The health care bill that passed a crucial test vote in the Senate on Saturday is proof that getting reform passed and getting it right are two very different things.
Bruce Bartlett was a lieutenant in the Reagan revolution. As an aide to congressman Jack Kemp, he helped write the legislation underpinning Ronald Reagan's 1981 tax cut and then worked in the Reagan and the George H.W. Bush administrations.
President Obama has been steadfast in his pledge that he won't raise taxes on those making less than $250,000. But that doesn't mean only high-income households will be subject to higher taxes.
You don't need a Ph.D in economics to know that the government fiscal year that ended last week was ugly for the budget.
Most people think they pay too much to Uncle Sam, but for some people it simply is not true.
More than nine out of 10 cities are slashing spending this year as the recession wreaks havoc on their sales and income tax revenue, a new study found.
The light at the end of the recession tunnel is distant and dim for the nation's cities, according to a survey by the National League of Cities.
You know that your home's value has tanked. So why doesn't the blasted tax man? Home prices fell 27% from the 2006 peak to the end of 2008, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Index, while the amount municipalities collected in property taxes rose 12% from 2006 to 2008.
For years a cardinal rule of retirement investing has been to put every penny you can into IRAs, 401(k)s, and other tax-deferred accounts. That advice rested on a commonsense assumption: that after you stopped working you'd move into a lower tax bracket. That was important because the money you take out of a tax-deferred account is subject to ordinary income taxes.
President Obama's fall agenda has grown larger as some of the biggest decisions -- and fights -- over health care reform have been punted to September ... at the earliest.
The health care bill that passed a crucial test vote in the Senate on Saturday is proof that getting reform passed and getting it right are two very different things.
Bruce Bartlett was a lieutenant in the Reagan revolution. As an aide to congressman Jack Kemp, he helped write the legislation underpinning Ronald Reagan's 1981 tax cut and then worked in the Reagan and the George H.W. Bush administrations.
President Obama has been steadfast in his pledge that he won't raise taxes on those making less than $250,000. But that doesn't mean only high-income households will be subject to higher taxes.
You don't need a Ph.D in economics to know that the government fiscal year that ended last week was ugly for the budget.
Most people think they pay too much to Uncle Sam, but for some people it simply is not true.
More than nine out of 10 cities are slashing spending this year as the recession wreaks havoc on their sales and income tax revenue, a new study found.
The light at the end of the recession tunnel is distant and dim for the nation's cities, according to a survey by the National League of Cities.
You know that your home's value has tanked. So why doesn't the blasted tax man? Home prices fell 27% from the 2006 peak to the end of 2008, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Index, while the amount municipalities collected in property taxes rose 12% from 2006 to 2008.
For years a cardinal rule of retirement investing has been to put every penny you can into IRAs, 401(k)s, and other tax-deferred accounts. That advice rested on a commonsense assumption: that after you stopped working you'd move into a lower tax bracket. That was important because the money you take out of a tax-deferred account is subject to ordinary income taxes.
President Obama's fall agenda has grown larger as some of the biggest decisions -- and fights -- over health care reform have been punted to September ... at the earliest.
Like an early clue in a mystery novel, you could see that the line used by George H.W. Bush in his convention speech ("Read my lips. No new taxes.") was going to cause the first-term president some major problems when he ran for re-election.
The IRS is on the lookout for taxpayers and tax preparers skirting eligibility rules when claiming the $8,000 tax credit. Here's what you need to know.
There may be reasons to tax the rich more, as a lot of people in Washington are talking about doing.
Sometimes what's politically irresistible is economically nonsensical, as we may soon be reminded. The Obama administration, desperate for revenue and spotting an easy target, is proposing three hefty tax increases on business. If the administration gets its way, the result will be bad news for all Americans.
States are poised to pass as much as $24 billion in tax and fee hikes in coming weeks, as they struggle to balance their budgets amid the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, a report released Thursday found.
If 84-year-old Bob Sievers of Pacific Palisades, Calif., had his way, Congress would scrap the estate tax altogether when it considers an Obama administration proposal on the future of the controversial tax. As co-owner of a lumber business for 40 years, Sievers built his wealth from scratch and paid taxes on his earnings every step of the way.
