Protester’s Tax Battle Ends With Settlement – As I described over a year ago when the criminal case was decided, the Tax Protestor movement has been using it to validate their arguments that nobody is legally required to file income tax returns. As I explained back then, this pilot only succeeded in staying out of prison. She still owed the taxes, penalties, and interest on her income. Having to pay the Feds over a half million dollars doesn’t sound like much of a real victory for the scammers in the Tax Protestor community.

Thanks to TaxProf Paul Caron for the info on the NTU’s attempts to get all of the candidates for Congress and the US Senate to answer an 11 question survey about their beliefs on taxes and whether or not they will work towards lowering them.

You can check how your state’s candidates have responded from this page. Not everyone has responded to the survey. When I checked Arkansas, only four of the eleven names (36.4%) had any feedback as of the September 1 tabulation date. Missouri had responses from 12 of the 30 candidates listed (40%).

If you understand the anti-tax tone of the questions, you can pretty well assume the stand of candidates who refuse to answer them.

Social Security to Become Insolvent by 2018

Poor credit history can doom job offers – Potential employers frequently check credit reports on job applicants. I occasionally did it back in the PRC; so this is nothing new.

President derides sKerry for ‘hidden’ tax proposal

Ownership Society Will Determine Victory

2003 Cuts Yielded Dividends (Literally!)

Tax vote in Virginia spurs rival candidates

Leadership Heeding Bush Call for Five-Year Tax Cut Extensions

Justice Dept. Sues To Halt Alleged Internet Tax Scam – Another tax protestor scammer bites the dust. You can see some examples of his idiotic arguments that nobody has to pay taxes on this page

Study finds N.Y. residents pay $131 for every $1,000 earned, Tennessee taxes residents the least.

Bush Attacks His Opponent Over His Record on Taxes – Shooting fish in a barrel.

I recently received the following:

Kerry, maybe you could clarify this for me…(from John Kerry’s website) http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/budget.pdf

pg 3 he claims to raise taxes on only those making over $200K, but then says he will restore the top two tax rates to their levels under president Clinton. Doesn’t the 2nd tax rate start at 146,750 for individuals and 178,650 for couples – doesn’t Kerry have to have some clarification on this?

Thanks for your updates, I find them useful.

My reply:

You are close on the figures; but have an excellent point. I pulled out my 2000 Federal income tax rate schedules and the 36% bracket started at $161,451 for married couples and $132,601 for single taxpayers. Inflation adjustments have continued to move the starting points up over the years.

This practice of nailing many more people than the avowed targets isn’t anything new for DemonRats. In 1993, when the Clinton-Gore team passed their humongous tax increase, they instituted a 10% “Millionaire Surtax,” which gave us the top 39.6% bracket (36% + 3.6%). The funny thing was that this top bracket started at taxable income of $250,000 and above. Many people were then punished as evil millionaires without earning anywhere close to a million dollars.

Thanks for writing.

Scrutiny on the Bounty

Taking the air out of floating checks – More on the new upcoming rules for banks to clear checks.

A Social Security Tax Puzzle

Tax Cuts, Jobs and ‘Jeopardy!’

IRS has been trying to lure us hold-outs from the use of electronic filing of tax returns by offering some very handy online services. The latest is the ability to get client account transcripts immediately. I have to admit that this would be a very useful tool, especially in trying to resolve the constant problem of payments being applied to the wrong tax period. However, as tempting as this is, I still believe that the down-sides of filing tax returns electronically outweigh the benefits; so I won’t be signing up for this program. There is no way I will ever meet the qualification of filing 100 or more tax returns electronically per year.