Liberal, Tax, Government, Incompetence, Financial, Narrative, Oops, Debt

Connecticut’s state budget woes are compounding with collections from the state income tax collapsing, despite two high-end tax hikes in the past six years.

  It means the current budget year, which ends in just two months, is now seriously in the red and next year’s deficit has ballooned to $2.2 billion.

  It’s happening because the state of Connecticut depends too much on its wealthy residents, and wealthy residents are leaving, and the ones that are staying are making less, or are not taking their profits from the stock market until they see what happens in Washington.

Democrat, Liberal, Tax, Incompetence, Obama, Oops, Economy

Johnson Controls said on Monday it was renouncing its United States corporate citizenship by selling itself to Tyco International, based in Ireland, a deal struck in large part to reduce its tax bill, which it said should drop by about $150 million annually.

  Monday’s announcement by Johnson Controls is just the latest effort by corporate America to flee the United States. In the last year, Pfizer said it was leaving for Ireland, as did Medtronic, the medical device maker. Coca-Cola’s largest bottling company, after selling its domestic operations, is heading to Britain. (The company, Coca-Cola Enterprises, insists it isn’t for tax reasons.)

Democrat, Liberal, Tax, Government, Incompetence, Narrative, Oops, Economy

New Jersey’s high taxes may be costing the state billions of dollars a year in lost revenue as high-earning residents flee, according to a recent study... The study shows the state has been steadily losing high-net-worth residents since 2004, when Democratic Gov. Jim McGreevey signed the millionaire’s tax into law. The law raised the state income tax 41 percent on those earning $500,000 or more a year... Democrats in New Jersey have been pushing for even higher taxes on the wealthy in recent years.

Liberal, Tax, Incompetence, Financial, Brilliance, Narrative, Oops

France's Socialist government has admitted that the country cannot cope with any further tax rises and promised no more hikes just days ahead of the country's largest ever tax bill... “The government thought that by continually raising taxes, they could raise returns but they are now realising, rather belatedly, the error of their ways,” said Marc Touati, economist at ACDEFI consultancy. “Today in France, we are approaching 47 per cent of total tax pressure compared to GDP.

Liberal, Tax, Government, Incompetence, Oops, Economy, Socialism

The last of the three major credit raters downgraded France on Friday, citing poor growth, rising unemployment, and projected public debt of 96 percent of GDP by next year. President François Hollande has responded by reluctantly promising to move ahead with austerity measures... It wasn’t long ago that Hollande entered office as a left-wing firebrand, chasing a 75 percent tax on the rich to avoid having to cut any spending.

Liberal, Tax, Government, Oops

As reported by Yahoo! Sports, boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao’s next fight will take place on November 24; however, for the first time since 2006, the fight will take place outside of the U.S.... As ATR reported in February, the possibility of Pacquiao’s next fight not taking place on U.S. soil due to a punitive federal income tax rate of 39.6 percent was greater than most would suspect. As boxing promoter Bob Arum told Yahoo! Sports in February, “Manny can go back to Las Vegas and make $25 million, but how much of it will he end up with – $15 million?"

Liberal, Tax, Financial, Narrative, Oops

The top 10 percent of taxpayers paid more than 70 percent of the total income tax revenue collected in 2010, according to research from the D.C.-based Tax Foundation. “That’s up from 55% in 1986,” CNN notes. The remaining 90 percent paid just 30 percent, with 47 percent having no income tax liability.

Liberal, Tax, Narrative, Oops, Greed

With the announcement that top ranked boxer Manny Pacquiao will seek to hold his upcoming boxing matches away from the bright lights of Las Vegas and off U.S. soil, the Filipino boxer becomes the latest professional athlete to highlight the current non-competitive U.S. income tax rate. As reported by Yahoo! Sports: [Pacquiao chief advisor] Michael Koncz told Yahoo! Sports that the 39.6 percent tax rate Pacquiao would face if he were to fight again in the U.S. makes a fall bout in Las Vegas "a no go."

Liberal, Tax, Government, Incompetence, Financial, Narrative, Oops, Socialism

France's labour minister sent the country into a state of shock on Monday after he described the nation as “totally bankrupt”. Data from Banque de France showed earlier this month that a flight of capital has already left the country amid concerns that France’s Socialist leader intends to soak the rich and businesses. The actor Gérard Depardieu has renounced his French citizenship and decamped to Russia in protest, while David Cameron said Britain will “roll out the red carpet” to attract wealthy individuals.