The downfall of the American auto industry is wreaking havoc on state and local budgets from coast to coast.
Your home value has sunk like a stone, and you're so far underwater you'll have to hold your breath for years. Can you at least get a break on your property taxes?
Facing mounting budget deficits and seeing few areas left to cut spending, states increasingly are turning to the only option they have left: raising taxes.
Are you rich? If you make $250,000 a year, President Obama and Gov. David Paterson of New York think you are. The SEC disagrees. It tells financial firms that a high-net-worth individual is someone with at least $750,000 parked at a particular institution or someone the firm "reasonably believes" to have a net worth exceeding $1.5 million.
The Obama administration's crackdown on tax haven use by U.S. companies is expected to raise the effective corporate tax rate by 1.5 percentage points to something north of 20%. That still leaves it well below its 1994 level.
President Obama on Monday spelled out his proposals to close corporate tax loopholes on U.S. multinational corporations and crack down on overseas tax havens.
The White House will unveil reforms to the nation's international tax code on Monday intended to close loopholes for overseas tax havens and end incentives for creating jobs overseas.
The White House will unveil reforms to the nation's international tax code on Monday intended to close loopholes for overseas tax havens and end tax incentives for creating jobs overseas.
Make the tax code fairer? That's one of the things President Obama wants to do in the 2010 budget, which Congress resumes work on this week.
For most Americans, Wednesday is the day they have to make sure they're square with the tax man.
President Barack Obama on Wednesday touted his tax cut as an important component of his plan to right the U.S. economy and put working families on a more prosperous path.
The dreaded April 15 tax deadline is here, but many Americans still have plenty of questions about their 2008 taxes and late filing.
Finding a tax haven is easy. Just flip to the back of the Economist. "New Accounts in 8 Minutes" brags one ad. Another promises that no one is "better positioned to deliver solutions that work" on offshore companies. And yet another offers more than 20 years of experience and the "best prices guaranteed."
Get ready. Washington is again debating how to fix the health care system. And the outcome might affect your wallet.
A growing number of people hungry for refund cash are filing their own taxes form home and ahead of schedule, according to a report released Friday.
Last week, the federal government began sending out more than $100 billion in "tax rebates" to millions of Americans in an effort to stimulate the sluggish economy.
During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama tempered his pledge to substantially raise taxes for high earners with an important proviso: He'd simply restore rates to their levels during the Clinton Administration. The implication was that families in the upper brackets would see their total tax bite go back to the levels of the 1990s, but no higher.
President Obama on Thursday pulled back the curtain on his first detailed vision of the federal budget, revealing an ambitious plan to reform health care and shift tax burdens while vowing to slash the deficit over the long run.
Question: What does the new stimulus package do for people receiving Social Security benefits? --Bonnie, St. Petersburg, Florida
Roughly 97% of American households could see tax savings as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to a new analysis by a nonpartisan research group.
The House passed its $819 billion version of the economic stimulus package last week. Now it's the Senate's turn.
House Democrats on Friday introduced the tax portion of their proposed $825 billion economic recovery package.
When SunPower, one of the country's largest makers of solar panels, went looking to build a factory a few years back, several countries vied for their business.
The Internal Revenue Service should take steps to ease the burden on taxpayers hit by the recession, according to National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson.
Joe the Plumber must be pleased: President-elect Barack Obama has recently hinted he'll delay his plan to raise taxes on individuals earning more than $250,000 a year. But what will this reprieve really mean for small business owners - should they prepare for an eventual tax hike?
Remember all the talk during the presidential campaign about a middle-class tax cut? It could be showing up in your paycheck early next year.
After months of debating the issues, Americans went to the polls on Tuesday and elected Democrat Barack Obama to serve as the nation's 44th president.
After months of debating the issues, Americans go to the polls on Tuesday to select who they want to serve as the nation's 44th president.
After months of debating the issues, Americans go to the polls on Tuesday to select who they want to serve as the nation's 44th president.
Tax breaks, tax breaks, tax breaks. For months now, Barack Obama and John McCain have promised voters that they will lessen the financial burden on Americans - even as the economic crisis worsens and the country racks up record deficits.
Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama says his economic plan would offer a tax break to 95% of working Americans.
