Opinion
-
Michigan Poll Finds Support for Smaller Government
Opinion -With their state government facing a potential $1 billion deficit, Michigan taxpayers want lawmakers to balance the budget with spending cuts rather than tax increases, according to a recent poll. -
Schwarzenegger Recovery Plan on March Ballot
Opinion -On December 12, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation, passed by the state senate earlier that day, putting his economic recovery plan before the people of California in a March 2004 ballot referendum. -
SSA Admits Private Plans Will Work
Opinion -A December 1 memorandum from the Social Security Administration (SSA) to a renowned policy analyst marked the first time SSA has officially admitted private retirement plans will work. -
Taxpayer Group Blasts Effort to Kill Internet Tax Moratorium
Opinion -The U.S. Senate adjourned for the year without voting on S. 150, the Internet Tax Non-Discrimination Act. -
The Flat Tax
Opinion -Current plans for a flat tax are usually based on a plan introduced in 1981 by economists Robert E. Hall and Alvin Rabushka of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. -
U.S. Companies Become EU Tax Collectors
Opinion -Since July 1, U.S. firms selling certain goods to customers in the European Union (EU) have been required, under a law passed by the EU last year, to act as tax collectors on behalf of EU officials. -
Learning More about Land Value Taxation
Opinion -Efforts to encourage land value taxation (LVT) are part of a larger movement based on the ideas of American philosopher and economist Henry George (1839-1897). -
Comparing the Bush Tax Cut to Lieberman Tax Hike
Opinion -MARRIED TAXPAYERS, FILING JOINTLY Bush Tax Cut Lieberman Tax Hike Adjusted Gross Income Tax Rate Adjusted Gross Income Tax Rate $0 - $14,000 10% $0 - $14,000 10% $14,000 - $56,800 15% $14,000 - $56,800 12. -
New Coalition Fights to End Tax Discrimination against Self-Employed
Opinion -Equity for Our Nation’s Self-Employed, a new coalition of small business trade associations, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, has come together to fight a tax code discrimination that penalizes self-employed Americans. -
Wilmette Smoking Ban Is Bad Policy
Opinion -A hundred years ago Kin Hubbard, a newspaper columnist in Indianapolis, observed that “it ain’t what we do not know that hurts us so much; it is what we know that just ain’t so. -
Help U.S. Companies Compete Globally with New Tax Code
Opinion -October 10, 2003 The Honorable William Thomas Chairman Committee on Ways and Means United States House of Representatives 1102 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Chairman Thomas: By taxing income earned in other -
History of the FSC Dispute
Opinion -The U.S. first adopted Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) legislation in 1985 to encourage the export of U.S.-manufactured goods. The legislation provided that certain income earned by a foreign subsidiary of a U.S. -
Will States Tax the Internet?
Opinion -Since November 1, all bets are off concerning the taxing of the Internet. -
Lagging in Polls, Lieberman Offers Soak the Rich Tax Hike
Opinion -Presidential hopeful Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Connecticut) fell into a tie for third place among Democrats running for their party’s Presidential nomination, according to an early fall CNN poll. -
IRS to Step Up Audits and Collections
Opinion -For more than two years, Congress has been asking the Internal Revenue Service to take off the gloves. “Go get the money,” is the clarion call from Washington. -
US and EU on Collision Course Over Taxes
Opinion -The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled on November 10 that U.S. tariffs on imported steel, imposed in March 2002, violate global trade rules. -
Schwarzenegger Inherits Huge Budget Challenge
Opinion -The ongoing California budget problem presents one of the toughest fiscal challenges any American state has ever faced. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the beneficiary of Californians’ recall of Gray Davis, carries a clear mandate to fix the state’s finances. -
New Mexico Rejects Gas Tax Hike
Opinion -A special session of the New Mexico legislature closed on November 5 after rejecting a hike in the state’s gasoline tax but approving a 3 cents per gallon increase in the diesel fuel tax. -
‘No Tax’ Pledge Signers Win in Mississippi and Kentucky
Opinion -Mississippi taxpayers celebrated in early November at the election of Republican Haley Barbour as the state’s next governor. -
Philadelphia Weighs Property Tax Reform
Opinion -Pennsylvania was the birthplace of one of the most novel approaches to property taxation: the “two-rate,” or land value tax (LVT), developed by Philadelphia-born philosopher and economist Henry George (1839-1897). -
County Officials, Business Leaders Oppose Cook County Tax Plan
Opinion -A tax increase proposal floated in late October by John Stroger, president of the Cook County, Illinois, Board of Commissioners, attracted the ire of the Chicago business community and suspicion from the county commissioners who serve under him. -
Congress Considers Rolling Back Federal Beer Tax
Opinion -As Pennsylvania lawmakers ponder a new “drink tax,” Congress is considering a rollback of federal excise taxes on beer. -
Federal Spending per Dollar of Taxes
Opinion -Federal Spending per Dollar of Taxes - 1992 and 2002 Expenditures per Dollar of Taxes 10-Year Change in spending per Dollar of Tax Ranking Change in Ranking FY 1992 FY 2002 FY 1992 FY 2002 Alabama $ 1.39 $ 1. -
Commuter Taxes Hit at Philadelphia Hearing
Opinion -City officials in Philadelphia were recently told to reduce their politically popular but economically destructive taxes on nonresident workers. The Philadelphia Tax Reform Commission received expert testimony at a public hearing in October 2003.