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Entries Tagged as 'Taxes'

Obamanomics Takes a Holiday: A two-year tax reprieve is better than current law but far from ideal.

December 8th, 2010 · Accountability, Change of Power, Dissention, Economy, Obama Exposed, Taxes

The tax deal is at best a transition from the failure of Obamanomics to what we hope is a better growth agenda.

Does President Obama like or loathe the two-year tax deal he has struck with Republicans? It was hard to tell from his grudging, testy remarks Monday and yesterday, but perhaps that’s because he realizes he is repudiating the heart and soul of Obamanomics as the price of giving himself a chance at a second term.

In accepting the deal to cut payroll and business taxes and extend all of the Bush-era tax rates through 2012, Mr. Obama has implicitly admitted that his economic strategy has flopped. He is acknowledging that tax rates matter to growth, that treating business like robber barons has hurt investment and hiring, and that tax cuts are superior to spending as stimulus. It took 9.8% unemployment and a loss of 63 House seats for this education to sink in, but the country will benefit.

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In this sense, the political symbolism is as important as the policy. Mr. Obama is signaling that businesses must be encouraged to make profits again so they can hire more workers, that “the rich” he so maligns should be able to keep more of what they earn, and even that wealth built up over a lifetime shouldn’t be confiscated wholesale at death. In policy if not in Presidential rhetoric, class war and income redistribution are taking a two-year holiday.

This is not to say the deal is optimal for economic growth, and Republicans should not pretend it is. A two-year reprieve is far better than an immediate tax increase amid a still fragile recovery, but it also means that the policy uncertainty is carried forward. In the Keynesian universe, “temporary” tax cuts are virtuous because they stimulate immediately while ostensibly allowing government to reclaim the revenue later when the economy is stronger.

In the real world, businesses make investments based on the estimated return on capital over time, including the expected tax rate. What matters is the overall cost of, and return on, capital. The temporary nature of the tax cuts will provide less incentive to invest than would permanent reductions in the cost of capital.

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Inmates get fraudulent tax refunds behind bars, report says

December 2nd, 2010 · Economy, Fraud Alert, Taxes, Treasury

By Ed O’Keefe

Jail cells might keep inmates from escaping, but don’t appear to stop some from filing fraudulent tax returns.

More than 48,800 of the nation’s prisoners claimed $130 million in fraudulent tax refunds by March of this year, and the numbers are probably much higher, according to a new watchdog report. The IRS paid $112 million of the claims, a small fraction of the $326 billion in refunds so far this year.

But the number of fraudulent payments made to inmates has climbed 37 percent since 2004, said the report, which also acknowledged that the rise is partly a result of increased detection and enforcement by the IRS.

The IRS doesn’t screen most prisoners’ tax returns, according to the report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), set for release Thursday. A review of tax records found that 88 percent of the 287,918 returns filed by prisoners by late March were not screened for potential fraud. Of those, about 48,800 returns lacked wage information reported to the IRS by employers, the report said.

“There is a major problem with returns being filed fraudulently by people who are incarcerated,” TIGTA Inspector General J. Russell George said in an interview. “What makes this even more problematic is that we identified this as a problem more than five years ago. The problem not only persists, it’s gotten even worse.”

In 2005, TIGTA found that 18,000 prisoners had filed fraudulent returns in 2004. The report prompted a 2008 law that now requires George’s office to file regular updates on prison-based tax fraud. The number of bad claims has climbed because the IRS has stepped up detection and enforcement, as well as because a higher number of prisoners are making fraudulent claims, TIGTA and IRS officials said Thursday.

The IRS “is making very good progress” in identifying cases of fraud, George said. Overall, in the general population, the agency stopped almost 250,000 fraudulent returns totaling $1.48 billion through March, double the number from the 2009 filing season.

“The IRS takes refund fraud seriously and has programs in place to aggressively combat it,” agency spokesman Terry Lemons said in a statement. Tracking prison fraud “is not a simple process, particularly considering the fact that some inmates and their families are legally entitled to tax refunds and that the prisoner population is constantly changing,” he said.

The agency is working with state and federal officials to ensure timely updates and last summer met with federal prison officials to improve detection and prevention of prisoner fraud, he said.

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Nancy Pelosi’s Unwelcome Christmas Gift: Increase Taxes quickly before new session of Congress.

December 2nd, 2010 · Change of Power, Deception, Democrats, Dissention, Economy, Ethics, Federal Spending, Greed, Non-Transparency, Selling Out the US, Taxes, Terrorism from Within

A couple earning $80,000 could lose hundreds per month if the Bush tax rates aren’t extended.

