Category Archives: Tax

May 6, 2021

Johns Hopkins Economist Explains Why True Cost of Biden’s Spending Plans Could Be $17.1 Trillion—3X Higher Than Advertised

Posted on May 6, 2021 by ifnm| Comments Off on Johns Hopkins Economist Explains Why True Cost of Biden’s Spending Plans Could Be $17.1 Trillion—3X Higher Than Advertised

We interviewed economics professor Steve Hanke to find out why he says the real cost could be as much as $119,000 per federal taxpayer.

In just his first 100 days, President Biden has rolled out ambitious spending plans meant to vastly increase federal funding for everything from infrastructure to jobs to families. The whopping $6 trillion price tag on these combined proposals has raised many eyebrows about how a nation more than $28 trillion in debt can afford such a splurge. 

But one prominent economist is warning that the true cost of Biden’s plans could be more than three times higher than advertised.

Steve Hanke is a Professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University and Director of the Troubled Currencies Project at the Cato Institute. In a new op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, he argues that the true cost of the president’s spending proposals is really closer to $17.1 trillion. (That’s roughly $119,000 per federal taxpayer!)

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Posted in Entitlements, Joe Biden, Tax

March 26, 2021

After $1.9 Trillion Spending Hike, Biden Is Planning $3 Trillion in New Spending

Posted on March 26, 2021 by ifnm| Comments Off on After $1.9 Trillion Spending Hike, Biden Is Planning $3 Trillion in New Spending

This time with tax increases too!

It’s been a whole 11 days since President Joe Biden signed a $1.9 trillion spending bill, so naturally the White House is already planning the next, even bigger spending package.

The New York Times reported Monday that Biden’s advisors are prepping a $3 trillion hike in federal spending. The money would go to infrastructure projects, climate change initiatives, community colleges, and a variety of other Democratic priorities. The plan may also include higher taxes on businesses and wealthy individuals, but it seems unlikely that the tax increases would offset such a massive spending binge. And that means Biden’s plan is almost certain to add to the $28 trillion (and rapidly growing) national debt.

This is the big-time spending package that Biden has been promising since last year’s presidential campaign. The pandemic bill passed earlier this month was merely a prelude.

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Posted in Democrats/Progressives, Joe Biden, Tax

May 4, 2020

Nancy Pelosi’s Wuhan Virus Priority Is To Give Money To Her Rich Donors

Posted on May 4, 2020 by ifnm| Comments Off on Nancy Pelosi’s Wuhan Virus Priority Is To Give Money To Her Rich Donors

Behind the scenes, congressional Democrats’ main priority is bringing back a big tax loophole for rich people in high-tax blue states: their donors.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has political priorities. During negotiations over the three Wuhan coronavirus stimulus bills, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tried to include loans for abortion providers, as well as a bailout of the Obamacare exchanges that would end up funding abortion.

That led to some bad PR for Pelosi, but the House speaker may be a glutton for punishment. If there’s one thing Democrats are beholden to more than the abortion lobby, it’s the rich people in blue states who fund their campaigns.

How’s this? Pelosi just told reporters that one of her top priorities for a fourth stimulus bill — which may or may not be passed, since Congress has already passed three bills and spent more than $2 trillion — is a removal of the current cap on the state and local tax deduction, or SALT.

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Posted in Democrats/Progressives, Tax

February 20, 2020

IRS sues Facebook for $9B, says company offshored profits to Ireland

Posted on February 20, 2020 by ifnm| Comments Off on IRS sues Facebook for $9B, says company offshored profits to Ireland

The trial, which Facebook expects will take three to four weeks, could see top executives including hardware chief Andrew Bosworth and Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer called to testify

Facebook Inc is slated to begin a tax trial in a San Francisco court on Tuesday, as the Internal Revenue Service tries to convince a judge the world’s largest social media company owes more than $9 billion linked to its decision to shift profits to Ireland.

The trial, which Facebook expects will take three to four weeks, could see top executives including hardware chief Andrew Bosworth and Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer called to testify, according to a document the company filed in January.

The witness list also includes Naomi Gleit and Javier Olivan, veterans of Facebook’s aggressive growth team, and Chief Revenue Officer David Fischer.

Facebook Inc is slated to begin a tax trial in a San Francisco court on Tuesday, as the Internal Revenue Service tries to convince a judge the world’s largest social media company owes more than $9 billion linked to its decision to shift profits to Ireland.

The trial, which Facebook expects will take three to four weeks, could see top executives including hardware chief Andrew Bosworth and Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer called to testify, according to a document the company filed in January.

The witness list also includes Naomi Gleit and Javier Olivan, veterans of Facebook’s aggressive growth team, and Chief Revenue Officer David Fischer.

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Posted in Law & Courts, Social Media, Tax

February 6, 2020

Tax the Rich: Pope Francis Calls for Global Wealth Redistribution

Posted on February 6, 2020 by ifnm| Comments Off on Tax the Rich: Pope Francis Calls for Global Wealth Redistribution

Tax cuts for the wealthy constitute a “structure of sin,” Pope Francis said Wednesday in a passionate address calling for international wealth redistribution.

“Every year hundreds of billions of dollars, which should be paid in taxes to fund health care and education, accumulate in tax haven accounts,” the pontiff told participants in a Vatican seminar, “thus impeding the possibility of the dignified and sustained development of all social agents.”

“Today’s structures of sin include repeated tax cuts for the richest people, often justified in the name of investment and development,” Francis told the meeting organized by the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences.

During his discourse, the pope repeated his conviction that poverty is on the rise worldwide and “the poor increase around us.”

