Tag: Taxes

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: “SALT” in our wounds

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

https://reason.com/volokh/2022/04/18/supreme-court-definitively-ends-the-salt-tax-deduction-case/?comments=true#comment-9453494

Supreme Court Definitively Ends the SALT Tax Deduction Case

  • The highly dubious lawsuit filed by four blue states against the the law capping federal tax deductions for state and local taxes is now truly dead in the water.

Ilya Somin | 4.18.2022 8:26 PM

*** begin quote ***

As Jonathan Adler points out, today the Supreme Court refused to review a lower-court decision upholding the 2017 tax law’s caps on the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes. The law, enacted by a GOP-controlled Congress, limits this $10,000 for individual taxpayers and married couples filing jointly, and $5000 for married people filing separately.  Jonathan rightly notes that the case never had much merit, which is why it was uniformly rejected by the lower-court judges who considered it (all of them Democratic appointees).

I have followed this case from its inception. The claims the plaintiffs raised about coercion, the Tenth Amendment, and other issues, are important for anyone who follows constitutional federalism issues, and would have set a dangerous new precedent had they succeeded. Here is a list of my posts about it.

*** end quote ***

While I am far from “rich”, having real estate in a “blue state”, I’m impacted by SALT.

i object to the entire concept of the “federal income tax”. The Dead Old White Guys must be rolling over when SCOTUS affirms the income tax and all the host of other confiscatory taxes that the central Gooferment levies on the people.

“We, The Sheeple” are just stupid cowards. The Revolution was fought over the King’s taxes which were a fraction of what we pay today. If the Blue States really had their acts togeter, they’d secede from the Union. If the Red States really had their acts togeter, they’d secede from the Union. There is NO reason to allow Washington to run our lives with one size fits all Gooferment policies.

Time has come for everyone to go their separate ways.

“Would you tell me please, Mr. Howard, why should I trade one tyrant three thousand miles away for three thousand tyrants one mile away? An elected legislature can trample a man’s rights as easily as a king can.” Mel Gibson as the character Benjamin Martin in the movie The Patriot http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0187393/quotes

We should trade for local tyrants, as opposed to Washington DC tyrants, because we MIGHT be able to convince the locals.  If not, it’s not a far drive to bring the torches and pitchforks.

Argh!

—30—

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Time to nuke the DHS; What IS DOD for?

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https://mises.org/blog/four-agencies-abolish-along-dept-education

Four Agencies to Abolish along with the Dept. of Education
02/23/2017Ryan McMaken 

*** begin quote ***

One: The Department of Homeland Security, $51 Billion

Somehow, the United States managed to get along for more than 225 years before this Department was created by Congress and the Bush Administration in 2002. 

The Department quickly became a way for the federal government to spread federal taxpayer dollars to state and local law enforcement agencies, thus gaining greater control at the local level. The DHS administers a number of grant programs that have helped to purchase a variety of new toys for law enforcement groups including new weapons, and new technologies. Also included in this is the infamous military surplus program which is supplies tanks and other military equipment to police forces everywhere from big cities to small rural towns. The crime-free town of Keene, New Hampshire made sure its police received a tank through this program as have many larger cities. 

When the Orlando gunman opened fire in the Pulse nightclub in 2016, the police eventually rolled up in a tank — which did nothing to stem the bloodshed inside the club. 

Police claim they need these half-million-dollar vehicles from the DHS to deal with civil unrest. Never mind, of course, that every state already has a National Guard force specifically for that purpose. 

While the Department was created in response to the 9/11 attacks, the Department does nothing to address anything like a 9/11-style attack, and all the agencies that were supposed to provide intelligence on such attacks — the FBI for instance — already exist in other departments and continue to enjoy huge budgets. 
DHS also includes agencies that already existed in other departments before, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the agencies that handle immigration and customs. Those agencies should either be returned to the departments they came from or be abolished. 

And, few would miss the Transportation Security Administration — an agency that has never caught a single terrorist, but has smuggled at least $100 million worth of cocaine. 

*** end quote ***

I guess no one sees the irony of using the word “homeland” which was used throughout the reign of Hitler and throughout World War II.

Doesn’t the “Department of Defense” include the mission of DHS? And if not, why not?

Seems like we could “repurpose a lot of Human Resources” (Isn’t that what corporations say before layoffs?), very quickly and easily.

