'Active financing' exemption for some businesses to cost taxpayers $9 billion

There's A Little $9 Billion Bauble Under The Tree For Wall St., Multinationals
It's all about jobs, jobs, jobs, as Obama likes to say. Only they're going overseas: Amid all the goodies for Ethanol producers, NASCAR racetracks and the like, the tax-cut Compromise Legislation approved by Congress this month also includes a little-noticed sop for Wall Street banks and major multinationals. And it only costs U.S. Taxpayers $9 billion. Under the provision, Financial Services firms and manufacturers can defer U.S. taxes on overseas income from a type of Financial Transaction kn...

New GOP Wave Pushes Business Lobbyist's Wish List
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Having won big in the fall Elections, Republicans preparing to take over statehouses around the country are proposing to cut corporate taxes, weaken union clout and rewrite laws on Discrimination, whistle-blowers and injured workers to the benefit of employers. In short, they intend to push through a business Lobbyist's wish list. And they plan to press ahead even though some of their ideas could, at least in the short term, cost their states desperately needed tax ...

Democratic lobbyist/fundraiser apparently wins a big tax break for multinationals and banks
The Post's Dan Eggen has a good piece today on a provision you didn't hear about in the tax bill passed last week. As Eggen describes it: "Under the provision, Financial Services firms and manufacturers can defer U.S. taxes on overseas income from a type of Financial Transaction known as "active financing." Eggen finds on the provision the fingerprints of Democrat superlobbyist Steve Elemendorf, former Chief of Staff to Dick Gephardt, then the top House Democrat. Elmendorf, who represents the Ac...

GOP Wave Will Push Pro-Growth Policies in the States
From the Associated Press: One of the first places to test the new pro-business push will be Wisconsin, where Republican Gov.-elect Scott Walker has promised to call the new GOP-led Legislature into an emergency session on his first day in office Jan. 3. Walker wants to lower taxes on businesses with fewer than 50 employees, impose new business-friendly limits on liability Lawsuits and transform the state Commerce Department into a public-private partnership to lure companies to the state. &#...

Hang Tough, Republicans
On January 5, 2011 in the new Congress, Republicans will have a majority in the House and gains in the Senate sufficient to pressure President Obama to continue to shift to the center on policies crucial to growing jobs and The Economy. • Cut corporate income taxes. Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan recently ordered a cut in his country’s corporate Income Tax rate by five percentage points to stimulate investment in Japan and to encourage businesses to create more jobs. Japan...

New GOP wave pushes pro-business agenda in states
When a new wave of politicians takes office in January, Republicans will hold a majority of governorships and their greatest number of state legislative seats since 1928—giving them the muscle to enact the pro-business agenda they promised to voters concerned about high Unemployment and an economy that has yet to make its big rebound following the Great Recession. But those pro-business policies are in some cases theories—not yet clearly proven to create jobs. Next year could initiate...

IRS says tax changes will cause some filing delays
WASHINGTON — Some Taxpayers will be unable to file returns until mid-to-late February because of recent Tax Breaks approved by Congress in its lame-duck session, the IRS said Thursday. Congress approved Tax Breaks for Higher Education Tuition, state and local sales taxes and out-of-pocket expenses for teachers in kindergarten through High School. The IRS will need the extra time to reprogram its computers, but the delays will be minimal for Taxpayers who itemize deductions and normally ha...

IRS says tax changes will cause some filing delays
WASHINGTON -- It will take a little longer for some Taxpayers to file their 2010 returns, but it will be worth the wait for beneficiaries of a new tax law: College Students, teachers and residents of states that have sales taxes but no Income Tax. Thanks to a December tax package that was hailed as a forerunner of a Bipartisan spirit in government, the Internal Revenue Service needs to reprogram computers for new College Tuition breaks, teachers who buy classroom supplies with their own money, ...

Privatizing the royals
Last updated Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010 10:06PM EST Of course we’ll all tune in to Her Maj on Saturday morning. Her annual cascade of verbal bromides will tumble from the speakers, colouring the air with that bizarre but somehow hypnotic accent, as we glaze our hams and uncork our brandies in placid indifference. For what is our head of state but just that, some harmless background noise? The Speech reassures us each year, be it mirabilis or horribilis, that all is well with the state, that t...

New rules to allow Blackberries, iPads on House floor
Stumble This! The tech revolution is about to come to the US House of Representatives and it could mean more tweets from your favorite congressperson. Under recently proposed rules for the 112th Congress, mobile electronic devices like BlackBerries and iPads will be allowed on the House floor. But the wording has been slightly modified for the new Congress. "A person on the floor of the House may not smoke or use a mobile or electronic device that impairs decorum," the new rule reads. The phra...

Tax cut law a gift for businesses
WASHINGTON - The massive new $858 billion tax bill signed into law by President Obama is filled with all kinds of holiday stocking stuffers for businesses: Tax Breaks for producing TV shows, grants for putting up windmills, rum subsidies for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. There is even a tax break for people who buy race horses. Millions of Homeowners, however, might feel like they got a lump of coal. Homeowners who don’t itemize their deductions will lose a tax break for paying ...

The Age of Uncertainty
Entrepreneurs fret daily over economic uncertainty. Case in point: Even with passage of the lame-duck tax deal, they still don’t know what their tax burden will be two years from now. Approval of that deal lifted what The Wall Street Journal dubs the “world of the temporary tax code” to unprecedented heights. The Journal explains: The U.S. will have no permanent regime governing levies on salaries, capital gains and dividends, the Social Security tax, as well as a slew of targeted breaks

Upton hires ex-health-care lobbyist
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) has picked a former Health Care Lobbyist to serve in an all-purpose role on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and also hired other longtime panel aides as his top lawyers, according to sources off Capitol Hill. Howard Cohen is expected to have broad responsibilities next year overseeing Health Care issues for the powerful panel, starting with the GOP-led push to Repeal the the 2010 law signed by President Barack Obama. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset POL...

