by Linda Beale Nurses Support Financial Transactions Tax Perhaps the JPMorgan Chase debacle has caught enough attention to alter the debate. JPMorgan of course claimed to be entering a type of hedge that would be permitted under the Dodd Frank reforms. ( Apparently there were hedges on overall portfolio positions, and then those hedges were […]
by Linda Beale Ten tax tricks (non-rich need not apply) Back on tax day in April, Bloomberg.com ran a good story on the tax tricks the rich can use to reduce, defer or avoid altogether federal income taxation. Jesse Drucker, How to Pay No Taxes: Ten Strategies Used by the Rich, Bloomberg.com (Apr. 17, 2012). […]
by Linda Beale US inequality is getting worse The Congressional REsearch Service released a report in March showing that US inequality is getting worse. Linda Levine, US income distribution and mobility: trends and international comparisons, Congressional Research Service (Mar. 7, 2012). Here’s an excerpt from the summary provided in the report itself. Approaching three years […]
by Linda Beale The worm in Apple (and the US tax code)–offshoring of US Profits Citizens for Tax Justice has focused on Apple’s ability to lower its US effective tax rate by offshoring its profits to tax havens. See, e.g., Robert McIntyre, What Apple Pays in Taxes and Doesn’t, NY Times Letters to the Editor, […]
by Linda Beale Summers says taxes must increase For once, I find myself agreeing with Larry Summers. At a conference in Washington sponsored by the Brookings Institute, he emphasized that tax cuts and spending cuts cannot appropriately resolve the US budgetary issues. “It is a near certainty that we are going to need a significant […]
by Linda Beale Tax Foundation–up to its usual nonsense The Tax Foundation claims to be a nonpartisan institute interested merely in researching and informing people about taxes. That’s far from the truth, however. Its work is aimed at one purpose–convincing Americans that they pay too much in taxes and that government is too big. One […]
by Linda Beale Leonard says GOP Is intent on sabotage Andrew Leonard of Salon writes often about tax and economic issues. In Friday’s column, he addressed the increasingly obstructionist tactics employed by far-right representative Paul Ryan and a coterie of other GOP representatives who are willing to sacrifice core systems in order to keep the […]
by Linda Beale Reform that “high” statutory corporate tax rate? Not necessary I got an interesting item pushed to me from an online-MBA website blog where today’s item was on “10 Big Businesses That Barely Pay Taxes“. It looks at companies like GE, duPont, Verizon, ExxonMobil, FedEx, Boeing, Google and others that aggressively maximize the […]
by Linda Beale Common Cause Claims ALEC Violated Tax Exempt Lobbying Restrictions The Common Cause organization filed a complaint with the IRS under 26 USC 7623, the tax whistleblower act, alleging that the American Legislative Exchange Council violated the lobbying restrictions applicable to tax exempt organizations through underreporting and operating in furtherance of private corporate […]
by Linda Beale Buffett Rule rejected by Senate The Senate rejected the effort to make tax policy commensurate with the slogans about American values that we parrot freely–opportunity, paying fair shares, etc. Given the now rigid “phantom” filibuster rule requiring a supermajority to pass anything in the Senate, the Republicans –especially if joined by a […]