Time to start with a BIG chopping block.

DHS, and with it TSA, was stupid “knee jerk” reaction to 9/11. And it has proved just how inept a response it was. Argh!

I continually reiterate my favorite question: “Can anyone name a Gooferment program that accomplishes its goals? Never mind how inefficient and ineffective they are, they go one forever — like perpetual motion machines. 

Argh!

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POLITICAL: Abolish the IRS

Published on by reinkefj3 Comments

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2015/04/enough-is-enough-abolish-the-irs/

Enough Is Enough: Abolish the IRS
By Editor on April 12, 2015

*** begin quote ***

The income tax is absolutely crazy if one takes a moment to think about it. We’ve become so conditioned to accept it that we don’t even realize how ridiculous it is. The government taxes one for being productive, for creating income for one’s family, for doing one’s part to grow the economy. It doesn’t make any sense.

*** and ***

The IRS has also become a political tool as the Lois Lerner debacle illustrated. 

*** and ***

We should seriously consider a flat tax. Forget consider, we should institute a low flat tax tomorrow. 12.5% across the board. I could live with that (for right now.) 1 postcard on April 15th. No forms. Easy. Actually EZ.

*** end quote ***

I say 10%!

With reduction every year.

Until it’s zero.

Like Prohibition, “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs”, and the Federal Reserve, “We, The Sheeple” have allowed a lot of mistakes to be made.

Argh!

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RANT: The four insideous taxes

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment
‎”“Florida is a state of choice,” said Thalius Hecksher, global development chief for Apex Fund Services, who moved many of his operations to Palm Beach. “It’s organically grown. There’s no need to drag people down here. It’s a zero-income-tax jurisdiction.”” http://buff.ly/WszLB0 Should have done it year ago!!!

‘Wall St.’ flees NY for tax-free Fla.

http://www.nypost.com

The city’s hedge-fund executives are flying south — and it’s not for vacation. An increasing number of financial firms, especially private equity and hedge funds, are fed up with…
–30–
Don’t forget FOUR insidious taxes that you don’t see: (1) the inflation tax — the FED has destroyed 99%of the value of the dollar in the last three or four decades; (2) the gas tax — gets added into every product sold and into every capital good used to make products, or deliver them; (3) the corporate tax — corps don’t pay tax, people do, they just pass it on; and (4) the estate tax — that turns productive assets into legal fees and schemes to avoid it as opposed to capital investment that improves society’s wealth — say goodbye to the family farm or a families’ small business. I’d assert that (a) the true tax rate is incalculable because it’s so well hidden; (B) it crushes the poor and middle class; and (c) some years we pay more than 100% of an annual year’s earnings in taxes! The loss of purchasing power means real savings goes down DESPITE rising account balances!!!!!!!!!

–30–

MONEY: Don’t think your employer pays anything; you do!

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Ignore taxes and benefits and anything other than the value equation.

Assume for a minute that an employee generate $100 of value for an employer.

And, that is the basis of the deal they strike.

Let’s say the employer is generous and give the employee ½ and keeps the other ½.

Employee winds up with $50.

Now lets factor in ONLY social security tax. (12.4% “split” 50/50)

Same value equation.

The $50 “earned” by the employee.

$6.20 split 50/50? 3.60 each.

So the employee gets $46.40, the Gooferment gets $6.20, and the employer retains a value of $46.40.

If to do the deal the employee has to give the employer $50 of value, then the employee has to be willing to take less.

So the employee has to be willing to take $43.80 so that the employer gets $50.

Cut through the illusion that the employer “pays half”!

The employee’s value equation is reduced by the tax that the employer pays.

Each deduction from your pay obviously you pay. But, every dollar your employer puts out on your behalf, ALSO, comes out of YOUR pocket.

Benefits are a bigger scam.

Remember that EVERYTHING comes out of your (the employee’s side of the value equation).

So any benefit that the employer “gives” you, you’re paying for.

And, for example, in the case of health benefits, the employer gets a tax deduction.

But, if you buy them, you don’t. (Yeah schedule A maybe after the % take back.)

How about life insurance? Same thing! They get a tax deduction on your money. And, that’s not deductible to you ever.

Argh!

It’s a rigged game and employees think the employer is being “magnanimous”.

Every item is like that: pension, 401k contribution, … everything has an angle that favors the employer.