By KARL ROVE

After ignoring congressional Republicans for 22 months and 10 days, President Obama hosted a “come together, right now” session with them Tuesday. The topic: the Bush tax cuts—on income, capital gains and dividends—that are set to expire at the stroke of midnight, Dec. 31.

The atmospherics at the White House on Tuesday were good, but the meeting isn’t likely to produce a quick agreement on substance. A lot of attention has been paid to congressional Republicans, whose strong desire to preserve the Bush rates is apparent. Less attention has been paid to the Democrats—among whom there is no consensus about what to do.

OpinionJournal.com Columnist John Fund on the tax debate within the Democratic caucus, and on the fight for key committee chairmanships in the House.

Thanks to her dogmatic rigidity and unquenchable passion for class warfare, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues insisting on extending the Bush tax cuts only for those who make less than $250,000. Mrs. Pelosi doesn’t have the votes to pass her proposal using a special House rule, the suspension calendar, which requires a supermajority and does not permit amendments. She might well lose if the bill proceeds through normal House rules—Democrats could join with Republicans to offer an amendment allowing an up-or-down vote on extending all the Bush-era tax cuts, which could pass.

Even if Mrs. Pelosi’s measure cleared the House, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has apparently signaled it can’t pass the Senate. All 42 Republican senators support extending all Bush-era tax cuts, depriving Mr. Reid of the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture. And there are Senate Democrats who also oppose raising taxes.

Since neither Mr. Obama nor Mr. Reid seem willing to force her to back down, Congress could go home without stopping the largest tax increase in the nation’s history.

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Obama Commission’s final deficit report preserves controversial spending cuts & tax increases

December 2nd, 2010 · Deception, Democrats, Economy, Ethics, Federal Spending, Government Control, Greed, Non-Transparency, Selling Out the US, Taxes, Terrorism from Within

By Lori Montgomery and Brady Dennis Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 1, 2010; 3:48 PM

The leaders of President Obama’s fiscal commission released a final report Wednesday that is full of political dynamite, recommending sharp cuts in military spending, a higher retirement age and reforms that could cost the average taxpayer an extra $1,700 a year.

But as commission co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan K. Simpson unveiled the plan at a Capitol Hill hearing, it was unclear whether they would be able to build a convincing bipartisan consensus before the panel’s 18 members – 12 of them sitting lawmakers – are scheduled to vote on the report Friday.

The White House continued Wednesday to reserve judgment on the commission’s work, which is intended to help shape the administration’s next budget request, due out in February.

“The president looks forward to reviewing their work at the conclusion of their votes … and evaluating their proposals and their votes as we move forward and put together a budget of our own for next year,” said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. “So let me not get too far out on the commission until they’ve had a chance to complete their work.”

Two panel members – Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) – immediately came out in strong support, saying that although they don’t like everything in the package, it charts a responsible path away from the abyss of rising debt and potential fiscal crisis.

“America is in danger. And we can either look the other way, hope somebody else does something, or we can act,” Conrad said. “I’m going to support this plan and support it strongly. Because I don’t see another alternative. I just don’t.”

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Even after their defeat, Democrats keep insisting on a tax increase.

December 2nd, 2010 · Democrats, Government Control, Greed, Non-Transparency, Selling Out the US, Taxes, Terrorism from Within

‘It is not a sensible way to run a country to have this magnitude of tax issues left to annual uncertainty,” said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner earlier this month, and he’s certainly right about that. But at the current moment the single biggest obstacle to more certainty is his boss, President Obama, who still refuses to compromise on the tax increase set to whack the economy in a mere 30 days.

After meeting with Congressional leaders yesterday, Mr. Obama dispatched Mr. Geithner and budget director Jacob Lew to negotiate a deal. Yet the President is still holding out against even a temporary extension of the 2001 and 2003 tax rates. Republicans won 63 House seats running against those tax increases, but Mr. Obama still seems under the spell of the dead enders led by soon-to-be-former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The magnitude of the looming tax increase ought to snap him out of this hypnosis. If the Democrats who still run Capitol Hill for another month fail to act, tens of millions of American households will see their paychecks shrink immediately in the New Year.

OpinionJournal.com Columnist John Fund on the tax debate within the Democratic caucus, and on the fight for key committee chairmanships in the House.

Capital gains and dividend tax rates will climb to 20% and 39.6%, respectively, from 15%, and the top two income tax rates will climb to 38% and 41% (including deduction phaseouts), from 33% and 35%. The typical family with an income between $40,000 and $75,000 a year will pay as much as $2,000 more in 2011, as the 10% tax rate bracket and the $1,000 per child tax credit vanish.

This could have been resolved months ago, except that the White House and Congressional Democrats insist that some taxes must be raised. Mr. Obama wants the lower rates to expire on incomes of $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples. Dozens of Democrats revolted against that in the campaign, so the latest gambit, courtesy of New York Senator Chuck Schumer, would raise that threshold to $1 million.