Democrat, Liberal, Tax, Financial, Narrative, Oops

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 New York’s sky-high city and state tax rates and are relocating to the business-friendly climate in Florida’s Palm Beach County. And they’re being welcomed with open arms — officials in Palm Beach recently opened an entire office dedicated to luring finance hot shots down south.

Liberal, Tax, Narrative, Oops, Socialism

The richest man in France has officially transferred his multi-billion pound fortune out of his homeland to Belgium. Bernard Arnault, head of luxury goods group LVMH, insists he has moved his assets for ‘family inheritance reasons’. But others are convinced that the 63-year-old has joined other tycoons and celebrities in wanting to avoid taxes – including a 75 per cent top rate on income – introduced by Socialist President Francois Hollande.

Liberal, Tax, Narrative, Oops

Tiger Woods said today that the reason he left California in the mid-Nineties was because the state's taxes were too high. The golfer spoke at a press conference on Tuesday about his decision to move to Florida in 1996. Speaking at Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla, California, Woods said: 'I moved out of here back in ’96 for that reason.'

Tax, Oops, Socialism

Nicolas Sarkozy is preparing to move to London to set up a billion pounds plus investment fund, it was claimed today. If the move goes ahead, the controversial Frenchman will become the latest to escape a potential top tax rate of 75 per cent in his home country.

Liberal, Tax, Oops, Smears, Socialism

French actor Gerard Depardieu, accused of trying to escape the taxman by buying a house just over the border in Belgium, has put his sumptuous Parisian home up for sale. News of the Parisian sale plan came a day after French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault described Depardieu's behavior as "pathetic" and unpatriotic at a time when the French are being asked to pay higher taxes to reduce a bloated national debt. An angry member of parliament has proposed that France adopt a U.S.-inspired law that would force Depardieu or anyone trying to escape full tax dues to forego their nationality.

Democrat, Liberal, Tax, Obama, Financial, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare, Regulation, Jobs

Andre DiMino has been running medical device company ADM Tronics since his father, who founded the decades-old firm, died in 2001. He's never laid off anybody. "These people are like family with us," he said. The boss might not be able to hold out much longer. Come Jan. 1, an ObamaCare-tied tax specific to his industry is expected to go into effect. Though the Obama administration has downplayed the impact, DiMino calls it "devastating." "I think after all of these decades of not laying people off, I think we may have to face that," DiMino told FoxNews.com. He predicted he might have to immediately lay off three people in his manufacturing division and possibly more after that.

Democrat, Tax, Narrative, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare, Jobs

Sixteen Democratic senators who voted for the Affordable Care Act are asking that one of its fundraising mechanisms, a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices scheduled to take effect January 1, be delayed. Echoing arguments made by Republicans against Obamacare, the Democratic senators say the levy will cost jobs — in a statement Monday, Sen. Al Franken called it a “job-killing tax” — and also impair American competitiveness in the medical device field.

Liberal, Tax, Oops, Socialism

France's prime minister has slammed wealthy citizens fleeing the country's punitive tax on high incomes as greedy profiteers seeking to "become even richer".

Democrat, Editorial, Liberal, Tax, Incompetence, Obama, Narrative, Oops, Economy

The 2012 Economic Report of the President -- the official government document on the economy published by the Obama Administration and signed personally by Obama himself -- admits the Bush tax cuts caused government revenue to go up, not down. You can find it right here, buried in a long, eye-glazing page of statistics on page 413 at very end of a deeply unpublicized but legally required official White House report. The stats were compiled by Obama's own Secretary Timothy Geithner's Department of the Treasury. With Barack Obama literally signing his name in approval of the contents.

Liberal, Tax, Financial, Oops, Socialism

A Belgian mayor says famed French actor Gerard Depardieu has bought a home and set up legal residence in his small town, lured by the food, the people, the lifestyle — and lower tax rates than back home. The Socialist government under French President Francois Hollande has infuriated many ultra-rich in France by presenting a 2013 budget that would tax top earners at 75 percent over the first €1 million of annual income.