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LIBERTY: Gooferment fails to protect property rights

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http://lewrockwell.com/napolitano/napolitano37.1.html

How Much Economic Freedom Do We Have in the United States?
by Andrew P. Napolitano

*** begin quote ***

The root of economic freedom is the recognition of the right to own private property. That includes the right to utilize it unmolested, to dispose of it without anyone’s permission and to exclude anyone from it, even the government. Suffice it to say, no American president since the advent of the income tax and the Federal Reserve 100 years ago has fully accepted or meaningfully defended that right. The more the government extracts in taxes and the more it inflates the money supply, the more it rejects and assaults property rights.

*** and ***

There is not a single example in human history of central economic planning producing more prosperity than a free market. The framers understood that. That’s why they wrote a Constitution that prohibited an income tax, forbade the states from interfering with contracts, and prevented the feds from taking life, liberty or property without due process. All those constitutional prohibitions have been nullified by amendment or disregarded by consensus.

*** end quote ***

From the diktats (i.e., what the politicians call “laws” and “regulations”) that deprive folks of their property, to the taxes and inflation to just steal their wealth, we have no property rights.

In New Jersey, the real estate property tax mostly to support the Gooferment Skrules turns owners into defacto “renters.

How can you think we are free?

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Jan-20 @ 09:32

POLITICAL: Irish pensioners targets of revenue enhancement

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-pensioners-fury-over-new-taxes-137097448.html

Irish pensioners fury over new taxes
Previously “untouchable” state services get cuts
ByPADDY CLANCY,Irish Voice Reporter
Published Thursday, January 12, 2012, 7:57 AMUpdated Thursday, January 12, 2012, 7:57 AM

*** begin quote ***

Savage cuts to a host of previously “untouchable” state services are now being actively considered by the government as a result of Ireland’s dire financial position.

*** end quote ***

In the search for money to feed the Gooferment spending habit, the “pensioners” are a good target. They don’t “move” so quick. But they do vote.

Look for this idea to travel over the pond and get adopted here.

The USA Gooferment is in perpetual deficit, with an incalculable debt, the IRA / 401K total is about 14T$. Look for the politicians and bureaucrats to steal that.

You heard it. Steal it in exchange for an “enhanced social security benefit”.

Argh!

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MONEY: Capture all your medical or job search deductions NEXT year!

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

Here’s an idea of a “new year’s resolution”. First a little background. This year, my wife was diagnosed with a form of pre-leukemia. It’s been a mess in every dimension. As I sit here thinking about it, and tax time, I wish I had captured all the medical expenses. It’s just one more straw breaking my “camel’s back”. But this year, I have a strategy. I have a blank check register. I’m going to contemporaneously log every expense in the “check” register. I should be able to capture EVERY medical expense. I’ll let you know at the end of the year how I make out.

p.s., I think the same strategy would work for Job Seekers who also have deductible expenses. I shudder to think of all the expense deductions I have missed over the years. Argh! But new year, and self-granted amnesty for all mistakes in the prior year. But still, it gripes me to have missed the opportunity.

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INTERESTING: What’s the rest of the story?

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http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/12/18/3649762-wash-woman-gets-15-months-for-tax-evasion

Wash. woman gets 15 months for tax evasion
Fri Dec 18, 2009 3:39 PM EST
Associated Press

*** begin quote ***

SEATTLE — As the secretary and treasurer of Falcon Construction, Michelle Bielaski was supposed to turn over to the IRS taxes withheld from employee paychecks.

Instead, the 48-year-old Bellevue, Wash., woman spent the money herself — $2.5 million of it.

Now she’s been sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay the taxes back in restitution.

*** end quote ***

I’m sure the gooferment doesn’t like a thief stealing its loot!

Serious, was she sentenced for the theft? In which case, the article’s title is wrong.

Where is she going ot get 2.5M$ for restitution?

And, based on what little I know, I bet the construction company has to pay the 2.5M$ to the IRS. So I guess a bankruptcy is in their future.

I just find this “interesting” on so many levels.

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MONEY: The Roth IRA Conversion Conundrum

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http://www.edelmanfinancial.com/galleries/default-file/ipf_12_09.pdf

Ric Edelman in “The Roth IRA Conversion Conundrum” points out while you CAN convert your IRA to a ROTH. Unless the circumstances are just right, you shouldn’t. Why all the BUZZ about doing it? Well guess who makes out if you do it? Yup, the brokers and the gooferment! Paying taxes when it is not needed or wrong is always disastrous

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RANT: Sorry it’s a duck!

