Taxing You While You're Down

Yes (0.00 / 0)

This is why my casino rhetoric is so vehement. For years, GOP governors in Massachusetts held that Sword of Damocles over our heads. But who finally dropped it? Deval Patrick.

Fortunately it hasn't landed yet, but it will. The casino lobby has done its work well.

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by: JimC @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 10:09:02 AM CDT

Sage advice? (0.00 / 0)

Fernald's advice for budget-writers: "Don't let someone's rejection of your revenue idea make you believe that you have to vote for something you don't want."

He recounted his push for an income tax - scuttled by then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen - and the Legislature's "reluctant" acceptance of a statewide property tax, which he considers a bad move.

As Fernald put it in his weekly newsletter: "You ALWAYS have the power to say no, and force a new round of negotiation."

Whack-a-mole, anyone?

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by: Jack Mitchell @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 13:49:35 PM CDT

Better advice (4.00 / 1)

I think better advice is, you always have the power to compomise. This "my way or the highway" stuff usually leads to bad things.

 



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

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by: Kathy Sullivan 2 @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 16:11:39 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

How do you collect a capital gains tax? Do you expect people (0.00 / 0)

file a report stating how much profit they made on assets they'd owned for a set period of time?
Or, is it just capital gains on sales of stock that can be collected by the broker and passed on?

When the federal government is planning to exempt individuals from filing a tax return if they earn less than a minimum amount, what sense does it make to institute a state income tax?  It's bad enough when people have to forward a copy of the federal return to the state (as they do in Georgia).  Expecting them to create a return just for New Hampshire is whistling Dixie.

A sales tax that's incorporated into the listed price of purchases, as it is with motor fuels, seems the easiest to collect and would probably cause the least resistance.  Having clerks calculate a sales tax at the register is a real nuisance and a waste of time.

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by: hannah @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 16:35:08 PM CDT

Wrong (0.00 / 0)

There is a separate return already filed in New Hampshire on interest and dividends.  The tax is not collected by banks that pay interest, or by corporations that pay dividends; people write checks and mail them in along with the return. Capital gains would be reported the same way. Expecting people to pay their taxes, as opposed to facing possible criminal charges for not paying, is a fairly reasonable expectation.



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

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by: Kathy Sullivan 2 @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 17:02:09 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Whoo boy. (4.00 / 1)

1. Everyone paying a New Hampshire state tax would already be paying US taxes. This is not rocket science.
   
2. The federal government may be planning to exempt the poorest from filing. New Hampshire starting to tax the highest income earners is not inconsistent with that.
3. I worked for many years in MA while living in NH, as do many many others. We each "created a return just for Massachusetts." The tax software packages all promote their state versions. This is not some brand new, strange concept.
4. Every clerk at McDonalds already "calculates a sales tax at the register." Again, this is not rocket science.
5. There are arguments for and against each, but an income tax is substantially more proportional to "ability to pay" (read: the more you make, the more you pay) than a sales tax.

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by: elwood @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 20:25:49 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Yes, that sales taxes calculated at the register is not rocket science is obvious. (0.00 / 0)

It is, however, a nuisance and a waste of time.  And for some of us geezers, that the time left to us on this earth is dissipating by the minute is particularly meaningful.

If I understand correctly, the capital gains taxers are going to count on voluntary compliance.  Considering that the underground economy (what's not reported by anyone anywhere) is already estimated to amount to 25% to 30% of what's reported--i.e. the GDP is actually significantly larger than official data report--this does not strike me as a winning proposition.
Since both Bush/Cheney and Obama/Biden have opted for stimulus checks that get distributed to people who are already in the system (as tax payers or SS recipients) or file with the IRS, even though they don't owe any tax, it seems fairly obvious, though it wasn't stated, that one of the objectives of handing out cash was to increase the number of income earners in the data base and increase revenue collections in the future.

While there's some rationale for collecting a greater percentage of income from people whose income is larger because those same people are likely to utilize public services (police protection, civil litigation, international trade agreements) to a greater extent than the common laborer, I'm not sure how differential rates comport with the equal protection clause.
There's a valid basis for taxing trade since fair trade relies on all kinds of social protections.  Taxing financial transactions seems even fairer, since money is a state invention and the benefit of having a secure and stable and universally accepted currency is certainly worth something.

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by: hannah @ Wed Jun 17, 2009 at 11:54:46 AM CDT

[ Parent ]