Liberal, Hate, Government, Character, Brilliance, Narrative, Smears, Demagoguery, Academia, Debt

Thurman suggests that Republicans in the House and Senate “have mental reservations” as well as “purpose of evasion” because they swear allegiance both to a no-tax pledge and to the country. The Columbia professor and Hollywood progenitor calls the no-tax pledge “a seditious oath, a treasonous oath.”

Liberal, Tax, Government, Incompetence, Narrative, Oops

Almost two-thirds of the country’s million-pound earners disappeared from Britain after the introduction of the 50p top rate of tax, figures have disclosed. In the 2009-10 tax year, more than 16,000 people declared an annual income of more than £1 million to HM Revenue and Customs. This number fell to just 6,000 after Gordon Brown introduced the new 50p top rate of income tax shortly before the last general election. The figures have been seized upon by the Conservatives to claim that increasing the highest rate of tax actually led to a loss in revenues for the Government... Last night, Harriet Baldwin, the Conservative MP who uncovered the latest figures, said: “Labour’s ideological tax hike led to a tax cull of millionaires. Far from raising funds, it actually cost the UK £7 billion in lost tax revenue..."

Liberal, Tax, Narrative, Economy

The article, “The Macroeconomic Effects of Tax Changes: Estimates Based on a New Measure of Fiscal Shocks,” is in my view one of the most important economic articles of the last several years. The Romers examined the effects of tax policy on GDP. They found that the effects are very large. Specifically, they found that for every 1% that taxes rise (as a percent of GDP), this causes GDP to fall about 3%. The authors employed some clever methods to try to find what economists call “exogenous” changes in tax rates. When they employed their methods, they found much higher effects than economists had previously found. The article was something of a Nixon-goes-to-China phenomenon. That is, while conservatives tend to claim that taxes strongly decrease GDP, liberals tend to claim that taxes have at best a weak influence on GDP. When the Romer-Romer article reported a strong influence, one of the most interesting aspects of the finding was that it came from a very liberal quarter – namely, one of its authors was a senior member of the Obama administration.

Editorial, Liberal, Narrative, Oops, Economy

In reality, the people at the bottom of the scale have benefited directly and indirectly from every tax rate reduction dating back to Kennedy’s rate reductions in the early 1960s and through the tax cuts adopted early in the administration of George W. Bush.

Democrat, Liberal, Tax, Narrative, Oops

Broadly speaking, Republicans and Democrats don’t want to see, especially at a time where the economy needs all the fuel it can get, don’t want to see us raising taxes on the middle class. So for example, some of the Bush tax cuts did some good things for the middle class, and certainly don’t want to see, this time, tax increases on the middle class. -DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse

Liberal, Tax, Oops, Socialism

The Treasury received £10.35 billion in income tax payments from those paying by self-assessment last month, a drop of £509 million compared with January 2011. It is the first year following the introduction of the 50p rate which had been expected to boost tax revenues from self-assessment by more than £1billion.

Liberal, Tax, Narrative, Oops

As Britain's Financial Times reported in February 2010, that nation imposed a 50 percent tax rate on high wage earners that went into effect in April of that year. Months later, Britain increased sales taxes as well as imposed levies on banks. As the British Telegraph reported this February, the income tax hike on the "rich" resulted in far less revenues than was expected.

Liberal, Narrative, Oops

The reported income of the top 1% also significantly increased as tax rates on capital gains were lowered, first under President Bill Clinton and then under President George W. Bush. At a top tax rate of 28%, realized capital gains were 2.5% of GDP and made up 17.7% of the income of top 1% filers. As the top tax rate fell to 20% in 1997 and 15% in 2003, realized capital gains rose to 4.6% and then to 5% of GDP. The percentage of the income of top 1% filers coming from capital gains grew to 26% in the 1997-2002 period and 28.1% during 2003-07. -PHIL GRAMM
AND STEVE MCMILLIN

Editorial, Liberal, Tax, Narrative, Economy

There is a point at which in peace times high rates of income and profits taxes discourage energy, remove the incentive to new enterprise, encourage extravagant expenditures and produce industrial stagnation with consequent unemployment and other attendant evils. -Woodrow Wilson

Liberal, Tax, Narrative, Oops

Three-quarters of likely voters believe the nation’s top earners should pay lower, not higher, tax rates, according to a new poll for The Hill. The big majority opted for a lower tax bill when asked to choose specific rates; precisely 75 percent said the right level for top earners was 30 percent or below. The current rate for top earners is 35 percent. Only 4 percent thought it was appropriate to take 40 percent...

