Tax
I Don’t Get The Tea Parties
Maybe it’s because I’m not the target audience, but I don’t get the “tea parties” happening today. Egged on by the conservative elements of the media, people are apparently throwing tea into various bodies of water (and then quickly cleaning it up) to protest whatever. The official site says they are protesting the financial system [...]
Corporate Welfare or Supporting Businesses?
So, let’s say that you live in the state with the highest marginal corporate tax rate (and, surprisingly it’s not California [yet]). Let’s say that a politician makes the case to simply repeal that corporate income tax because it’s ineffective and not really bringing in all that much revenue. That’s pure corporate welfare, right!?!?!
Well, let’s [...]
Isn’t This Like Suing Itself?
At this point, I’d probably just give up. From BNA ($)
AIG Sues Government for $306 Million Refund of 1997 Taxes, Interest, Penalties
The insurance company American International Group Inc. (AIG) Feb. 27 filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York claiming that the federal government erroneously and illegally collected [...]
Taxes Are Funny.
Usually my profession doesn’t make the funny papers. But this week, we’re in vogue baby! Between the stimulus plan and the parade of tax cheats brought before Congress, everyone has taxes on the mind.
The Tax Guru has brought together a collection of editorial cartoons dealing with us. Here are my favorites.
Oink, Oink
It seems that no idea is too stupid to be included in the “stimulus” legislation. After striking out $250m of incentives for movie studios (basically excluding them from incentives given to all other businesses, not exactly fair) the Senate passed a gift for the auto industry.
Basically, the Mikulski Amendment would allow taxpayers an above-the-line deduction [...]
Pelosi RickRolls Congress
At least someone in the Speaker’s office has a sense of humor. While I never “got” RickRolling and the meme has really run it’s course (or maybe this is the jump the shark moment), the Speaker posted a clip of her cats playing on the floor of her office to showcase the new YouTube channels [...]
The Sign is Gone
Apparently, (hopefully former) Governor Blagojevich wasn’t a big fan of the rat poison warning posted behind his house. The sign was removed this morning after a Sun-Times photographer captured Blagojevich hiding behind the pole with the sign on it while being pursued by the media.
My original post on the picture said to give the photographer a Pultizer [...]
$300 Million Ain’t What It Used to Be
At least to Bombardier. Remember Missouri offering the company $320 million and a plant to assemble jets in Kansas City? Yeah, apparently that wasn’t enough as the company announced that it would build the jets in a suburb of Montreal instead.
Missouri officials are understandably upset. Maybe had we offered them the full $880 million in [...]
Missouri Requires Tax Credit Disclosure
About six weeks ago, I mocked the Missouri legislature for enriching themselves with tax credits but not requiring any sort of public disclosure of the credits. HB 2058 was enacted during the session to cure some of the ills of the system.
– deems a taxpayer eligible for any state tax credit program even if a [...]
Friday Quick Hits
Congrats to the Detroit Red Wings on their Stanley Cup win. Not bad for a bunch of guys that were too old, slow, and European to win the Cup.
I’m having a ton of fun with Political Calculations’ newest tool, Build Your Own Income Tax. After losing the code to an errant USB drive, they recoded it and it’s [...]
