Tax

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Having failed to repeal and replace Obamacare, congressional Republicans have turned their attention to tax reform. Given the disappointing track record of the 115th Congress, a victory on taxes is a political must-win. However, the history of tax reform is mostly one of failure and suggests that…

The head of the House’s Ways and Means Committee isn’t disputing that tax reform will be harder now that President Donald Trump is at war with two members of the rickety GOP Senate majority. But he does want you to know that he and Trump are doing just fine.

Scottsdale, Ariz.

Scottsdale, Ariz.

“Why is the NFL getting massive tax breaks while at the same time disrespecting our Anthem, Flag and Country?” Donald Trump tweeted last week, using German-style capitalization. Trump may have been thinking of the NFL’s headquarters tax exemption which, applying to the league’s New York City…

Jennifer MacMillan is a tax preparer. Her business ebbs and flows with the season. In the months before April 15, she talks with clients and pores over the records of their financial lives. She deciphers statements from their brokerages, determines how much they can claim for their home offices,…

Jennifer MacMillan is a tax preparer. Her business ebbs and flows with the season. In the months before April 15, she talks with clients and pores over the records of their financial lives. She deciphers statements from their brokerages, determines how much they can claim for their home offices,…

In tax reform, the negotiators from the Trump administration and Congress who are thought to be in charge are called the Big 6 by Washington insiders. But there’s also a Big 4, a group of supply-side economists who are playing an influential role.

In tax reform, the negotiators from the Trump administration and Congress who are thought to be in charge are called the Big 6 by Washington insiders. But there’s also a Big 4, a group of supply-side economists who are playing an influential role.

Comprehensive tax reform, done right, would accomplish many things: It should boost investment, productivity, and employment, and along with these economic growth. That is the intent, anyway.

Comprehensive tax reform, done right, would accomplish many things: It should boost investment, productivity, and employment, and along with these economic growth. That is the intent, anyway.

Trump surrogates Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani offered a similar defense of their candidate Sunday, calling him a "genius" and emphasizing that his not paying taxes was lawful, in the wake of a New York Times report that said the businessman could have avoided paying income taxes for years.

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The science of climate change may or may not be the certain thing that the president claims it is, but surely certain is the fact that he can push the Constitution only so far before the Supreme Court pushes back. Which is what it has done by granting the request of 29 states and several business…

The latest dead-on-arrival lame-duck proposal from the White House came Thursday. In a statement about its “21st Century Clean Transportation System" plan, the Obama administration said it would pay for new infrastructure spending with a "new fee paid by oil companies." Here's an excerpt:

When the Democrats passed Obamacare (without a single Republican vote), part of how they were allegedly going to pay for it was through a "Cadillac tax" on expensive employer-based insurance. Yet, this week, many Republicans are working with Democrats to delay or even repeal this tax. For three…

Hillary Clinton has unveiled a "profit sharing" tax plan. The details of the plan have been published on her website.

Among the Affordable Care Act’s many features is a tax on high dollar health insurance coverage that is part of an individual’s employment compensation. The thinking is that someone who is self-employed or doesn’t have employer provided coverage pays for health insurance with after-tax dollars so…

After the Democrats passed Obamacare without a single Republican vote, Republicans generally (and wisely) united around the notion that they shouldn’t pursue partial repeal or “fixes” to Obamacare.  Rather than willingly giving Obamacare a newly bipartisan sheen, they publicly committed to…

A former IRS tax examiner was indicted Friday along with three conspirators for filing false tax returns and making false claims for lost income related to the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The IRS worker, Jimmie McCorvey of Pensacola, FL, helped the other three obtain $95,200 from…

White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz told reporters Wednesday that the White House is studying ways to go after U.S. corporations that elect to undergo a process known as “inversion” and become a foreign-based corporation.

Conflate two separate issues and you get one policy error. That is what too many opponents of carbon taxes are doing, getting caught up in the argument about climate change, which really has nothing to do with the case for a carbon tax. That case is that such a tax can make growth-inducing tax…

To meteorologists, an inversion is a deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property. It can lead to pollution and adverse health effects. To Wall Street dealmakers, and now to most boards of directors, an inversion is a cross-border merger that allows the buyer to reincorporate in a…

When the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, one provision was a new 3.8 percent Net Investment Tax effective in 2013. Although the tax will generally hit high-end taxpayers (threshold is $250,000 for married and $200,000 for single), because of the way many parents choose to report their…

As Alex Roarty  of National Journal reports:

In mid-October, the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange quietly postponed all of the forums it had scheduled to inform small businesses about the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP), as we reported.  Now, in a Friday press release, the Maryland board overseeing the state's Obamacare website…

It looks like labor unions might be getting tax relief from Obamacare, according to a report from kaiserhealthnews.org.