Published on by reinkefj1 Comment

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204488304574425294029138738.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

* REVIEW & OUTLOOK
* SEPTEMBER 21, 2009
Obama’s Nontax Tax
On a Sunday show, the President offers a revealing definition.

*** begin quote ***

“Mr. Obama: “My critics say everything is a tax increase. My critics say that I’m taking over every sector of the economy. You know that. Look, we can have a legitimate debate about whether or not we’re going to have an individual mandate or not, but . . .””

*** end quote ***

If I can’t avoid it, then it’s a tax. Call it a “mandate”. Call it a “penalty”. Call it the “tooth fairy”. The IRS will ensure you pay it. If that’s not a “tax”, I don’t know what is!

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POLITICS: Obama’s inflation will break the country

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http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=329091224620125

Obama’s Plan For A Debt-Ridden Future
By ERNEST S. CHRISTIAN AND GARY A. ROBBINS | Posted Friday, June 05, 2009 4:20 PM PT

*** begin quote ***

In effect, American families would over time lose an amount greater than an entire year of GDP — a blow far more severe than the damage being done to them by the current recession.

*** end quote ***

Between debt and unfunded liabilities, we are falling further and further behind. Sad to say, we can’t even guess how much we pay in taxes. The politicians have succeeded in hiding and burying taxes in every conceivable manner.

When Obama’s inflation starts, it’ll be too late to react.

Gold! The ancient store of value.

There’s a reason that Jefferson and Jackson were against “central banks” like the Federal Reserve Bank and paper money. Those allow politicians and bureaucrats to hide the true cost of their evil deals.

Imagine how they’d be on the hook, if they could NOT silent tax every dollar in the world with inflation?

Like withholding and corporate taxes, everything gets hidden from view.

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POLITICAL: Eliminate the corporate income tax

Published on by reinkefj1 Comment

http://www.reason.com/news/show/131556.html  

Economic Change We Can Believe In
To improve the economy, eliminate the corporate income tax
Jeffrey A. Miron | February 6, 2009

*** begin quote ***

President Barack Obama’s stimulus proposal entails an awkward tradeoff between spending and efficiency. Fiscal stimulation suggests large, rapid increases in spending, while efficiency means cautious, modest increases. Similarly, Obama’s plan favors tax cuts for low-income families, since they are most likely to spend rather than save, yet the drive for efficiency means cutting marginal tax rates on high-income consumers.

*** and ***

One policy change, however, can stimulate both the economy in the short-run and enhance efficiency in the long-run: repeal of the corporate income tax, which collects up to 35% of the difference between revenues and costs of incorporated businesses.

*** and ***

Corporate income taxation has other negatives. It requires a complicated set of rules and regulations, over and above the personal income tax system, generating compliance costs. Special interests ensure that corporate tax systems favor specific industries or activities, further distorting private investment decisions. Along those lines, corporation taxation reduces financial transparency, making it harder for investors to monitor corporate behavior.

So repeal of the corporate income tax is good policy independent of the state of the economy and would provide short-run stimulus.

*** end quote ***

Corporations don’t pay taxes; they hide them in the final price of goods sold!

Only people pay taxes!

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POLITICAL: Tax increases in a recession?

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/21/AR2009022100911_pf.html

Obama’s First Budget Seeks To Trim Deficit
Plan Would Cut War Spending, Increase Taxes on the Wealthy
By Lori Montgomery and Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, February 22, 2009; A01

*** begin quote ***

President Obama is putting the finishing touches on an ambitious first budget that seeks to cut the federal deficit in half over the next four years, primarily by raising taxes on businesses and the wealthy and by slashing spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, administration officials said.

*** end quote ***

Companies don’t pay taxes; people do. So raising the corporate tax is essentially a tax increase for everyone; poor included.

Rich folks have the ability to defer income and shit it and even “coast”. Watch how revenues “fail to appear”!

Stupidity!

Ignores the lessons of Kennedy and Regan.

