Taxes

This Halloween, the Chicago-based government watchdog group, Truth in Accounting, issued what its authors call a “haunting” report....

... raised taxes 13 times in 2013 ....

More than a decade ago, lawmakers and tax department officials finally realized that it is possible to purchase services for resale....

...marriage-related church functions, until now regarded as non-profit, will be considered a ‘for-profit’ activity....

• DATE: Wednesday, November 6, 2013
• TIME: 10:00 a.m.
• PLACE: Conference Room 211, State Capitol

The shut down of the federal government pivots on which side will blink first....

The audit objective was to evaluate the RPAD processes related to the classification, reclassification, valuation, and assessment of real property for taxation purposes....

Last week’s partial shutdown of the federal government broke records on the airwaves of twitter and other social media with much of the criticism....

Do you feel rich? The Wall Street Journal claims you are, as a fiscal watchdog group says the opposite, citing crushing amounts of government debt....

...thanks to a Christmas Tree Clause in 13-33, developers and wealthy individuals with 10 acres or more have been given an easy out for upzoned properties....

Apparently when one is an elected official, one has to make sure that their concerns reflect the concerns of their constituency and obviously the concerns of seniors is right up there at the top of the list....

...listen to Dr. Akina further discuss the problem on HPR’s “The Conversation”....

She was angered when she got an inquiry from the IRS in 2012 demanding she provide detailed information on Honolulu tea party activities, materials, pictures, videos, names of speakers and attendees, as well as copies and recordings of speeches made during events....

...unlike other states that have a retail sales tax structure, Hawaii’s general excise tax focuses on the gross income received by a business....

The Congressional Budget Office just dropped a budget update on Washington, and it’s not good. The U.S. government is spending recklessly—and Obamacare is adding fuel to the fire....

there is a glaring paradox as observers decry the shortage of affordable housing ... while at the same time prevent the development of additional affordable housing....

...the IRS announced that any same-sex couple who married in a state that recognizes same-sex marriage can file a joint federal tax return, even if the state where they currently live does not recognize same-sex marriage....

For more than 35 years the state has adhered to a policy of conforming with the federal income tax code....

... Tito Montes discussing the desperate need for welfare reform in Hawaii ....

On paper it may appear Hawaii has a "low sales tax," but that is not the case....

... Hawaii is present in the top ten of both lists, showing large unfunded liabilities compared to their populations and economic output ....

Hawaii has the broadest sales tax in the United States, taxing many products multiple times and, by one estimate, ultimately taxing 99.21% of the state's personal income. This base is far wider than the national median, where the sales tax base applies to 34.46%....

...enthusiastic supporters of some very specific causes pushed lawmakers to allow taxpayers to designate a portion of their state tax refund for their specific cause....

Once they establish principles for reform, legislators can choose from a menu of options. Tinkering with existing plans is the most obvious, and sometimes the easiest....

Wednesday August 21, 2013 9AM....

For many years it was difficult for policymakers and administrators to conceive that services, like goods, could be purchased for resale....

...final judgment in favor of the State of Hawaii and against nine Online Travel Companies selling Hawaii hotel rooms over the Internet....

...taxes are rising faster now under Obama than they have under any other president since WWII....

...it is not the cost of the tax that adds to the price of locally grown products as much as it is the external factors such as the cost of land, labor, and regulatory compliance....

Last year, Hawaii spent more than $175 per person — $244 million in all — just to fund its interest payments, the third highest rate per person in the country....

Detroit’s demise was the result of big-government, liberal policies promoted by self-interested politicians and coercive public employee unions....

A number of questions about Hawaii’s general excise tax seem to resurface....

In addition to the fees and charges levied for these required permits and licenses, there is the time that it takes to secure many of these permits and licenses....

"...the budget includes new spending on program enhancements that could eventually result in fiscal pressure...."

A local reporter attempted to pin the Foundation down on whether or not it supported the handful of measures that had been thrown into the Honolulu City Council hopper ....

On July 10, 2013, Mayor Kirk Caldwell proposed ten property tax bills. All ten bills passed the first reading at the Honolulu City Council....

Businesses should see this as a warning, as they are a convenient target for politicians ....

News of the very generous pay increases granted to police officers sent shock waves through the ranks of city and county officials across the state generating calls for “revenue enhancements” or tax increases....

...some of the ways the highway user is tapped to fund what is obliquely related to the construction, repair and maintenance of state and county roads....

Honolulu’s Mayor was rebuffed by the City Council earlier this year when he submitted a proposal to raise the county gas tax by five cents a gallon....

The reaction to last week’s commentary could only be described as shrill....

Nearly a year and a half ago, a commission appointed by the Honolulu City Council to study some of the inequities in the real property tax ordinance dropped its findings on the desks of Council members....

Sen. Sam Slom was the guest speaker at the Tea Party Maui meeting Thursday where Jim Wagoner was elected president of the organization....