Bill Kwon is the embodiment of the American dream. His father - who was arrested by North Korean Communists in the early 1950s for championing democracy - brought the family from Seoul to Illinois when he was a baby. Bill worked himself ragged pursuing every opportunity America's heartland offered, never leaving Peoria.
Housing prices have plummeted, but property tax bills probably won't budge.
The Senate's financial rescue plan may have a better chance of passage because it's padded with pork that may be tasty enough to get reluctant House members to bite.
For some strange reason, the government keeps writing me checks. Every year Uncle Sam hands me cash to help with my family's health insurance. I also get free money as a reward for buying stocks to fund my own retirement.
While politicians of all stripes are vying to be seen as saviors in the energy crisis, Congress isn't giving renewable energy investors the one thing they say would help the most - long-term tax credits.
There are only about 1,500 hours to go before Election Day. And that's also about how many times you'll hear snappy sound bites about the economic proposals of John McCain and Barack Obama.
As hard-working Americans struggle through the current economic downturn, it is important that voters fully understand the fiscal policies of the two men vying to be our next commander-in-chief.
The dunking booth is always the most popular attraction at the Broadmoor Fest, a neighborhood carnival held every year since Hurricane Katrina to celebrate the survival of one of the Crescent City's low-lying, flood-ravaged districts. At recent fairs FEMA officials were favorite targets in the booth; this year, though, everyone was waiting in line to soak a city tax assessor.
Washington policy makers and housing industry insiders hope a new tax credit for first-time home buyers will get the moribund housing market moving again.
For a tax that each year affects only a few hundred of the nation's 27 million small companies, the estate tax manages to scare an outsize number of entrepreneurs: In a July Zogby poll of small-business owners, nearly half said they believe they will be affected by the fee critics call "the death tax."
A Senate subcommittee prepares to hear about the bankers and their ultra-rich clients who use overseas accounts to skirt U.S. tax laws
Most voters are aware that Barack Obama wants to raise taxes on high-income taxpayers if he's elected president in November.
The latest hit to the economy could come from state houses and city halls across the nation, which are in their worst budget crisis in years.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain threw some red meat to the small-business crowd on Tuesday, promising that if elected president he would drastically overhaul the tax system, end corporate welfare, introduce tax credits to make health insurance more affordable, and help the GOP "reclaim our good name as the party of spending restraint."
John McCain and Barack Obama have starkly different philosophies about tax policy - how to raise the revenue needed to support government programs, spur growth and ensure economic fairness.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain outlined his agenda on tax cuts to a group of small business leaders Tuesday, vowing to keep taxes low in the face of a weak economy and rising oil prices.
Barack Obama's emergence as the presumptive Democratic nominee on Tuesday sets the stage for a sharp partisan debate over the issue weighing most heavily on voters: the economy.
Lee Avery had never really thought of his company's work - producing parts for underwater oil and gas pipelines- as involving research and development: His engineers don't wear white lab coats, after all. So Avery, co-founder and president of Quality Connector Systems of Houston, was initially skeptical when he was told that his four-year-old company was eligible for tens of thousands of dollars in annual tax savings from the $7-billion-a-year U.S. Research and Development Tax Credit Program.
There are two proven paths to building wealth: You can increase the amount of money you make, or you can increase the amount of money you keep.
Sen. John McCain Thursday admitted his idea of a gas tax "holiday" would not solve the problem of rising oil prices but said it would give low-income Americans "just a little break this summer."
In his most wide-ranging speech on the economy, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain on Tuesday laid out an agenda that would change the tax code, freeze discretionary spending and temporarily suspend federal gas taxes.
An end to earmarks, a gas-tax holiday, government-backed mortgages -- they're all part of an economic-revival plan that a top aide to GOP Sen. John McCain described Tuesday as "big and ambitious."
We hope your initial reaction to this story wasn't "Wait, when is tax day again?" If you haven't filed yet, you'd better hurry. You don't want to find yourself on this list next year.
Ah, tax day. The day that we all get together to give our money to an organization that none of us believe actually deserves it.
Here's a cold reality that none of the presidential candidates want to tell you: a shrinking number of Americans are bearing an ever bigger share of the nation's income tax burden.
