Obvious: Democrats in Congress oppose bill requiring firing of tax delinquent federal employees...

I can't imagine why...

WASHINGTON — Citing figures indicating that more than 100,000 federal employees owe more than $1 billion in federal taxes, a House committee on Wednesday approved legislation that would require the firing of government workers who are “seriously tax delinquent.”

 The legislation, introduced by Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, advanced through the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. It now has to pass the full House to be implemented into law.

 “Most taxpayers file accurate tax returns and pay the taxes they owe on time, regardless of their income,” Chaffetz, a Republican, said during the hearing Wednesday. “Federal employees and individuals applying for federal employment should do the same.”

The Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act of 2013 requires the termination of employment for tax delinquent federal employees, while also prohibiting the hiring of new federal employees with a substantial amount of delinquent tax debt.[...]

Democrats on the committee opposed the bill.

Schwarzenegger proposes 15% flat tax for California

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would like to see a flat tax proposal from commission now studying an overhaul of the state’s tax system. He suggested a number of 15%. The flat tax idea is interesting, but if California needs 15% of their residents incomes to pay their bills, there needs to be some serious budget cutting first.
From the Los Angeles Times:

Could the flat tax come to California?

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said today that he would like to see such “radical” proposals come out of a commission now studying an overhaul of the state’s tax system. The governor told the editorial board of the Sacramento Bee that he hoped the commission would not be afraid to propose something like “a 15% straight tax.”

“That’s the kind of radical, daring kind of a proposal that I want to see on the table so we can look at it and say, ‘Oh, let’s study this, maybe that is the way to go,’ ” Schwarzenegger said during the discussion, which was webcast.

The current system, based on highly unstable income tax revenue that fluctuates with the economy, “doesn’t work,” Schwarzenegger said.

Advocates of a flat tax, which applies a single tax rate to all income, say it increases compliance with the tax codes because it is so simple and easy to understand. But opponents dislike that it taxes the wealthy at the same rates as the poor.

Steve Forbes and Jerry Brown both pushed for it during their presidential campaigns.

Have a Coke and a tax

Nothing is sacred when Democrats try to find funding for new social programs. There are reports Democratic Senators are discussing a tax on sugary drinks to help pay help pay for Obama's health care plan. The cost of the plan is around $1.2 trillion and Democrats are struggling to come up with the money. The Obama administration has already lied about not raising taxes on those making under $250,000. They hiked taxes on cigarettes earlier this year. Will obesity be the new "sin" tax? The Wall Street Journal reported:

Senate leaders are considering new federal taxes on soda and other sugary drinks to help pay for an overhaul of the nation's health-care system.

The taxes would pay for only a fraction of the cost to expand health-insurance coverage to all Americans and would face strong opposition from the beverage industry. They also could spark a backlash from consumers who would have to pay several cents more for a soft drink.

On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee is set to hear proposals from about a dozen experts about how to pay for the comprehensive health-care overhaul that President Barack Obama wants to enact this year. Early estimates put the cost of the plan at around $1.2 trillion. The administration has so far only earmarked funds for about half of that amount.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based watchdog group that pressures food companies to make healthier products, plans to propose a federal excise tax on soda, certain fruit drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks and ready-to-drink teas. It would not include most diet beverages. Excise taxes are levied on goods and manufacturers typically pass them on to consumers.

Senior staff members for some Democratic senators at the center of the effort to craft health-care legislation are weighing the idea behind closed doors, Senate aides said.

The Congressional Budget Office, which is providing lawmakers with cost estimates for each potential change in the health overhaul, included the option in a broad report on health-system financing in December. The office estimated that adding a tax of three cents per 12-ounce serving to these types of sweetened drinks would generate $24 billion over the next four years. So far, lawmakers have not indicated how big a tax they are considering.

Multinational Companies Tax Dodge Myths

When President Obama said:

The U.S. tax code is "full of corporate loopholes that makes it perfectly legal for companies to avoid paying their fair share."

He was misleading you. According to Washington Post op-ed columnist Robert J. Samuelson:

Myth: Aided by those overpaid lobbyists, American multinationals are taxed lightly -- less so than their foreign counterparts.

Reality: Just the opposite. Most countries don't tax the foreign profits of their multinational firms at all. Take a Swiss multinational with operations in South Korea. It pays a 27.5 percent Korean corporate tax on its profits and can bring home the rest tax-free. By contrast, a U.S. firm in Korea pays the Korean tax and, if it returns the profits to the United States, faces the 35 percent U.S. corporate tax rate. American companies can defer the U.S. tax by keeping the profits abroad (naturally, many do), and when repatriated, companies get a credit for foreign taxes paid. In this case, they'd pay the difference between the Korean rate (27.5 percent) and the U.S. rate (35 percent).

