It’s hard to find a politician who isn’t eager to “do something” about high unemployment. Turns out California has found one way to save and create certain kinds of jobs—spend like mad and raise taxes. That job-creation strategy has worked quite well for government-sector workers. Problem is the statewide unemployment rate is still among the highest in the nation, and many private-sector employers are heading to states like Texas, where taxes are lower and regulations are lighter. “I would love to have companies calling me saying, ‘We’d like to move to California, can you help us with that relocation?’ I get none of those calls,” says business relocation coach Joe Vranich. “The calls I do get are, ‘Hello, we want to move out of California, can you help us do that?’” Vranich says there’s no one reason why businesses leave. He calls it “death by a thousand cuts,” where job creators get fed up with everything from high taxes to traffic gridlock and legal hassles. Take Rick and Jack Newcombe, the father-son team that runs Creators Syndicate. A long legal battle with the city of Los Angles might end up being their company’s final cut. The Newcombes say the city arbitrarily stuck the company into a higher tax category and officials are applying the hike retroactively. City officials are demanding $400000 in back taxes, but Rick Newcombe calls the whole episode “legalized theft,” adding that a tax penalty of that size would force the company to lay off 10 employees. It’s ironic …

City Council to vote on proposed 1-cent tax
Councilor Jack Henderson’s proposed 1-cent public safety and parks tax is expected to be up for a full City Council vote tonight even though he does not have enough support to move it forward.

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Income Taxes of New York state ranges from 4% to 6.85% and are based upon the following categories.

1) Sales tax- It was on June 1, 2005, when New York’s additional 0.25 percent use tax and sales tax rate expired which resulted in lowering tax rate of New York state on sales to only 4 percent. However, the local rates vary from one place to another and in some different cases the tax rate after combining may be more than 7 percent.

2) Personal income tax- Taxes in New York state for personal income uses a progressive and five-bracket system for its implementation.

For single taxpayers:
- for first $8,000 of an individuals taxable income, it is 4%
- for income from $8,001 to $11,000; it is 4.5 percent on taxable amount
- for income from $11,001 to $13,000; it is 5.25 percent on taxable amount
- for income from $13,001 to $20,000; it is 5.9 percent on taxable amount
- for income from $20,001 and above; it is 6.85 percent on taxable amount

However, if you are married and is filing your joint returns then the rates would remain same. Only difference would be that income brackets would be doubled. Actually, the due date for submitting the tax forms is April 15 in New York. If there is a holiday or weekend on this day then the due date is postponed to the next business or working day. There are different tax brackets for New York City. The income earned from state is credited with an increase of 30 percent of the federal credit. Taxpayers can use this offset to their advantage so that they can pay for Social Security taxes and increased living expenses. It also helps in reducing the taxes owed. It also helps the taxpayers who were not required to pay any tax as they owe nothing and helps in giving refud to filer

3) Real and personal property taxes- The value of the real property decides its tax in New York.
Special districts, school districts villages, towns, cities and Counties raise their funds by use of this property tax so that they can pay for all of the local services.

Tax rates charged by the taxing jurisdictions and the property’s taxable assessment is determined by property’s tax bill and also depends upon the location of the property. According to the law on most of the properties in New York state, almost every municipalities are assessed on same value percentage. The percentage may range from five to fifty percent but no percentage exceeding beyond 100%.

4) Estate and Inheritance taxes- There is no inheritance tax in New York. Now there is no link between the federal estate tax and estate tax as it had been discontinued in New York state. It simply means that the tax liability of New York state would now be greater than the federal credit that was allowed for death taxes in the state.

Other facts about taxes of New York state are that its status can be checked from the refund tracker of Department of Taxation and Finance. Taxpayers of New York can refer to Publication 3.8 to learn about rights they possess.

A deep look at question 1 and an examination of the opposition and how factual it is. Links can be found in this blog entry: rkdpolitics.blogspot.com votenoquestion1.com Page 320 for true budget: www.mass.gov Specific town state aid numbers and %: www.mass.gov Citizens for limited taxation: www.cltg.org

Life on the Downside of the Laffer Curve House Chamber, Washington, DC March 3, 2009 M. Speaker: The Laffer Curve is a simple but elegant method of demonstrating how increasing taxes reduces economic productivity until a point of equilibrium is reached when further tax hikes actually reduce revenue. If the tax rate is zero, tax revenues are zero. But if the tax rate is 100 percent, tax revenues also reach zero, because theres no point in working. Thus, every increase in a tax rate produces a progressively smaller return of tax revenues as people adjust their behavior to reflect the reduced value of their work. When taxes exceed an economic tipping point, revenues begin to fall. California vividly demonstrated this effect in 1991 when Gov. Pete Wilson imposed the biggest state tax increase in American history. The $7 billion tax hike a staggering combination of increases in sales, income and car taxes broke the back of Californias economy. While the rest of the nations economy expanded, California entered into a nose-dive, including the biggest plunge in retail sales in 30 years. Those taxes brought in barely half of the new revenue predicted and then produced two consecutive years of billion-dollar-a-year declines in state revenues. California is about to get another very expensive lesson in the Laffer curve, courtesy of a $13 billion tax increase that will sock an average family with more than $1200 of new taxes. We should watch Californias experience carefully in the …

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:00a.m.-2:00p.m. Mississippi Telcom Center in downtown Jackson *Individuals and groups had an opportunity to speak publicly to the Tax Study Commission during this meeting. This video is part 2 of this meeting.

FBI press conference covering a huge corruption bust. 5 Rabbis and many Mayors and public officials busted for money laundering and corruption in New Jersey. This was an international ring extending to Brooklyn, New York, Israel and Switzerland. Credit goes to News 12 New Jersey for the audio clip. One Rabbi was selling human kidneys. Be sure to visit my podcast billcreata.podomatic.com

It’s kinda long but interesting as we see the same things debated today. Cutting spending -vs- Cutting taxes.

Klingers named in MacBank tax fraud
Macquarie Bank executive accused of conspiring with his father to pervert the course of justice in a tax fraud case has been a stockbroker for more than 20 years and hails from the Melbourne establishment.

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