BUZZ!
BUZZ! The BUZZ is back!
* Read about “The Dumbest Tax Loophole In America: The Florida Rent-a-Cow Scam” by Jordan
Weissmann of The Atlantic.
* The Tax Policy
Center looks at “The Romney Plan (Updated)” – Mitt’s revised tax proposals.
“Governor Romney would permanently extend all
the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts now scheduled to expire in 2013, repeal the AMT and
certain tax provisions in the 2010 health reform legislation, and cut
individual income tax rates by an additional 20 percent. He would also expand
the tax base by cutting back tax preferences, but has supplied no information
on which preferences would be reduced. Tax provisions in the 2009 stimulus act
and subsequently extended through 2012 would expire. These include the American
Opportunity tax credit for higher education, the expanded refundability of the
child credit, and the expansion of the earned income tax credit (EITC). The
plan would also eliminate tax on long-term capital gains, dividends, and
interest income for married couples filing jointly with income under $200,000
($100,000 for single filers and $150,000 for heads of household) and repeal the
federal estate tax, while continuing the gift tax with a maximum tax rate of 35
percent.2
The plan would reduce the six current income tax rates
by one-fifth, bringing the top rate down from 35 percent to 28 percent and the
bottom rate from 10 percent to 8 percent. The accompanying repeal of the AMT
would increase the tax savings from the rate cuts—without that repeal, the AMT
would reclaim much of the tax savings.
The plan would recoup the revenue loss caused by those
changes by reducing or eliminating unspecified tax breaks, thereby making more
income subject to tax. Gov. Romney says that the reductions in tax breaks, in
combination with moderately faster economic growth brought about by lower tax
rates, will make the individual income tax changes revenue neutral compared
with simply extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. He also promises that low-
and middle-income households will pay no larger shares of federal taxes than
they do now.”
* FOX NEWS, not my
first source of information, reminds us that “Taxmageddon Coming? Answer Could Cost Americans $500 Billion”.
The item quotes Curtis Dubay of the Heritage
Foundation, "Taxmageddon falls 70 percent on middle and low income
families. That's because 60 percent of the Bush tax cuts were for middle- and
low-income taxpayers,"
and the Tax Foundation’s Scott Hodge, "No
American will be unscathed at the end of this year. Taxmageddon hits all of us."
Hodge identifies
the problem, caused, of course, by the idiots in Congress - "Almost the entire tax code has been put on a
year-to-year lease, and in some cases, month-to-month lease, which is no way to
run a tax system".
He also voices the
opinion of many, myself included - "It's
my guess that nothing will happen on any of these issues until after the
election”.
Actually I expect
that the idiots in Congress will extend the current Tax Code for one more year.
* Joe Arsenault gives a good overview of “What to do When a Family Member Dies” at CAFÉ TAX.
* Prof Jim Maule tells us about “Another Bad Tax Return Clutter Idea” at MAULED AGAIN, and goes into detail on just why it is a
bad idea.
And in his introductory paragraph he reminds us –
“Much of
what contributes to this aspect of tax complexity is the use of the tax law as
a substitute for direct spending programs and use of the IRS as a substitute
for other federal agencies that ought to be charged with administering programs
in their respective areas . . . . .
using the tax law and the IRS in this manner is inefficient,
ineffective, and deceptive”.
* While
I was on “hiatus” Joe Kristan filled the BUZZ void with his “Tax Roundup”
series. Check out some of what we both
missed during the season.
* Kay Bell, the
yellow rose of taxes, reminded us that Tax Freedom Day 2012 fell on Tax Day –
the 2012 filing deadline of April 17th – in her post “Happy Belated Tax Freedom Day 2012” at DON’T MESS WITH TAXES.
TTFN
No comments:
Post a Comment