Taxes

Retailers would be forced to act as tax collectors for states in which they have no voice....

One of the opportunities that sequestration presents is the realization of just how dependent the American public is ....

...how much is too much when it comes to spending on government programs....

Tax Appeal Court Judge Gary W.B. Chang yesterday granted the State of Hawaii’s motion for summary judgment....

The internet sales tax mandate would force businesses to become sales tax collectors for all states....

...the governor interrupted by saying he has been hearing “the same propaganda.”

we, mere mortals, cannot predict what the prize industry of the future will be....

Some raise, some redistribute. Others give credit where credit may not be due....

"This is a clear sign that the House is moving in the right direction," said Minority Leader Aaron Ling Johanson, Vice Chair of the House Committee on Finance.

What is the appropriate price per ton for 'polluters' to pay? The draft contains alternative prices of $15, $25, and $35 per ton....

For the last two months, taxpayers heard time and time again that the “sky is falling, the sky is falling”....

...we are one step closer to ensuring that the beverage tax is defeated for the third year in a row....

For the past few days the White House, with a big assist from sympathetic media, has done all within its considerable powers to make it seem like sequestration means the end of the world....

... agencies cannot give a clear answer on how they arrived at their numbers. Congressional appropriations committee aides say they cannot fact check the administration's estimates ....

The Ball Corporation is the only manufacturer of metal cans in the islands. The company employs 45 people and the beverage tax places their jobs directly at risk.

Recognizing the need to help the state balance it books, the hotel industry agreed to a temporary increase in the TAT rate which was increased two percentage points from 7.25% to 9.25%. The temporary increase is supposed to expire on June 30, 2015....

“Taxes shouldn’t be a tool for social engineering or an instrument to penalize Hawaiians for doing nothing wrong....”

During a special premiere at the State Capitol, Gov. Neil Abercrombie and the Hawaii State Department of Health (DOH) today launched a new teen-focused multi-media campaign to combat obesity....

...lobbyists are relied upon heavily to vie for the interests of the higher-income consumers and producers, leaving the burden of the new tax to lower income consumers who cannot afford representation....

The reality is that calories in the American diet from added sugars in soda have dropped nearly 40 percent since 2000....

...everything is on the table from an increase in the general excise tax rate to fund education to new fees on cell phone use to the administration’s proposals to tax sugary drinks and single-use bags....

Just bluff an increase in TAT and they all line up in favor of extending the ‘temporary’ 9.25% rate....

...such taxes can shrink the economy unnecessarily by discouraging investment and artificially raising the price of basic needs....

A number of tax department employees who were investigated in connection with the security breaches have been “arrested and relieved of their duties,” said state Rep. John Mizuno....

People inquiring about what the legislature is doing are surprised when told that lawmakers are hard at work trying to find ways to take even more of their money. Of course, it starts at the top....

Instead of cutting taxes on the poor, Abercrombie proposes to extract more taxes from them by hiking the minimum wage.

...elected officials desperate to make-up the budget shortfall selectively raised taxes, resorting to increases that weren’t visible to the general public in order to avoid mass resentment ....

Abercrombie was right about one thing in his 2013 State of the State speech, there are too many answers in the form of solutions being proposed before sufficient questions are asked and researched....

As public audits recently revealed, it's difficult to trust the Department of Health to spend our tax dollars wisely....  

In 2011, he had attempted to pass a soda tax under the Orwellian title “Sugary Beverage Healthy Hawaii Fee,” but the state legislature saw through the obfuscating rhetoric and defeated it.

A 12 ounce soda would cost 12 cents more....

...each bright, shiny and eager face will have an agenda to deliver to his or her constituents back in their home districts. That means money!

Should the Legislature require the state Public Utilities Commission to approve energy projects that further the state’s renewable energy goals even if it costs consumers more?  -- NO 75%

The bag tax revenue could very well be exceeded by the expenses caused by additional hospitalizations.

“This ruling will significantly increase costs for all tour operators, travel agents, OTCs, and other travel intermediaries...."

...repeal of the lesser half percent rate was made as a parry to the recommendation of their consultant that the overall rate imposed on all retail activities be increased to generate more revenues for the state....

In 2013, the tax increases in Obamacare will increasingly conspire against kitchen-table family healthcare decisions....

The deal that Congress and President Obama struck that finally—but only partially—avoided the fiscal cliff resulted in seven tax increases.  Those hikes combined with six tax increases from Obamacare....

As another legislative session is about to be convened, let’s look back at some of their follies over the past few years ....

 "...revenue enhancements such as making permanent certain tax provisions that are due to sunset in 2015 and beyond.”

...real billionaires, like Warren Buffett, are going to be affected very little by the new higher rates (unrealized capital gains will still be taxed at a rate of zero), while entrepreneurs with pass-through income are going to get hosed....

The Wall Street Journal calculates that the “typical U.S. family earning $50,000 a year” will lose “an annual income boost of $1,000.”