One day away from the launch of the Obamacare marketplaces, the question most on the minds people visiting the Healthcare.gov website is not about coverage, but rather about avoiding the penalty, or tax, for not having health insurance. As of Monday morning, here is how the website listed its "Most…

Senate majority leader Harry Reid called the Obamacare medical device tax "stupid" at a briefing today on Capitol Hill:

A Grand Rapids, Michigan report on a company that had to lay off over 1,000 people due to the Obamacare medical device tax:

Sequestration has been blamed for everything from cancelled White House tours to military cutbacks that threaten national security to government worker furloughs. The latest victim of sequestration, however, might have a more difficult time garnering sympathy: corporate tax credits.  The Internal…

When the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, one provision that kicked in immediately was a Small Business Health Care Tax Credit.  The IRS explains how the fairly generous credit works:

If you are a U.S. senator and have a cool idea about taxes but are worried to speak it aloud for fear some of your constituents will peel your hide off in small strips ... well, there is hope.  A couple of your colleagues have come up with a plan.

Republicans forged ahead in their effort to transform North Carolina into a reliably red state, with Gov. Pat McCrory and top legislature leaders agreeing Monday on a tax cut plan to boost economic growth and job creation.

The House of Representatives is scheduled Tuesday to consider a bipartisan bill to add new seasonal flu vaccines to the IRS definition of taxable vaccines.  The Senate has already reached an agreement to vote on its version of the bill without further debate if the House passes an identical…

Bernie Becker and Kevin Bogardus write in The Hill that, according to “two top tax writers on Capitol Hill ... the case for tax reform has been strengthened by the recent revelations about Apple’s tax tactics and the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups.”

The Democratic ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings, said that today's IRS hearing "is more important than one election":

In his prepared remarks on the IRS’s targeting of his political opponents, President Obama said that “we’re going to hold the responsible parties accountable,” but only once we determine “who is responsible.”  In today’s Wall Street Journal, Kim Strassel offers some helpful thoughts on determining…

Richard Rubin at Bloomberg poses the following head scratcher:

Governments everywhere are on the prowl for more revenues. French president François Hollande wants to tax incomes in excess of €1 million at a 75 percent rate. Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, has jacked up VAT. Southern Europe’s finance ministers have come up with the novel…

House speaker John Boehner might support the Internet tax bill. But it isn't too likely, he indicated in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

The mayors of America have blessed the Marketplace Fairness Act, as Tom Cochran, CEO & executive director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, writes in Real Clear Politics. This, of course, is the legislation that allows states, cities, towns, villages, and wide spots in the road (about 9,600…

Congress is preparing to take action on a bipartisan proposal to raise taxes on flu vaccines. This is not a tax on the wealthy, but rather on a broad swath of Americans, or at least those who choose to be immunized against the flu.

Mark Knoller from CBS News reports this morning that President Obama, in a statement in the Rose Garden, “will stress his budget’s top objective is to boost the economy and create jobs.” To do that, he’ll have to contradict what he previously described as “the consensus among people who know the…

For all the talk of "changing the culture in Washington," it appears to be business as usual ... only more so.  Things are done – when, and if, they are – by people who play a tough inside game with no spectators. Washington will soon be working on revisions to the tax laws – since, obviously, they…

In a pre-Super Bowl interview on CBS, President Barack Obama made clear that he intends to raise taxes again:

Phil Mickelson had a bad weekend on the golf course and was almost 20 strokes behind the leader, Tiger Woods, when play was suspended Sunday in the Farmers Insurance Open tournament at Torrey Pines. But as poorly as he hit the ball, it was nothing as to how badly Mickelson misplayed public…

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is moving to London to avoid France's high taxes, according to a report in the British Daily Mail. The move would mean that Sarkozy, along with his wife, Carla Bruni, would avoid France's top tax rate of 75 percent.

Tom Cole is the kind of Republican that President Obama will need to help raise the debt ceiling. The Oklahoma congressman is a conservative, but he’s also a pragmatist and a realist who urged Republicans early on to lock in income tax rates for almost all Americans, rather than risk the…

Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican, wants to reform his state's tax code. Jindal announced today that his "goal is to eliminate all personal income tax and all corporate income tax."

Among the many items bundled into the fiscal cliff fix there was another delay in implementing cuts to physician payments for Medicare services.  It wasn't hard, though.  Congress has had plenty of practice handling what is called the "doc fix," since it has been doing it almost routinely for the…

President Barack Obama said that he stands by the medical device tax in Obamacare, despite growing bipartisan opposition:

From Sam Baker's report in the Hill, one learns that:

The Wall Street Journal editors are unhappy about the present correlation of political forces. Who isn't? They're also, I gather, unhappy about "Beltway sages" who, facing the fact that the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of this year, have suggested Republicans accept a modest increase in tax…

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, says he “burst into laughter” Thursday when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner outlined the administration proposal for averting the fiscal cliff.  He wasn’t trying to embarrass Geithner, McConnell says, only responding candidly to his one-sided plan,…

The chair of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, Alan Krueger, revealed yesterday that President Barack Obama believes "the payroll tax cut, among others, should be on the table." Krueger suggested Obama favored letting the payroll tax cut expire, which would result in a large tax…

In an interview on CNN, Grover Norquist likened his no-tax pledge to marriage.

