by Linda Beale Tax Relief for Victims of Sandy The IRS released several bulletins this week providing relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy.IR-2012-83 extends the return filing and tax payment deadline to Feb. 1, 2013 for hurricane victims in Connecticut (Fairfield, Middlesex, New Haven, and New London Counties; the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the […]
by Linda Beale GOP didn’t like the study on impact of tax cuts on economic growth The Congressional Research Service has long been respected as a non-partisan research organization that does in-depth studies as requested by Congress. But when those non-partisan studies produce results that don’t jive with the right-wing mythology about tax cuts as […]
by Linda Beale Romney’s CRUT Tax Shelter\ The Bloomberg press has looked further at Romney’s use of trusts and other arrangements to avoid taxes, using Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain more information than was released by Romney in his meager tax return release. Romney established a charitable trust in 1996 of a type […]
by Linda Beale Growing inequality calls for both “predistribution” and (rightly directed) redistribution In putting forward my theme of democratic egalitarianism, I have often noted that there is no such thing as an economically egalitarian society–there will always be differentials among people, those differences often relate to social class and the education, privileged upbringing, and […]
by Linda Beale Romney’s Tax (Mis)Calculations: if your two and two don’t add to four, pretend the Laffer curve gives you more Anybody watching last night’s presidential debate surely became aware at some point that Romney’s so-called “plan” for economic growth is an empty shell based on the idea that he’s made money for himself […]
by Linda Beale If Europe Adds a Financial Transactions Tax, Will We Follow? Has the time come for the US to impose a financial transactions tax? It would have several positive features. First, it would raise revenues, which are sorely needed for everything from climate change action to infrastructure improvements to aid for needy families. […]
Lifted from Linda Beale’s: Romney’s “revenue neutral” 20% rate cut may not be achievable, Hassett admits…For months, many tax experts have been saying that even what is known about Romney’s plan–skimpy as it is on any real information–shows that it is unworkable. One of Romney’s sometimes advisers finally sort of acknowledged that. Kevin Hassett (an […]
by Linda Beale NY AG defends tax-exempt organization probe After complaints from some academics about the rationale for a New York investigation of tax exempt organizations and a letter from Congressional Republicans Dave Camp (MI) and Orrin Hatch (Utah)suggesting that the New York Attorney General should not be seeking copies of federal returns from taxpayers […]
by Linda Beale Romney’s Tax Views Lead to Blooper Comments Denigrating America’s Elderly and Poor Most of us who follow tax issues in the news and in political campaigns are aware that GOP candidate Mitt Romney has been very secretive about various items. First and foremost, he has been secretive about his own extraordinary wealth: […]
by Linda Beale Whistleblower gets millions: good for compliance improvement (and makes us ask again–did Romney get amnesty?) Bradley Birkenfeld, the UBS whistleblower who helped jumpstart the IRS’s enforcement of foreign bank account reporting and helped catch criminal tax evaders, ended up serving a relatively short prison term (for failure to be entirely forthcoming, in […]