Tax Guru – Ker$tetter Letter

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.

Senate Revives Ban on Taxing Internet – They’re finally doing something on this issue. It’s about time.

When Would the President’s Tax Cuts Expire? – If our rulers in DC don’t get off their butts and make the tax cuts permanent, everyone will be facing huge tax increases very soon. This is why, a few months ago, I added a link to my blogroll on the right side of this page to the impending tax increases we are all facing.

Adam Smith’s Principles of a Proper Tax System – I’ve always admired the “invisible hand” concepts in his book, “Wealth of Nations.”

FTB double-dips into taxpayers’ accounts – I have always been against electronic filing of tax returns because of the inability to properly explain the info on the returns and thus avoid audits and other problems. This snafu in the PRC shows another danger to e-filing.

Pat Boone Fights the Death Tax – We all need to exert more pressure on our rulers to permanently eliminate this evil confiscation.

Giving by Affluent Is Less Generous On Basis of Assets – This is an interesting idea; to compare charitable donations as a percentage of a person’s net worth versus as a percentage of annual income. I do have serious doubts as to the results because, as they admit, the people doing these calculations, New Tithing Group, had to use a lot of SWAGs *Scientific Wild Ass Guesses) for net worth figures. IRS statistics on income and donations are anonymous and grouped together; so it’s not even possible to match them up with specific people for whom net worth figures may be available. Even there, as with the annual Forbes list of the wealthiest people, a lot of SWAGs are used.

Here are direct links to New Tithing’s research report and their press release.