Iowa cracking down on RV tax scofflows? Southwestiowanews.com reports:
Iowa lawmakers are putting the brakes on those who avoid paying registration fees when buying expensive vehicles.
Under a bill recently approved by the Senate, tax evaders using so-called out-of-state shell corporations to avoid paying registration fees on RVs or other luxury vehicles will face criminal charges and penalties.
Going to jail to save a few bucks on your vehicle registration seems like a bad bet.
More fertilizer! TheGazette.com reports Iowa, Illinois may have bidding war to land new fertilizer plant:
The (Decatur) Herald & Review reports that, according to Illinois officials, Iowa is offering Cronus Chemical LLC an estimated $35 million in taxpayer subsidies to build a plant in Mitchell County near the Minnesota border.
Illinois lawmakers are considering tax breaks in a proposal by state Rep. Adam Brown, a Republican from Champaign. The plant would be built near Tuscola in the east central part of the state.
Hey, Iowa Economic Development people: Illinois is broke. Busted. Played out. They’re not bidding. We don’t need to be bribing fertilizer plants to come here. Instead give us a tax system that’s not so awful that we have to pay people to like us.
Jason Dinesen, Why Would Any Enrolled Agent Support the RTRP Program? :
It baffles me that the National Association of Enrolled Agents is so in love with the RTRP program.
In their weekly newsletter to EAs last week, NAEA bizarrely referred to the unlicensed preparers who brought suit against the IRS over the RTRP program as people who want “the right to remain incompetent.”
NAEA also kissed the government’s butt by praising the “serious and vigorous” IRS attorneys who are appealing the court ruling that struck down the RTRP program. The flowery kissing-up continued as NAEA went on to opine that the government “delivered its A-game” in the appeal.
I have never seen anything good for enrolled agents in the IRS preparer regulations. Enrolled Agents have been around a long time, and they have to meet much higher standards than the RTRPs would. Yet the EA designation is not well understood by the public, and having the IRS officially sanction a lesser credential will probably make it even harder for EAs to get their story out.
William McBride, Tax Policy Center Espouses Minority View on Capital Income Taxes (Tax Policy Blog):
The preponderance of evidence points to corporate taxes being the most harmful to economic growth, followed by personal income taxes, consumption taxes, and property taxes. Notice a pattern? The corporate tax is the largest tax on capital income in most countries, while the personal income tax is the largest tax on labor although it also taxes
capital.
He’s referring to this post we linked on Monday.
Jeremy Scott, Paul Ryan Borrows a Page From Obama’s Playbook (Tax.com): “ Much like Obama, Ryan keeps releasing the same budget every year, knowing full well that it has no chance of becoming law.”
Howard Gleckman, What the Tax Policy Center Really Said About the Ryan Budget (TaxVox). “To the Democrats who so enthusiastically embraced our analysis, thank you for your support. However, we did not say what you wish we had said.”
Jana Luttenegger, Does the IRS Have Your 2009 Refund? (Davis Brown Tax Law Blog)
Kay Bell, 13-plus ways to cut your taxes without itemizing
Paul Neiffer, Don’t Forget Farm Income Averaging. Another break for farmers that nobody else gets.
Jim Maule, The Aggravation of Tax Paperwork
Peter Reilly, Only Modest Valuation Discounts Allowed On Estate Artwork
TaxGrrrl, States, Local Governments Consider Aggressive Tax Collection Efforts To Plug Budget Holes
Joseph Thorndike, It’s Not Too Late for a War Tax (Tax.com)
The Ellen DeGeneres constituency. I thought it funny to see Peter Reilly’s Ellen DeGeneres Speaks Out For Spanish-American War Widowers . But it’s not as far-fetched as I thought. From today’s Des Moines Register:
There are 10 living recipients of benefits tied to the 1898 Spanish-American War at a total cost of about $50,000 per year.
The Civil War payments are going to two children of veterans — one in North Carolina and one in Tennessee — each for $876 per year.
Remember the Maine!
Tags: corporate welfare, economic development, Howard Gleckman, Jana Luttenegger, Jason Dinesen, Jeremy Scott, Joseph Thorndike, Kay Bell, maule, Paul Neiffer, Peter Reilly, TaxGrrrl, William McBride
Joe Kristan writes the Tax Update items, and any opinions expressed or implied are not necessarily shared by anyone else at Roth & Company, P.C. Address questions or comments on Tax Updates to
The last Civil War veteran died around 1957 or so but there were widows into the 1990′s. They were of course the result of May-December marriages. It reminds me of a rather long shaggy dog type story where somebody is like 80 and in great health and is asked how old his father was whn he died and the answer is “Who says he’s dead ? As a matter of fact he is 105 and just got married.” “Why would someone 105 want to get married ?” “Who says he wanted to ?”
You’d think by 105 he’d know better!