Taxes

Insurance premiums could increase by thousands of dollars because of a new tax in President Obama's health care law....

With less than a week left for the White House and Congressional negotiators to come to some sort of compromise, it is time to put all of this debate into perspective.

... several deficiencies expose the Program to fraud, including the over-reliance on self-reporting by Program personnel and lack of systematic compliance inspections....

Hawaii this year will collect $186 million in revenue from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend just 4.8 percent of it on tobacco prevention programs....

...every day now brings another business owner in the news talking about cutting workers’ hours or making other cost-cutting moves in anticipation of Obamacare’s impact in 2013....

Taxes on wages, dividends, interest, and partnership/sole proprietor income would exceed 50 percent only in Hawaii, California, and New York City….

The move being considered by Congress to raise the eligibility age from 65 to 67 would leave 26,893 seniors without health coverage (based on current beneficiary data), forcing them into the private insurance market, which is estimated to cost them an additional $2,200 per year*.

When President Obama put forth his first offer on the fiscal cliff, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said, “You can’t be serious.” We could say the same thing to the Speaker after his counteroffer yesterday.

Obama’s answer to the fiscal cliff is a proposed $1.6 trillion in tax hikes plus new stimulus spending—and expanded power for himself to raise the debt ceiling....

...some taxes are already scheduled to rise as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)....

Some of these governors are schizophrenic on taxes: They jack up overall business tax rates, then give breaks to favored businesses....

“there is no half-cent currency! The small retailer will have to “eat” the half-cent on every single unit he sells. In this mandated business model, the more the retailer sells, the more money he loses.”

"...the IRS contacted us today regarding your 501(c)4 application and stated that they are withdrawing the additional questions that they sent to your organization...."

In January and February of this year, the Internal Revenue Service began sending out letters to various local Tea Parties across the country. Mailed from the same Cincinnati, Ohio IRS office, these letters have reached Tea Parties in Virginia, Hawaii, Ohio, and Texas....

The 2011 version of the 10-cent bag tax failed at the end of the legislative session when enviros stabbed business in the back by amending the bill to eliminate retailers’ portion of the fee-split....

Sheila Weinberg spoke in Hawaii Tuesday, Oct. 11 on "Government Accounting: The Seen and the Unseen -- What Needs to be Done?"

Initially set at a rate of 1.5%, it rose to a rate of 2% during the war years, and then just prior to statehood in 1959 to a retail rate of 3.5%. ...the retail rate was increased in 4% in 1965....

...authorize the City and County of Honolulu to impose a general excise tax surcharge — much like the one already in effect to fund the rail project — for highway and bikeway construction....

To put an end to budget shenanigans the Institute has developed a budgeting system called “Full Accrual Calculations and Techniques”. FACT based budgeting would require governors and legislatures to recognize expenses when incurred regardless of when they are paid. This improved method of accounting is discussed in detail in this report.

On one side are those who have come to realize it would be madness to let the political class borrow more without imposing a serious check on government spending. They have produced budgets and now an actual legislative plan to get things under control.

On the other, you find those who consider more spending, taxing, and borrowing a royal prerogative. They have produced nothing but rhetoric and empty promises and have pushed this debate to the brink.

The Hawaii Department of Taxation is seeking an outside auditing firm to look at "systemic problems" with DoTax tax revenue reports.... 

After using an alleged “crisis” and so-called “budget shortfalls” to push tax increases through the Legislature, it certainly seemed like fortuitous timing when Neil Abercrombie’s Department of Taxation found a $134M jump in tax revenues shortly after the Legislature adjourned....

In the Hawaii State House, Tax Day was April 12.  On that day, legislators voted up several key tax increases approved earlier by the Senate and forwarded them to the House-Senate Conference Committees which will be meeting behind closed doors for the next two weeks. 

The inevitable failure of DOTax to replicate CGI’s tax collection frenzy should cut revenues by about $27M per year. How many government union jobs will be lost or furloughed due to the bumbling HGEA leaders’ choice of targets?

Apparently Hirono is catching hell from her Obamabot base.  So she sent this email out today.... 

While Hawaii’s school children are subjected to Furlough Fridays and the state faces a record shortfall, the 2010 Hawaii Pork Report reveals that bureaucrats continue to spend taxpayer dollars in questionable ways. Co-authored by Hideo Hikida, Frances Nuar, and Jamie Story, the second annual report reveals more than $300 million in waste, abuse, and mismanagement of taxpayer dollars.

According to an October 26 editorial piece thinly disguised as a news analysis, Save Our Sports’ success in raising $1.2 million for Hawaii’s 55 public high school athletic programs indicates a “shift toward an ‘American Idol’-style system of public funding that rewards popularity over merit.”

Hawaii TEA Party invites everyone to local rallies in solidarity with the National TEA Party March on Washington September 12.  This is our opportunity to speak up against State and Federal Tax increases, the government takeover of health care and the cap and trade carbon tax.    

The State legislature was the scene of an anti-tax rally the afternoon of July 14.  Organized by www.OverTaxedHawaii.com 150 people came to denounce the "Barrel Tax" and demand the Democrat-controlled Legislature not override any tax vetoes.

A parallel event occurred along the Hilo Bayfront where 50 protesters gathered. 

• HONOLULU July 14th 3:00PM Signwaving 3:00PM & RALLY 5:00PM -- "Just say no to Taxes" Rally @ State Capitol
• HILO July 14th 4PM-6PM Signwaving along Hilo Bayfront at Kamehameha Statue 

Next protest July 14: Honolulu info>>>www.OvertaxedHawaii.com  and July 14 Hilo 4PM - 6PM Hilo Bayfront signwave 

Advertiser: 7 Hawaii 'tea parties' take aim at spending, increasing tax burden

WHT Kona: Protesters celebrate Fourth with TEA party

check back for updates...

All the details and contact info for TEA Party July 4 rallies on Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and Hawaii Islands.

If these bills are approved by April 21; the Legislature has a chance to override any veto before their scheduled adjournment on May 7:

• HB1747, HD1, SD1 INCOME TAX RATES
• SB1111, SD1,HD1  TRANSIENT ACCOMMODATIONS TAX RATE
• HB895 & HB1175  TAX ON TOBACCOPRODUCTS & CIGARETTES
• HB1741, HD1 SD1  PROPERTY CONVEYANCE TAX

...condemn thousands of Native Hawaiian families to turn over 30 percent to 50 percent their property to the United States federal government when the inevitable occurs....