Tax-Reform Fundamentalist
WASHINGTON -- Many parents have heard FICA Screams. Indignant Children, holding in trembling hands their first paychecks, demand to know what FICA is and why it is feasting on their pay. FICA (the Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax) is government compassion, expressed numerically: It is the Welfare State; it funds Social Security and Medicare. Sometimes it makes young people into Conservatives. Dave Camp was 14, working for his father's garage in central Michigan, when he made the acquaint...

IRS reboots to accommodate new tax law
The filing of Tax Returns by thousands of Rhode Islanders will be delayed by up to a month or more because of processing issues caused by a new Federal Tax law. The Internal Revenue Service said Thursday that Taxpayers claiming certain Tax Breaks will have to wait until mid-to-late February to file their returns. Tax-filing season typically starts in mid-to-late January, so the delay could range from a few weeks to a month — or longer. The problem will also delay the filing of many Rhode I...

EPA to set pollution limits on power plants, refineries
WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it would set standards for greenhouse Gas Emissions from the country's two biggest sources: coal-fired Power Plants and refineries. Gina McCarthy, the assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, said it would be possible to hold down costs, add jobs and reduce overall emissions even as the plants continue to burn Fossil Fuels. She said it wasn't possible to estimate yet how much emissions would be reduced. Sc...

Political Scene
IRS Tax changes will bring delays Some Taxpayers will be unable to file returns until mid-to-late February because of recent Tax Breaks approved by Congress in its lame-duck session, the IRS said Thursday. Congress approved Tax Breaks for higher-educat......

New tax law packed with obscure business tax cuts (AP)
WASHINGTON – The massive new tax bill signed into law by President Barack Obama is filled with all kinds of holiday stocking stuffers for businesses: Tax Breaks for producing TV shows, grants for putting up windmills, rum subsidies for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. There is even a tax break for people who buy race horses. Millions of Homeowners, however, might feel like they got a lump of coal. Homeowners who don't itemize their deductions will lose a tax break for paying local pro...

New tax law packed with obscure business tax cuts
(12-24) 08:41 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- The massive new tax bill signed into law by President Barack Obama is filled with all kinds of holiday stocking stuffers for businesses: Tax Breaks for producing TV shows, grants for putting up windmills, rum subsidies for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. There is even a tax break for people who buy race horses. Millions of Homeowners, however, might feel like they got a lump of coal. Homeowners who don't itemize their deductions will lose a tax break fo...

Mortgage tax break may die in new deficit-cutting Congress
WASHINGTON — Fifteen years ago, Carol Nietmann and her husband bought a spacious house in Maryland near Chesapeake Bay. Thanks to the time-honored Tax Deduction for Mortgage interest, she said, their new place was a little bigger and a little nicer than they otherwise could afford. Much the same has been true for millions of Americans up and down the income scale. Perhaps the most sacred of all sacred cows in the tax code, the Mortgage deduction long has been seen as crucial to a piece o...

Tax-cut deal includes breaks for buying race horses, windmills...
WASHINGTON – The massive new tax bill signed into law by President Barack Obama is filled with all kinds of holiday stocking stuffers for businesses: Tax Breaks for producing TV shows, grants for putting up windmills, rum subsidies for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. There is even a tax break for people who buy race horses. Millions of Homeowners, however, might feel like they got a lump of coal. Homeowners who don't itemize their deductions will lose a tax break for paying local prope...

Financial Services Roundtable praises TARP payback
A Financial Services industry group is touting recent repayment of funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program as evidence the program was good for Financial Institutions and is proving worthwhile for Taxpayers. “TARP is a strong program that provided Liquidity when the market was in need,” said Steve Bartlett, president and Chief Executive Officer for the Financial Services Roundtable. “Now, two years later, as our economy is mending, TARP continues to bring dividends back to the taxpa

NYers Owed $1 Billion In Unclaimed Tax Credits
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer says New Yorkers are owed $1 billion in Tax Credits for Tuition they paid. Schumer is announcing Thursday that he’s working with New York colleges to alert families of the tax credit for Tuition that about half of families who are eligible have missed in their federal Income Tax returns. The credit he pushed in the Senate provides $1 off federal taxes for every $1 spent on tuition, up to $2,500 a year. Taxpayers can amend last year’...

Republicans are Already Defunding Obamacare
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. Two weeks before taking over control of the House of Representatives, Republicans have already succeeded in starting to defund ObamaCare. As Ezra Klein, a zealous Obamacare supporter, writes in the Washington Post, "The Senate passed the Continuing Resolution [by a vote of] 79-16.... Another way of saying that: The Senate voted to defund the implementation of both health-care reform and financial-regulation reform." Shortly thereaft...

The liberty taboo.........Apathy in America
It almost seems as though it's a dirty word in society today. It is shrugged off with an ignorance that is astounding. I have witnessed the systematic dismantling of the Bill of Rights by our government. Which has grown to such immense proportions, that it has no where to left to go, but inside our homes. Today it is a common accurance, (and treated as such) we see gross misconduct on the part of the Whitehouse, Senate and the House of Representitives. Although it was the Bush Administration tha...