The Best Tax Law Money Can Buy
October 27, 2009When I was studying taxes in business school, I occasionally came across a law that just didn’t make sense to me. Sometimes, my professor could explain its intent and rationale. Other times, he just smiled and said, “Someone paid good money for that one.” Now House Democrats are working to reverse one of those bought-and-paid-for laws. There are two ways to make money. You can invest your time, in the …
Reach Out And Tax Someone
September 22, 2009This is a link to Amazon.com. If you want, you can click on it and buy things. According to the state of New York, I am now well on my way to becoming an agent of Amazon who is actively soliciting the New York market. New York wants to use me to put Seattle-based Amazon within reach of its tax collectors. A state cannot require a company to collect sales …
Drill, Baby, Drill – Carefully
August 10, 2009Could a major domestic source of clean-burning natural gas get President Obama to join those Republican chants of “drill, baby, drill?” I would not bet on it, but we will see. New technology is making significant gas reserves accessible in the northern Appalachians. This could bring new jobs to a chronically depressed region, important tax revenues to hard-pressed state and local governments, and more secure supplies to the Northeast Corridor. …
The Bankrupt State We’re In
July 6, 2009Generals always fight the last war, and policymakers always try to prevent the last crisis. Usually these are the wrong strategies. The failure of the private credit markets has brought the world economy to its knees. Consequently, lawmakers are scrambling to fortify us against similar disasters in the future. The problem is that the next big crisis may well come from the failure of government, not private, borrowers. The financial …
Taxing Health Insurance Benefits
June 23, 2009Being an employer of about 20 full-time staff in three states makes me look at health care reform differently than most people do. My dilemma: If Congress raises the cost of health benefits to me and to my employees, is it fair for me to insist that everyone be covered? Palisades Hudson currently pays the full health insurance cost for every full-time employee who wants it. If an employee chooses …
Hurling Day And Health Care Reform
June 15, 200961,000,003 B.C. Thursday Tribe Elder: Today I, your eldest elder, am…(pause) Tribe Member: (whispering) You’re 72. Tribe Elder: …72 years old. I have lived long, and witnessed many wonders. But now, I am old, I am slow, and I get up 16 times in the middle of the night. I can no longer keep up with the herd. I straggle behind, attracting predators, endangering my brethren, and making us late …
Does GM’s Bankruptcy Presage America’s Too?
June 5, 2009As GM goes, so goes America. Well, I hope not. GM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday because of years of complacency and overextended benefits to its mostly unionized workforce. Not surprising since the auto company, which occupied the driver’s seat in the automobile industry following World War II, has been hemorrhaging customers for decades. Over the last 30 years, GM has been losing almost one percentage point of …
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