TAX POLITIX
The Politics of Taxes
What Makes Good (Tax) Law
A good tax system is built on four principles: simplicity, transparency, neutrality, and stability. Serious minded professionals and statesmen have known and pushed for these principles for generations. These principles should be the basis for tax policies created by lawmakers so that our tax system is organized and understandable. The first principle is simplicity. By this concept, both taxpayers and the IRS deserve to have policies and a system that makes tax compliance and tax enforcement...
More on Capital Gains
The concept of an American President (Biden) going after people making a lot of money displays an absolute lack of familiarity with how people get wealthy. As a CPA, I can attest to the fact that the most common way people accumulate massive wealth is either by a huge amount of hard work (creating a successful business) or selling an asset (an invention, real estate, etc). Many people who file tax returns with large amounts of income, such as selling a business for $10 million, will have a...
Biden’s Ignorance About Capital Gains
When Biden was a candidate, one of his proposals was to raise the capital gains tax (which also applies to dividends) to 39.6%. When I wrote about it at the time, it sounded completely outrageous that any serious candidate for President of the United States would willfully consider implementing such a devastating levy. We had already experienced the negative effects of Obama’s 23.8% tax on capital gains which contributed to the sluggish economic recovery during the Obama administration, and...
Bad Votes on Stimulus Amendments
There were several dozen proposed amendments to the huge stimulus bill that recently passed Congress. Many of them failed by a slim margin, but the votes were absolutely outrageous. It is worthwhile to remember these votes for 2022, as many of the Senators voted against their own constituents. Here are some of the most notable ones: The Cassidy Amendment, 1161: This would have “given some emergency assistance to non-public schools”, but it failed, so all of the $135 billion will go to public...
The Stimulus is Unconstitutional
The most recent stimulus package gives money to one segment of the population by taking money from another segment of the population. Since wealth transfers cannot reasonably be inferred as any of the acts allowable by the federal government under the Constitution, the Stimulus Act is blatantly unconstitutional. The recent stimulus checks from the federal government are a pure, vote buying giveaway. Neither need nor negative impact from Covid are factors in getting these payments. While some...
Senator Warren’s Wealth Tax: A Study in Economic Ignorance
On February 2nd Senator Elizabeth Warren announced that she will join the Senate Finance Committee, the committee tasked with writing this country’s tax laws. She stated, "I'm very pleased to join the Finance Committee, where I'll continue to fight on behalf of working families and press giant corporations, the wealthy, and the well-connected to finally pay their fair share in taxes.” Warren has often advocated for a wealth tax in the past, especially during her campaign last year for the...
What Everyone Was Getting Wrong About Gamestop
Gamestop stock may be fundamentally worth $10, or maybe even $20 if there is some hidden value in intangibles or some future prospects. But not $400. The only question is whether those buying at $400 truly had reason to believe that it was worth that amount (which is probably unlikely). Or were they just buying in the hope that the price would go up more irrationally, allowing them to make a profit before the stock tanked? Those that were just blindly following the crowd simply deserve what...
Another Reason Against Additional Stimulus Payments
Proposed legislation in Congress has at its core the addition of $1400 per person (on top of the $600 already passed in other legislation) creating a $2,000 per person payment. Its purpose is stated to be to “stimulate the economy” even though what we actually need to focus on is getting more people back to work. The prospect of giving out an additional $1400 payment is absolute insanity. We don’t need it, as we have the highest rate of savings right now that we’ve had in a long time....
Stakeholder Capitalism: Not Really
Stakeholder capitalism is all the rage these days, with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders at the forefront of the movement. Their participation is just another example of their economic ignorance. The concept of stakeholder capitalism is itself a contradiction in terms; it would be more correct to call it “stakeholderism.” Just like crony capitalism (it is really just “cronyism”) isn’t real, as the terms are opposites of one another, the same with stakeholder capitalism. You...
The Eviction Moratorium is Unconstitutional
It is undeniable that people are hurting from COVID. It is also untenable that one of the continued solutions is an ongoing moratorium on evictions. Such a policy would seem to be blatantly unconstitutional. A national moratorium on evictions picks winners and losers by government fiat by preferring one population (renters) over another population (landlords). The moratorium continues to allow people to live in their spaces without paying what they are contractually obligated to pay, putting...
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More Capital Gains Distortions
The article written by Josh Zumbrun of the Wall Street Journal on December 31, entitled, "Tax Rate for Top 400 Taxpayers Climbed in 2013," should have been fairly straightforward with interesting data on that particular tax demographic....
The IRS Admits to Erasing Another Important Hard Drive
The IRS is involved in another "erased hard drive" event -- and it's not a part of the IRS scandal of 2013. It is apparent that there is a pattern of destruction at the agency. This time, the hard drive that was erased belonged to "Samuel Maruca,...
Getting Ready For Tax Season? Here are the 2015 Rates You’ll Need
Tax season has begun. Normally, the deadline for filing your federal tax return is April 15. But because the Washington D.C. Emancipation Day holiday falls on April 15 this year, Tax Day is the Monday after, April 18th. Last spring, Forbes put...
Government Outpaces Private Sector in Wages and Benefits
Government wage increases vastly outpaced the public sector, and the number of government jobs have soared. For the federal government alone, there are 2.1 million workers, “costing over $260 billion in wages and benefits this year.” according to...