Republicans shouldn’t be suckered into raising taxes on anyone, especially not on small business job creators. The U.S. corporate tax rate of 39% (a combination of state average and federal rates) is already about 15 percentage points above the international average, and for the first time in a generation the personal rate of 41% would rise above the average of our overseas rivals. That’s all before the 3.8% surtax on investment income arrives in 2013, courtesy of ObamaCare.

Because most nations tax their companies at a business rate lower than the personal rate, the Tax Foundation says the Obama plan would mean that many Subchapter S corporations in the U.S. would pay “virtually the highest tax rates in the world on their business income.” In other words, the after-tax rate of return on investment in the U.S. would fall relative to investing in Europe or Asia. This is an invitation to outsource more jobs. The U.S. should be cutting tax rates to become more competitive, as President Obama’s deficit reduction commission and tax reform advisory panel have recommended.

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Employers looking at health insurance options

October 25th, 2010 · Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Government Control, Healthcare, Immigration, Money Lost, National Security, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Small Business, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within, Treason, Treasury, Unemployment

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR – The Associated Press
Monday, October 25, 2010; 4:12 AM

WASHINGTON — The new health care law wasn’t supposed to undercut employer plans that have provided most people in the U.S. with coverage for generations.

But last week a leading manufacturer told workers their costs will jump partly because of the law. Also, a Democratic governor laid out a scheme for employers to get out of health care by shifting workers into taxpayer-subsidized insurance markets that open in 2014.

While it’s too early to proclaim the demise of job-based coverage, corporate number crunchers are looking at options that could lead to major changes. Gov. Phil Bredesen, D-Tenn., said the economics of dropping coverage are “about to become very attractive to many employers, both public and private.”

That’s just not going to happen, White House officials say.

“The absolute certainty about the Affordable Care Act is that for many, many employers who cover millions of people, it increases the incentives for them to offer coverage,” said Jason Furman, an economic adviser to President Barack Obama.

Yet at least one major employer has shifted a greater share of plan costs to workers, and others are weighing the pros and cons of eventually forcing employees to strike out on their own.

“I don’t think you are going to hear anybody publicly say ‘We’ve made a decision to drop insurance,’ ” said Paul Keckley, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. “What we are hearing in our meetings is, ‘We don’t want to be the first one to drop benefits, but we would be the fast second.’ We are hearing that a lot.” Deloitte is a major accounting and consulting firm.

“My conclusion on all of this is that it is a huge roll of the dice,” said James Klein, president of the American Benefits Council, which represents big company benefits administrators. “It could work out well and build on the employer-based system, or it could begin to dismantle the employer-based system.”

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The Overseas Profits Elephant in the Room: There’s a trillion dollars waiting to be repatriated if tax policy is right.

October 20th, 2010 · Economy, Government Control, Greed, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Treasury, Unemployment

By John Chambers and Safra Catz

During last year’s “Jobs Summit,” President Obama said he was open to any good idea to get the economy moving again. Today he should be especially so, since Washington’s many monetary and fiscal policy decisions have not been able to spur the robust growth or job expansion that we all would like. And yet there is a simple idea—the trillion-dollar elephant in the room—that has apparently been dismissed for no good reason.

One trillion dollars is roughly the amount of earnings that American companies have in their foreign operations—and that they could repatriate to the United States. That money, in turn, could be invested in U.S. jobs, capital assets, research and development, and more.

But for U.S companies such repatriation of earnings carries a significant penalty: a federal tax of up to 35%. This means that U.S. companies can, without significant consequence, use their foreign earnings to invest in any country in the world—except here.

The U.S. government’s treatment of repatriated foreign earnings stands in marked contrast to the tax practices of almost every major developed economy, including Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Australia and Canada, to name a few. Companies headquartered in any of these countries can repatriate foreign earnings to their home countries at a tax rate of 0%-2%. That’s because those countries realize that choking off foreign capital from their economies is decidedly against their national interests.

Many commentators have pointed to the large cash balances sitting on U.S. corporate books as evidence that the economy is still stalled because companies aren’t spending. That analysis misses the point. Large cash balances remain on U.S. corporate books because U.S. companies can’t spend their foreign-held cash in the U.S. without incurring a prohibitive tax liability.

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Foreclosure freeze leads to uneasy politics for Democrats

October 19th, 2010 · Accountability, Banking Industry, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Fraud Alert, Government Control, Greed, Housing Industry, Money Lost, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Treasury

Another political factor: people struggling to keep paying their mortgages who are upset that deadbeat borrowers may get a break.