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POLITICAL: the only real way to economically “stimulate”

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://ncc-1776.org/tle2009/tle502-20090118-02.html

Collectivism’s Last Stand
by L. Neil Smith

*** begin quote ***

Politicians must be taught, in no uncertain terms, that the only real way to economically “stimulate” the Productive Class is to stop stealing their fucking money! If the government announced a total tax amnesty, as well as a complete, permanent end to individual and corporate taxes—repealing all unconstitutional economic regulations would help, too—this depression would be over by the end of the week.

*** end quote ***

You have to admire how LNS can “turn a phrase”!

Wonder if it would take all the way to the end of the week?

“Next day” might be a better estimate.

But, we don’t have to worry. It will never occur to the congress critters!

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RANT: We have an “economic illiterate” as US Senator!

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/11/how_stupid_is_senator_menendez.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7FJX5QiCrw

November 04, 2008

How stupid is Senator Menendez?

Larrey Anderson

*** begin quote ***

Either he is stupid or he is intentionally confusing the difference between the income tax and capital gains taxes.

Watch this interview of Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, by Neil Cavuto on FOX news.

*** end quote ***

Well, we have Lautenberg too.

<Just shaking my head!>

I don’t think we have ANYTHING to worry about. There won’t be any tax cuts period.

Then sheeple have been fooled again.

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POTUS08: FLASH! Obama calls me “selfish”!

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://tinyurl.com/6dm767

Political Punch
Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper
October 31, 2008 10:58 AM

*** begin quote ***

“John McCain and Sarah Palin they call this socialistic,” Obama continued. “You know I don’t know when, when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness.”

*** end quote ***

Well, that tears it! It’s all out in the open now. His stealth campaign is unmasked.

Think it’s just big gooferment; you’re selfish.

<shaking my head at the hubris of the socialists>

Argh!

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LIBERTY: Don’t privitize Social Security. It’s too risky!

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2008/10/market-meltdown-is-best-argument.html

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Market meltdown is best argument against privatizing Social Security

*** begin quote ***

It has always been pretty clear to me that the notion that we could fix our retirement system by handing it over to Wall Street was, well, nuts.

*** and ***

American workers shouldn’t have to face this kind of uncertainty. The cautionary tale is before us — listen to this NPR Morning Edition report on soon-to-be retirees who thought they would live off their savings and investments, but whom the experts now council to “keep on working.”

Posted by Hank Kalet at 3:00 PM

*** end quote ***

Of course, I was enraged and commented:

fjohn said…

Arghhh!

So let me understand this.

It’s OK to rob poor black men to pay off rich white women? (Who designed this one out, the KKK?)

It’s OK to rob the future generations in an intergenerational transfer of wealth. (Like eating your young?)

It’s OK to have a forced savings plan that has an implied interest rate of negative 2 percent. (OK, you may not have enough left from your job, but nanny gooferment will save you some dog food for your retirement.)

It’s OK for a poor person’s largest asset (i.e, “their” social security accrued benefits) to “evaporate” when they die. Absorbed back into the gooferment till for a $225 ‘death benefit’. (Even a passbook savings account can be inherited.)

Argh!

Yes, save us from the Stock Market that earns an average of 8% a year over LONG periods of time.

Save us mommy gooferment from the big bad real world. The fact the the gooferment — specifically the congress critters took payoff from the monsters they created — caused the problem and you seek to save us by MORE gooferment.

Really explain it to me again. Use littler words. Cause I’m getting screwed by all you socialists and I can’t stand it any more.

Explain to me how Chile privitized their social security in 1970 with a population so illiterate they had to use pictures for the investment companies because people could NOT read the names. (Haven’t heard about dying old folks in Chile lately. Maybe everyone died of privitazation there and we have NOT had it reported yet?)

Argh!

It must by the fault of those Liberty loving dead old white guys.

I’m sure they must have mentioned Social Security in the enumerated powers.

Please give me a break with this circular logic on an un-Constitutional un-Liberty disabling disempowering Socialist program.

Karl Marx must be laughing in his beer at us! Him and his cousin Groucho. They couldn’t have made a funnier skit.

4:39 PM

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In summation, don’t fix a failed program because of stock market volatility. What caused the volatility, criminal negligence by the ploiltical class.

OK. Lets kill the porgram completely.

Even if one stipulates that a bunch of dead old white guys 200 years ago can bind me to an obligation, let’s see where it says that you Socialists can steal my money “for my own good” of course.

Argh!

Leave me alone. Take your Socialism and keep it to yourself.

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