Warren Buffett is by now no stranger to the national debate over federal tax policy. In 2009, he penned a New York Times op-ed calling for "truly major changes in both taxes and outlays." Two years later, he returned to the Times with a widely publicized call for large tax increases on the…

The boss made the case over the weekend that the payroll tax should not be forgotten. Likewise, Ross Douthat writes:

In February of 2012, President Obama released a proposal to cut the corporate tax rate by 20 percent—bringing the current corporate rate down from 35 percent to 28 percent (and to 25 percent for manufacturers). But according to Robert Pozen, a senior fellow at the liberal-leaning Brookings…

A study by the Tax Policy Center, a project of the center-left Brookings Institution and Urban Institute, claims that Mitt Romney's tax plan is mathematically impossible.

A new study by Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum finds that President Barack Obama's spending plan would raise taxes on the middle class.  "[T]axpayers making as little as $30,000 will carry $1,500 more in taxes annually over the next 10 years," the study finds.

According to a statement released by the Romney campaign that summarizes the rate of taxes the Republican presidential nominee paid between 1990 and 2009, the rate at which Mitt Romney paid taxes is approximately equal to what President Barack Obama paid last year. 

At a campaign speech this evening in Roanoke, Virginia, President Obama seemed to concede that his signature legislation, Obamacare, is in fact a "tax."

Regardless of whether the Obama administration and campaign insist on calling Obamacare a penalty, most Americans now believe the president's signature legislation is a tax, according to a new poll by Quinnipiac. Sixty percent of Hispanics believe Obamacare is a tax, and 59 percent of independent…

Why would the president oppose raising taxes when economic growth was 5.6 percent but propose raising taxes when it’s at 1.9 percent? When it’s politically advantageous to be seen as raising taxes on the rich.

President Obama just announced from the White House a plan to maintain current tax rates for the middle class, while hiking the tax rates for those earning above $250,000 per year. And while Republicans have already voiced opposition to the president's plan, Democrats are now beginning to express…

President Obama later today will announce a large tax increase on those Americans making over $250,000 a year. The Romney campaign is saying that this is Obama's  "response to even more bad economic news." 

On CNN this morning, President Obama's campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said that the president disagrees with the Supreme Court's decision on Obamacare:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has finally conceded that Obamacare, as it stands under the Supreme Court ruling, "is a tax."

One of the few bright spots in last week’s Supreme Court ruling on President Obama’s health care overhaul was a political one: The opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts argues that Obamacare is constitutional under the taxing powers of Congress. The Obama administration’s advocate before…

Just a couple of days ago, one heard dark talk about the partisan, right wing Supreme Court and how, if it overturned Obamacare, it would be engaging in something like a "coup."  Today, no less an expert in the ways of partisanship than Robert Shrum is declaring that “the Roberts Court will be seen…

Matt Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon: 

President Obama's former solicitor general Neal Katyal said on CNN that Obamacare "really functions like a tax":

In February the Obama administration's acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, Jeff Zeints, told the House Budget Committee that the penalty for not purchasing health insurance under Obamacare is not a tax. Watch below:

Was today's Supreme Court Obamacare decision a win for conservatives or a loss? It depends on what you were rooting for.

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a pro-traditional marriage organization, alleges that confidential tax forms were either leaked or stolen from the IRS and illegally distributed by its opponents to the media. 

“Look, I want folks to get rich in this country,” Mr. Obama said. “I think it’s wonderful when people are successful. That’s part of the American dream.”—New York Times

A few months ago, when President Obama proposed to restrict the deductibility of charitable contributions made by relatively well-off Americans, I asked why Obama is so opposed to having money go directly to the needy, rather than having it first be filtered through the government. Yet last week,…

Fred Barnes, writing in the Wall Street Journal:

ABC News: "Obama Administration to Delay New 15-Cent Christmas Tree Tax"

Rick Perry has a new ad showcasing the support of prominent conservatives like Steve Forbes and Rush Limbaugh for his economic plan. WEEKLY STANDARD senior writer Steve Hayes makes a (vocal) appearance:

Barack Obama has said that raising taxes in a struggling economy is “the last thing you want to do,” but for some Democrats on Capitol Hill raising taxes is a top priority. A proposal from Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD favors raising top…

A new study by economists Diana Furchtgott-Roth and Harold Furchtgott-Roth shows that one provision of Obamacare, a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical device manufacturers, could cause significant job losses—over 43,000, according to the report—in the industry. The whole report can be read here, but…

Wipe that smirk off your face, Mister President. “We cannot afford $1 trillion worth of tax cuts for every millionaire and billionaire in our society.” Is there some Sidwell Friends night school class liberal politicians take to perfect an expression of smug disdain? When Teddy Roosevelt was…

Barack Obama’s budget address last week ranks among the most dishonest and dishonorable presidential speeches in generations. It contained an avalanche of false and misleading statements. It was shallow and bitterly partisan. Yet the speech served a useful purpose: It provided the American people…

There’s a phrase that never crosses President Obama’s lips, even as he prepares to propose new tax cuts for small business.  The phrase:  permanent, across-the-board cuts in marginal tax rates for the wealthy.

A failed presidency is a terrible thing to witness. A failed presidency with more than two years left to run is also dangerous for the country. So, even though it would be easy for The Weekly Standard to allow your administration to continue on its current path to perdition, thereby ensuring…