It’s certainly bad enough when the government insists on raising taxes (as is presently the case), but it adds insult to injury when the blokes just can’t seem to spend the dough in a responsible manner.

            Take the Department of Defense – a recent study published by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction might make you want to throw up.  Seems the DoD is unable to account (that’s right – “unable to account”) for something like $9 billion which was supposed to fund “Iraq reconstruction.”

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So you’ve got some dough, and a web of entities for business and family reasons.  Get ready to hear from Uncle Sam, says IRS Commissioner Shulman.

            “Many high wealth individuals make use of sophisticated financial, business, and investment arrangements with complicated legal structures and tax consequences.  Many of these arrangements are above board.  Others mask aggressive tax strategies,” quoth the Commish in a couple of speeches late last and early this year.

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With the usual euphemistic grandstanding moniker, the latest from your government and ours comes forth in the form of the “Paycheck Fairness Act.”

            That’s right – now they want your business and ours to provide to the government data related to employee compensation, as it may relate to employees’ sex, race and national origin. Read the rest of this entry »

They’re coming.  Take Illinois, f’rinstance.

            “Some of the current research is talking about a penny or two cents an ounce as needed to be expensive enough to affect consumption,” noted Illinois Public Health Institute CEO Elissa Bassler, recently, with reference to the increasing attention being paid to societal costs associated with packing too many LBs. Read the rest of this entry »

And a good thing indeed, in our humble opinion.

            This little jewel of a House bill was introduced in February of this year, and has been hanging around ever since–not only looking for movement, but even a co-sponsor or two (which bodes well for its demise.)

            A pearl of wisdom of Representative Chaka Fattah (D-PA), the “Debt Free America Act” states as its purpose the raising of sufficient revenue from a fee on transactions to eliminate the national debt within seven years, and the phasing out of the individual income tax.

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Which should come as no surprise, right?

            Thanks to Representative Bill Delahunt (Dem – Ma), a bill came forth in the House last week which would change the rules of sales taxation for Internet transactions.  Recall that folks purchasing via Internet sources generally don’t pay sales taxes–and bureaucrats galore have been ruminating over this whole issue for years, it seems.  But Delahunt, with the concurrence of The National Conference of State Legislatures, moves on in an effort to allow states to collect as much as $23 billion in new taxes. Read the rest of this entry »

            Since when do folks presently lodged at the metal bar hotel qualify for (and receive) what the government is handing out in the form of the “first time homebuyer tax credit?”

            You see, it’s not just you, or your kids, or your friends and neighbors who Uncle Sam seems to be in a hurry to accommodate with this tax credit – seems nearly 1,300 prison inmates (that’s right – 1,300 jailbirds) have wrongly received more than $9 million of your tax dollars in the form of this credit.  And if that isn’t enough, 241 of these blokes were lifers who it would appear, already have secured a home long ago!

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Seems IRS Commish Shulman is looking toward a “one world” philosophy when it comes to the next era of tax audits.  In a recent speech before the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Shulman said plans are being made for joint country audits of multinational corporations.  And with all of the recent attention to individuals’ foreign investments, can joint audits of we and thee be far off?

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“Not to worry” about the fiscal fiasco known as Social Security.  So saith Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) via the official report recently released by his Senate Special Committee on Aging, which calls for “modest” changes to Social Security in the near future to bring its long-term financing into balance and improve benefits.

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            The glory days of “S” corporations may soon become a thing of the past.  Not good news for many small businesses, at a time when tax news is almost always bad news.

            Recall that “S” corporations are those which typically don’t pay tax at their own level–the bottom line “passes through,” as the jargon goes, to the individual income tax return of the owner/shareholder.  And until now, at least, any bottom line left over after the payment of salary to the shareholder has come with an income tax burden, for sure, but no payroll tax cost – no FICA or Medicare, that is.  And to be sure, this perceived “freebie” has been subject to some manipulation by shareholders, over the years, who may have tended to minimize, just a little, that salary paid to themselves, thus allowing the remaining profit to come to them without the 15% + FICA/Medicare hit.

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