With the passage of time and the advances of civilization the number of poor people increases rather than diminishing, Francis similarly asserted last June, and “the poor are always poorer, and today they are poorer than ever.”

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Posted in Tax

October 6, 2019

IRS: Sorry, but It’s Just Easier and Cheaper to Audit the Poor

Posted on October 6, 2019 by ifnm| Comments Off on IRS: Sorry, but It’s Just Easier and Cheaper to Audit the Poor

Congress asked the IRS to report on why it audits the poor more than the affluent. Its response is that it doesn’t have enough money and people to audit the wealthy properly. So it’s not going to.

The IRS audits the working poor at about the same rate as the wealthiest 1%. Now, in response to questions from a U.S. senator, the IRS has acknowledged that’s true but professes it can’t change anything unless it is given more money.

ProPublica reported the disproportionate audit focus on lower-income families in April. Lawmakers confronted IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig about the emphasis, citing our stories, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked Rettig for a plan to fix the imbalance. Rettig readily agreed.

Last month, Rettig replied with a report, but it said the IRS has no plan and won’t have one until Congress agrees to restore the funding it slashed from the agency over the past nine years — something lawmakers have shown little inclination to do.

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Posted in Tax

February 6, 2018

Hard Lessons From the Federal Student-Loan Program’s Coming $36 Billion Shortfall

Posted on February 6, 2018 by ifnm| Comments Off on Hard Lessons From the Federal Student-Loan Program’s Coming $36 Billion Shortfall

Prospect of taxpayer losses increases the chances that Congress will make major changes to the program.

U.S. officials have long maintained the federal government would make a profit on its $1.4 trillion student loan portfolio or at least break even, but two recent reports suggest just the opposite will be the case. Government lending to college and graduate students could soon become an immense drain on federal coffers, worsening an already deteriorating U.S. budget picture.

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Posted in Economy and Debt, Tax

January 28, 2018

America First: European CEOs Go One By One To Tell Trump They Are Investing Billions Back In The US (Video)

Posted on January 28, 2018 by ifnm| Comments Off on America First: European CEOs Go One By One To Tell Trump They Are Investing Billions Back In The US (Video)

The president of Seimens, Joe Kaeser, said, “since you have been so successful in tax reform we have decided to develop the next generation gas turbines in the United States.” Trump responded “That’s great!”

President Donald J. Trump hosted a dinner with European business leaders and CEOs at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland Thursday evening. Trump has been making the rounds in Davos, holding bilateral meetings with other world leaders and conducting business roundtables. Trump met with various business leaders in shadow of the recent economic boom in America.

In a stunning moment, one by one, European titans of industry from companies like Adidas, Siemens and Bayer went around the table to thank Trump for the passage of tax cuts and the easing of corporate tax burdens. Almost every CEO had a new US-based investment or strategic business to announce.

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Posted in Business, Donald Trump, Tax

January 24, 2018

Trickle Down: Starbucks Workers Win Pay Raises, Expanded Benefits Thanks to Trump Tax Plan

Posted on January 24, 2018 by ifnm| Comments Off on Trickle Down: Starbucks Workers Win Pay Raises, Expanded Benefits Thanks to Trump Tax Plan

Starbucks will spend $250 million of its corporate tax cut to boost the pay and expand the benefits of its American workers.

The coffee chain joins some 200 American corporations that are already raising wages thanks to a corporate tax cut signed into law by President Trump last month. Starbucks, a mega-corporation with a far-left worldview, has now joined a handful of other far-left corporations — Apple and Disney — in validating the idea that tax cuts benefit everyone, or what is known as trickle-down economics.

According to Reuters, Starbucks will save some $425 million in taxes, more than of which it plans to pass on to its employees. This will come in the form of a pay raise, as well as stock grants worth between $500 to $2000, depending on seniority.

On Tuesday, the Walt Disney Company announced that, thanks to the Trump tax cut, it would award its 125,000 employees one-time cash bonuses of $1,000 and invest $50 million into education programs for its workers.

Last week, Apple announced $2,500 bonuses for most of its employees in the form of stock units. The left-wing company also said it would repatriate some $200 billion to the U.S. and invest a total of $350 billion into our economy over the next five years. This is expected to create some 22,000 American jobs.

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Posted in Business, Donald Trump, Tax

January 1, 2018

11 Outrageous Ways Federal Government Wasted $473 Billion in Taxpayer Money

Posted on January 1, 2018 by ifnm| Comments Off on 11 Outrageous Ways Federal Government Wasted $473 Billion in Taxpayer Money

The federal government wastes or ineffectively uses billions of taxpayer dollars every year. In late November, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) released the annual waste report: “Federal Fumbles: 100 Ways the Government Dropped the Ball.”

The report provides examples of waste and mismanagement that took place over eleven months, including newly documented past waste and ongoing wasteful practices.

The total wasted dollars dug up for the report: $473 billion. Lankford wrote in the introductory remarks in the report:

Included in ‘Federal Fumbles’ is just a sampling of instances where federal agencies or departments have wasted or inefficiently used billions of your dollars. The program and grant funding discussed in this book has already been allocated or spent and cannot be recovered. But highlighting it here provides lessons for agencies and hopefully encourages Congress to utilize its oversight and legislative authority to prevent future waste and misuse of federal tax dollars.

Lankford said the report should be utilized by members of Congress to curtail the waste and make sure federal agencies “are doing the right thing, the right way.”

“Americans rightly expect great things from their leaders in Washington,” Lankford said. “I offer this book as a guide for elected officials of both parties to identify areas of improvement so we may come together to do the work our constituents expect and our country deserves.”

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Posted in Government, Tax