It’s Not What You Spend, It’s What You Don’t Spend That Counts

Republicans Warn Bush on Spending, Deficits

New 10-Step Weight Loss Plan For the Federal Budget Offered

Is Congress Helping Build a Toll Booth for the Internet? – Our rulers are taking their sweet time addressing the issue of taxing the Internet.

Tax changes prove puzzling for investors

Vacation second home tax breaks

How everyone else pays for the lifestyle of the super rich – More “hate the evil rich” propaganda.

California Dems Try ‘Fresh’ Strategy: Higher Taxes

Calif. Lawmakers Back Tax Hike, Defy Schwarzenegger – Why the outward migration from the PRC is not likely to change.

Latest Budget Figures Show Light At End Of Tunnel. No Need for States to Increase Taxes

Deficit Mongers & the IMF – The Left aren’t slowing down any with their lies about tax cuts causing deficits.

Some lottery winners challenge IRS, tax court rulings – Lottery winners have been selling their future payment streams to investors and trying to claim the income as long term capital gains, which are subject to lower tax rates than the ordinary income tax rates that would apply to regular lottery income. IRS and the Tax Court are claiming that such sales should be taxed in the same manner as the regular payments would be. As with most tax issue, it is extremely expensive tax-wise to receive too much income in a single year because it pushes the recipient into the higher brackets than if the income were spread out over several years. Up until 1986, we had a mechanism to alleviate some of the damage from a big spike in income. However, our rulers in DC decided that income averaging was saving people too much money, so they eliminated it for everyone except farmers.

IRS to Audit Nature Conservancy From Inside – As with most huge bloated charities, there are plenty of opportunities for funny business and conflicts of interest. As I’ve always said, if you truly want to support very helpful charitable causes, it’s best to give directly to the small groups who do the actual work and not to the big guys who use most of the money for their humongous overhead. For fans of big cats, my favorite is still Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, South of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Every dime they receive is used to care for the animals they have saved.

The Next Tax Cut. Unlike the Democrats, Bush looks set to encourage saving. – Bush will have to overcome the “tax cuts for the rich” propaganda if he expects to enact these tax free savings accounts.

Minimum Required Distributions From IRAs – I am constantly hearing about bad advice as to how this rule works.

Will Greed of Elderly Bankrupt Us All? – Increasing costs of entitlements show no sign of ever being under control.

Gates quietly spends $14 million buying homes near Medina estate – What good is having a ton of money if you can’t buy yourself a peaceful safe place to live? I’m surprised he’s only buying up four acres around his current five acre estate. I know that if we had a lot more money, we would be buying up thousands of acres around us. While the buffer zone we currently have with our 285 acres is great, owning a few square miles would be ideal. If we had Bill Gates size money, we would probably just buy an entire county.

Conservative groups break with Republican leadership – This is great. Bush and the other GOP spendaholics in power have been taking conservatives for granted, believing they have no place to go except their party. For those people who want to send Bush and his drunken sailor cohorts a message, voting for Libertarians would go a long way.

Courtesy of another Fark PhotoShop contest:

What is Poverty? – It’s really hard for any objective person to not see how well off our citizens are who are considered to be below the poverty line. Their living standards, and the things they have, would have classified them as very well off not too long ago.

Tax Withholding Proposed for Independent Contractors – Here is the other shoe dropping after the recent tax gap propaganda. If this plan to deputize more people as government tax collectors doesn’t encourage more use of the corporate form, people are less intelligent than I thought. I have already seen plenty of businesses refuse to work with any service that isn’t incorporated just to avoid the potential for the workers being classified as employees. This new rule, if enacted, would push more business owners to the same conclusion because payments to corporations are not subject to the same 1099 reporting or tax withholding rules that apply to payments to unincorporated individuals and businesses.