“I pay my mortgage every month; that was the deal I made,” Kevin McGrath, a Virginia realtor, wrote in an e-mail. “I know I am currently throwing money into a depreciating asset that every day feels more and more like the Black Hole of Calcutta, but that’s ok; I placed my bet, and I am willing to ride this pony until she breaks.

“But wait a minute; now I look over at my neighbor and I see he is in the same situation, upside down on his mortgage, except he has not made a payment in a year or so. He has multiple cars in his driveway, some of them newer than mine, he just got back from a trip to Best Buy, and he is still living in his house. There are all kinds of neat things to do with your money when your housing costs are zero. Where is my free rent?

By Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 19, 2010; 7:26 AM

The details of the foreclosure mess are ugly and complicated. The politics of it are even worse.

The calculus is clear for most Democratic incumbents, especially those in tight races like Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid: Nothing could be worse on the eve of elections than images of people being booted out of their homes by big banks that have relied on sloppy, if not fraudulent, paperwork.

But reviving the economy requires repairing the housing market, which won’t happen until foreclosed properties and delinquent mortgages are dealt with. So the White House, which is looking past the midterm elections, has been restrained. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan wrote over the weekend that “a national, blanket moratorium on all foreclosure sales would do far more harm than good, hurting homeowners and home buyers alike.”

It’s a recipe for legislative inaction, especially with lawmakers busy campaigning. For a White House seen by Wall Street as too populist, and by many liberals as too close to Wall Street, that might not be a bad outcome. Democratic candidates can strike a populist note, letting the Obama administration take the economic high road while pressing banks to define the scope of the latest financial mess.

“There’s a problem here,” said one veteran Democratic political consultant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. “The politics are very attractive to say, ‘Let’s have a moratorium.’ But shutting down foreclosures has the potential of shutting down the whole housing market, which isn’t helpful to anybody.”

For now, most of the biggest banks, sensitive to political winds, have voluntarily frozen foreclosure sales. Some analysts believe the freeze could last until January. That gives banks until the end of the quarter to figure out the extent of their problems, and it delays foreclosures until after the election as well as the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

“I think that they’re trying to see how this is playing,” said one political consultant working for the financial services industry. “They’re trying to gauge the political intensity around the issue.”

Democratic pollster Peter Hart says intensity runs high. “There are two things of critical importance to American households,” he said. “One is their job and two is their house.”

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GAO: Contractors get federal business despite violations

October 14th, 2010 · Accountability, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Greed, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within

By Joe Davidson Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 13, 2010; 11:31 PM

When Uncle Sam dishes out billions of dollars in contracts to companies doing the government’s work, you’d think he’d want to deal with firms that don’t break his laws.

But a Government Accountability Office report says numerous contractors received government business even after they had been cited for violating laws designed to protect workers.

Consider this example:

The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) hit a large petroleum company with $55 million in fines for labor law violations between fiscal 2005 and 2009.

A big chunk of the fines followed health and safety inspections “after a massive refinery explosion where there were 15 deaths and almost 200 injuries,” GAO reported.

Yet in 2009, Sam awarded the firm’s parent company more than $2 billion worth of work.

Perhaps he wanted to make sure it had enough money to pay the fines.

Here’s another case:

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Government had been warned for months about troubles in mortgage servicer industry

October 11th, 2010 · Banking Industry, Deception, Democrats, Economy, Ethics, Federal Spending, Government, Government Control, Housing Industry, Obama's Scheme, Real Estate, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Unemployment

By Zachary A. Goldfarb Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 10, 2010; 12:45 AM

Consumer advocates and lawyers warned federal officials in recent years that the U.S. foreclosure system was designed to seize people’s homes as fast as possible, often without regard to the rights of homeowners.

In recent days, amid reports that major lenders have used improper procedures and fraudulent paperwork to seize properties, some Obama administration officials have acknowledged they had been aware of flaws in how the mortgage industry pursues foreclosures.

But the officials said they could take only limited action to address the danger. In part, this was because they wanted lenders’ help carrying out federal programs to modify mortgages that had fallen into default or were poised to do so.

New concerns about improper practices – such as those involving faked documents or “robo-signers” who signed tens of thousands of documents without reviewing them – have prompted the mortgage servicing arms of the country’s largest banks to freeze millions of foreclosures. As momentum builds for a national moratorium, the administration has begun assessing the potential impact, examining the threat it could pose for the ailing housing market and the wider financial system.

There is no evidence so far that the specific abuses made public in the past few weeks were known to government officials. Nor is it clear whether they were aware that the process of the selling and reselling of mortgages among financial firms – which became extremely common and highly profitable during the housing boom – was raising legal questions about who actually owned the loans and had the right to foreclose if they went bad.

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