Liberal, Tax, Narrative, Regulation

Krugman conceded, for instance, that “conservatives” had “made a strong case that the distortions of incentives associated with taxes were larger than most economists had previously realized.”

Editorial, Liberal, Tax, Narrative, Oops

Holmes issued his famous quote back in 1904, during the 142 year period between 1789 and 1931 when peace time federal spending as a percentage of GDP never exceeded 4 percent... 4 percent of the GDP may be the “price” of civilization, but 24 percent of the GDP sounds more like the “cost” of tyranny.

Democrat, Tax, Narrative

Gov. Cuomo got it exactly right a couple of weeks ago when he said, “You are kidding yourself if you think you can be one of the highest-taxed states in the nation, have a reputation for being anti-business -- and have a rosy economic future.”

Democrat, Tax, Incompetence, Financial, Oops

Mr. Caruso added that negotiations for the sale had begun earlier in anticipation of the repeal of the 10 percent excise or luxury tax on boats costing more than $110,000 and on other expensive items like jewelry and furs, but not on automobiles. "The customer told me he would have never bought the boat if he had had to pay the luxury tax, which would have added $30,000 more to the purchase price," Mr. Caruso said.

Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Narrative

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 49% of American Adults now think government programs increase the level of poverty in the United States, while just 20% say they decrease the problem.

Liberal, Tax, Narrative

After taking in $1.782 trillion in tax revenues in 2003, the government collected $1.88 trillion in 2004; $2.153 trillion in 2005; $2.406 trillion in 2006; and $2.567 trillion in 2007, according to figures compiled by the Office of Management and Budget. That's a 44 percent increase from 2003 to 2007.

Tax, Obama, Narrative

Obama agreed with Ferguson’s premise – raising taxes in a recession is a bad idea. “First of all, he’s right. Normally, you don’t raise taxes in a recession, which is why we haven’t and why we’ve instead cut taxes. So I guess what I’d say to Scott is – his economics are right. You don’t raise taxes in a recession. We haven’t raised taxes in a recession.”

Democrat, Liberal, Incompetence

Whereas the federal budget was balanced throughout the low-tax 1920s, the huge tax increases of the 1930s coincided with large deficits. On the campaign trail in 1932 Roosevelt noted: “For over two years our federal government has experienced unprecedented deficits, in
spite of increased taxes.”

Democrat, Hypocrisy, Liberal, Tax

So far this tax season, the state Department of Revenue has received 1,971,000 returns. And of those 1.971 million filers, exactly 862 have checked the box to pay at the old, higher 5.85 percent rate rather than the current 5.3 percent rate.

Liberal, Narrative

Obama described the bill as "a package of tax relief that will protect the middle class, that will grow our economy and will create jobs for the American people."

Democrat, Liberal, Scandal, Narrative

Tax reduction thus sets off a process that can bring gains for everyone, gains won by marshalling resources that would otherwise stand idle—workers without jobs and farm and factory capacity without markets. Yet many taxpayers seemed prepared to deny the nation the fruits of tax reduction because they question the financial soundness of reducing taxes when the federal budget is already in deficit. Let me make clear why, in today's economy, fiscal prudence and responsibility call for tax reduction even if it temporarily enlarged the federal deficit—why reducing taxes is the best way open to us to increase revenues.

Tax, Narrative

by Scott A. Hodge

During my recent testimony before the Senate Budget Committee (found here), I cited an OECD statistic that the U.S. has the most progressive income tax system among industrialized nations.

Hypocrisy, Liberal, Tax, Character, Narrative, Greed

As the deadline for filing 2009 state income taxes nears, once again the Beautiful People of Massachusetts are proving that while they enjoy talking the talk, walking the walk is another thing altogether.

Liberal, Narrative

"Our tax system still siphons out of the private economy too large a share of personal and business purchasing power and reduces the incentive for risk, investment and effort – thereby aborting our recoveries and stifling our national growth rate."

Liberal, Tax, Narrative, Economy

"It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now ... Cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus."

– John F. Kennedy, Nov. 20, 1962, president's news conference

Tax, Obama

GIBSON: And in each instance, when the rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased; the government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down.

So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?

OBAMA: Well, Charlie, what I've said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.