Bush’s costly tax favors – The only bit of truth in this diatribe against tax cuts is the cost of dealing with the complexity of the tax code. Blaming tax cuts for the deficit and income disparity is just the same socialist bilge the mainstream media have been pushing on the economically illiterate for decades.

Latest state revenue-raising wrinkle: taxing services – There has always been a huge lobby industry involved in defining what products and services are subject to sales taxes. Adding things that had traditionally been exempt, such as professional services, is an easy way to raise revenue without raising the actual tax rate.

Boost in taxes OK’d in Virginia

Don’t Tax the Internet

Google hype has veterans of ’90s bubble a bit worried – It’s no secret that the collective memory in this country can be measured in months. Just look at how many people (most of the DemonRats) have completely forgotten about the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01. Anyone so willing to ignore the history of the 1990s dot-com stock market fiasco because it was ancient history from last century will deserve to lose any money they gamble in IPOs and other speculative stocks.

States Name, Shame Tax Scofflaws Online

Brown’s attorney files for discovery – The latest on the Harrison Abstract embezzlement case.

A Profile of Couples Benefiting from Marriage Penalty Relief – As I’ve often explained, the provisions discussed here only offset a part of the true tax penalty on married couples. Many couples still pay several thousands of dollars in additional taxes than they would if they were able to file as single. I have long advocated true marriage penalty relief by allowing married couples to calculate their taxes under various scenarios and allow them to use the most advantageous one. Liberals, who think our taxes are too low, would be free to use the higher tax method; but of course they won’t so as to not disturb their innate hypocrisy.

German immigrant leaves 70% of estate to IRS – While this isn’t the choice most of us would make, that was her right to do.

Courtesy of Worth1000

Bush Calls for Ban on Broadband Taxes

Criminalizing business: part II – More from Thomas Sowell on why the name People’s Republic of California (PRC) is so well deserved. The anti-business sentiment is even worse than it was eleven years ago, when we left there.

It’s the economy, voters, but whose? – Judging the state of the economy is a very subjective undertaking.

Is Fair and Simple No Longer Possible? – Those are two words that will never be used to describe the income tax system in this country. The only way to achieve anything close to fair or simple would be to repeal the 16th Amendment, completely scrap the income and estate taxes, and use something like a national sales tax. When it comes to tax reform, the motto needs to be, “end it, don’t mend it.”

Not enough financial aid? Seek counseling.

How to slash your taxes – The traditional way to reduce or eliminate income and payroll taxes is to just stop working, which becomes more attractive an option the higher and more confiscatory the tax rates are.

Criminalizing business – Another good piece by Thomas Sowell on the impossibility of every potential investor having exactly the same information as every other potential investor, and the ridiculousness of our rulers in DC trying to legislate this kind of thing from their high and mighty thrones.

Kill the Corporate AMT – As well as the idiotic AMT on individuals.

PAYGO on Tax Cuts Could Bring Back the Estate Tax – The entire way in which our rulers account for the effects of tax changes – using a static scoring system that assumes no related changes in behavior as a result – is the perfect example of the classic oxymoron, “government intelligence.”

IWF Refutes So-Called ‘Wage Gap’ – It is true that the extent of the perceived gap between salaries of women and men is usually highly overstated and doesn’t account for the extenuating circumstances that actually justify such disparities. However, the issue is not entirely fictitious. During my seven years involvement with the internal auditing profession (as an auditor, audit manager, and seminar instructor), where I examined the internal workings of a number of large businesses, I did see several very real examples of men being paid much higher salaries and given many more benefits (company cars, etc.) than women for the exact same jobs simply because of their gender. Managers even used those exact words to justify the differences. I was reprimanded on several occasions for discussing those disparities. Of course, it has been almost 20 years since I left corporate employment; so I hope such blatant discrimination has been tempered since then.

Virginia Schools Cut Math Classes to Increase Lottery Sales – Consistent with the classic definition of lotteries as “taxation of the mathematically ignorant (aka morons).”

How to Irritate the IRS – I’m not endorsing these tricks; but showing what kind of crap IRS employees have to deal with; because people actually do these things to them

How to invest in dot-com stocks, courtesy of Fark

Do You Own Multiple Homes But No “Principal Residence” For Capital Gains Purposes? – Although this is from last July, I just came across it and even added a link to it on the page on my main website with the article on primary residence sales. It shows that establishing a home as a “primary residence,” with up to $500,000 of tax free profit, depends on many of the same issues as are involved with establishing a particular state or country as a person’s tax home; topics I deal with quite often. The number of days occupying the home aren’t as important as the other indicators of intent to make it your primary residence, such as drivers licenses and voter registration.