You've tried staring your computer down, but it's not blinking. No matter how many times you go over the figures, you get the same answer. That number on your screen - what you're paying the IRS this year - is more than your dad earned in his five best years. You can't help thinking, Why am I such a chump when other people must be getting off scot-free?
Regardless of how much money you make, you have skin in this game.
If you bought a hybrid vehicle last year, and you were counting on a tax credit, you may be in for a nasty surprise.
Are you cross-eyed trying to figure out which tax breaks you can take this year?
If Congress passes legislation to roll back nearly $18 billion in tax breaks for large oil companies, advisers to President Bush will recommend a veto, the White House said Tuesday.
When Wilkes-Barre Mayor Thomas Leighton hears about the troubles afflicting bond insurer Ambac Financial Group, he worries whether his Pennsylvania city can renovate a blighted park or repair the sewer system.
The economic stimulus bill signed into law by President Bush today included one tax break for small businesses added by the Senate, but lost another as Congressional leaders bowed to White House pressure to move quickly without adding too many amendments.
Sigrid Crane couldn't understand it. The tax assessor for the town of Vienna, Va. pegged the value of her home in 2007 at $570,000, up $20,000 from the year before, despite the fact that the local market had already gone south. Crane fought back - and won.
The state of the slowing economy and how to energize it - now and beyond - will be a focal point of President Bush's State of the Union address Monday night.
In last night's debate, held days before Tuesday's Republican primary in Boca Raton, Florida, GOP candidates came up with a few new factual distortions and repeated several old ones. Among them:
Consumers fuel the economy and if they're strapped, the thinking goes, better get them some cash to spend.
Delayed tax returns and late tax code changes are among the most serious problems facing taxpayers today, according to taxpayer advocate Nina Olson in an annual report to Congress Wednesday.
By the end of next week 21 million taxpayers will probably receive the protection they've been promised from the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). But the fix likely won't account for an estimated $50 billion in lost tax revenue.
Every presidential candidate bemoans something about income taxes: they're unfair, they're too complex, they hinder economic growth, you name it. And every candidate is sure their proposals can set things right and still result in green glory for the Treasury.
As you invest your money, shop for a home or tackle any one of the many financial decisions you have to make over your lifetime, do you sometimes wish you'd paid more attention in math class? Do you find yourself having to "run the numbers" and wondering how?
The Senate voted Thursday to block a looming tax increase averaging $2,000 for millions of taxpayers after Senate Republicans succeeded in thwarting a Democratic plan to also raise taxes on investors.
Presidential campaigning is a promise-making fiesta, and never more so than when it comes to taxes.
You probably don't know what your federal tax liability will be for 2007, and Congress certainly isn't helping. Lawmakers have yet to pass a temporary fix to the Alternative Minimum Tax, to prevent 21 million of us from having to pay the so-called wealth tax.
Warren Buffett thinks those who use the phrase "death tax" are intellectually dishonest because the phrase in his words is "clever, Orwellian and dead wrong."
Warren Buffett has said it before and he's likely to say it again to Congress on Wednesday: He thinks the heirs of the wealthy should be taxed on their inheritance.
Question: My employer offers a 401(k), but no match. Given that I'm already maxing out my Roth IRA, would I be better off investing in a taxable account rather than contributing to my no-match 401(k)? - Luis Gonzalez, Denver, Colorado
A January referendum seeks to reduce property taxes for a middle class getting squeezed. But reformers want still more
The leading Democratic candidates for president have said they'd favor higher investment taxes on upper-income taxpayers - and Wall Streeters don't like it.
If a tax-system overhaul proposed last week were to pass into law, there would be a substantial redistribution of the tax burden.
Lawmakers are looking to pass $71 billion worth of tax-break extenders this year. Most politicians support the extensions, but how to pay for them is another matter entirely.
No one actually expects lawmakers to overhaul the tax code this year, but House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) planted his flag Thursday morning by unveiling a bill that he calls the "mother of all tax reforms."
Mutual fund companies have begun to estimate this year's taxable distributions - and your tax bill is going to be mighty big.
A bill representing the "mother of all tax reforms" is set to be revealed Thursday, according to House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY).
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