — but then the hearing actually never happened. He never got his due process and only got his truck back after two years, during which he faithfully continued making loan payments and maintained insurance. This lack of any hearing for a citizen to redress the unlawful seizure is not an anomaly, either. In fact, the citizen is now pursuing a class action lawsuit, just “to establish a right to prompt post-seizure judicial hearings,” which should already be a given anyway in such incidences — even though the practice of civil asset forfeiture should be abolished outright.
Civil asset forfeiture is really all about money. “Under the equitable sharing program, federal authorities may “adopt” state and local forfeiture cases and prosecute them at the federal level. Those local police departments get to keep up to 80 percent of the forfeiture revenue, while the rest goes into the equitable sharing pool and is distributed among partner departments around the country.” During the Obama Administration — after some highly publicized appalling asset forfeiture cases, Obama began addressing asset forfeiture and restrictions were rightly implemented as a stepping stone to reign in this abominable practice. Unfortunately last year, AG Jeff Sessions loosened those once again.
Clarence Thomas wrote a scathing dissent of asset forfeiture last year when SCOTUS chose not to hear a case on the matter. He wrote, “this system—where police can seize property with limited judicial oversight and retain it for their own use—has led to egregious and well-chronicled abuses. He further pointed out, “because the law enforcement entity responsible for seizing the property often keeps it, these entities have strong incentives to pursue forfeiture.” Clarence Thomas is entirely correct, and the policy of civil asset forfeiture should be entirely eliminated. Continuing to highlight this abhorrent practice is the only way to bring about change.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, BUSINESS, CONSTITUTION, ECONOMY, EDUCATION, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, HYPOCRISY, POTUS, TRUMP
It seems like spending reductions, smaller government, and eliminating waste are no longer Republican ideals. When Education Secretary Betsy DeVos presented a budget that did just that, Congress turned a deaf ear. What’s more, they made it difficult for her to even make some systemic changes to the Department of Education that (like most departments) desperately needs.
As part of the massive spending bill that was passed last week, Congress “awarded the department a $2.6 billion boost when Mrs. DeVos had requested a $9 billion cut. She had sought to dismantle her agency’s central budget office, a move she said would create a leaner structure, and to cut the number of field offices in the civil-rights division to four from 12. The spending package included specific measures preventing her from doing so.”
Apparently, trying to implement change caused some problems among more seasoned politicians that Congress just put a stop to by hamstringing her efforts at education and fiscal reform: “in the spending package, lawmakers forbade Mrs. DeVos from dismantling the budget office and increased the civil-rights division’s funding by $8.5 million, specifying that the additional money couldn’t be used to reduce staff, such as through buyouts. The civil-rights division is tasked with, among other things, enforcing Title IX.”
It’s a shame that politics over policy has gotten so pervasive even among Republicans. Such ridiculous behavior shows how broken our system has become — which is why it’s getting more and more likely that a huge Democrat sweep will happen at midterms.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, BUSINESS, ECONOMY, FED, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, POLITICS
Did you even notice that whenever the economy issues good results (a strong jobs report, etc.), the stock market goes DOWN? Logic would seemingly have it be the opposite. If the economy was strong, one would assume the stock market would respond positively. But often that’s not really the case.
For years, I couldn’t understand it — how stupid could the market be? Why would the market do poorly? Wall Street professionals claim to understand it. They point out that the stock market and economy are not necessarily affected the same way. When the economy is strong, the market has often already gone up in anticipation of the improving economy. But with the stronger economy, the Fed is likely to hike interest rates, threatening the strong growth going forward. Also, with interest rates rising, investors have the alternative of earning fixed, safe rates of return by buying bonds.
Though I do follow that logic, I do not agree with it. My strong belief is that as long as the economy is strong, with sound existing economic policies in place, I believe that financial growth and profitability will continue. And I would view downturns caused by positive financial results as a buying opportunity.
The economy has begun the road to renewed growth – finally getting rid of the Obama stagnation caused by increasing taxes, stifling regulation, and anti-business sentiment. It’s unreasonable to believe that the concern of interest rates should have more sway than a growing economy. Even if interest rates rise, does anyone really believe that a business will forego an expansion opportunity just because borrowing costs are 1 or 2 percentage points higher?
Of course, it would make sense for the stock market to become weaker if President Trump goes ahead with his economically ignorant tariff and anti-free-trade policies, as well as his economically stagnating immigration restrictions.
But as for now, the fluctuations are a confirmation of a stronger economy and the multiple opportunities afforded to investors.