Myth: When U.S. multinationals invest abroad, they destroy American jobs.

Reality: Not so. Sure, many U.S. firms have shut American factories and opened plants elsewhere. But most overseas investments by U.S. multinationals serve local markets. Only 10 percent of their foreign output is exported back to the United States, says Harvard economist Fritz Foley. When Wal-Mart opens a store in China, it doesn't close one in California. On balance, all the extra foreign sales create U.S. jobs for management, research and development (almost 90 percent of American multinationals' R&D occurs in the United States), and the export of components. A study by Foley and economists Mihir Desai of Harvard and James Hines of the University of Michigan estimates that for every 10 percent increase in U.S. multinationals' overseas payrolls, their American payrolls increase almost 4 percent.

Myth: Plugging overseas corporate tax loopholes will dramatically improve the budget outlook as multinationals pay their "fair" share.

Reality: Dream on. The estimated $210 billion revenue gain over 10 years -- money already included in Obama's budget -- represents only six-tenths of 1 percent of the decade's tax revenue of $32 trillion, as projected by the Congressional Budget Office. Worse, the CBO reckons that Obama's endless deficits over the decade will total a gut-wrenching $9.3 trillion.

Who is Obama's favorite tax cheat?

Their are several candidates based on his recent cabinet choices, but Rep. Charles Rangel may be the winner. Here is the story from the NY Post. (italics mine)

Here's a tip for President Obama: Next time you excoriate tax cheats, try to keep Rep. Charles Rangel's name out of the discussion.

Somehow, it doesn't further your case.

Yet that's precisely what Obama did Monday, singling out the powerful Harlem congressman for praise as he announced legislation meant to close what he calls tax "loopholes" for corporations that expand their operations abroad.

Rangel, of course, knows a thing or two about offshore tax shelters: He'd been operating one for years.

The congressman had to fork over nearly $11,000 in back taxes last year after The Post reported that he failed to disclose more than $75,000 in rental income on his Dominican Republic villa.

Plus, he's under investigation by a House committee for allegedly helping a company preserve its offshore tax loophole -- in exchange for a million-dollar gift to a school named in his honor.

Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill is one of the off shore tax cheats Obama is targeting

Senator Claire McCaskill's (D- Missouri) husband has an investment in a reinsurance company that moved to Bermuda for tax avoidance. After claiming in 2004 she was a partner with her wealthy husband, she now claims little or no involvement in his business. This could be cleared up if she would release her tax records, but she has refused to for five years. Claire McCaskill was involved in an "Acorn" scandal last election. The Missouri Republican Party has the story:

Shifting blame to her husband and reversing her previous statements, Senator Claire McCaskill’s office responded yesterday allegations that she is avoiding U.S. taxes through her ownership of a Bermuda-based company. Through a spokesman, McCaskill’s office claimed in the Kansas City Star: “Like Warren Buffet, Claire's husband has an investment in a reinsurance company in a foreign country that has never been a tax benefit to him nor will there ever be a tax benefit for this investment.”

McCaskill clearly distanced herself from the Bermuda-based business, placing blame squarely on her husband, the wealthy developer of low-income housing Joe Shepard. This separation stands in stark contrast to a 2004 McCaskill statement regarding her family’s finances, in which she claimed, “My husband and I are a team… We are married, and we share everything -- assets, children and a house... Some have implied that the assets of my family don't belong to me. That notion is pretty archaic.” (Post-Dispatch, July 18, 2004)

In addition, McCaskill continues to maintain that her Bermuda-based company does not exist to provide tax benefits. Of course, the only way to discern if she is telling the truth is for her to release her family’s tax returns. She has stubbornly refused to do so over the past five years.

IRS workers want right to cheat on taxes like Obama's cabinet nominees

IRS workers are demanding the right to cheat on taxes without severe penalties like Obama's cabinet nominees. Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner, in charge of the IRS, failed to pay failed $34,000 in taxes before his nomination. Five other top Obama cabinet nominees have been caught in arrears on their taxes. However, IRS agents can be fired for simply filing a late return or failing to report a few hundred dollars of income. IRS employees are very angry at the double standard. According to the Chicago Tribune,

"Our members are upset and angry," said Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, referring to concern bubbling up within the IRS over unusually strict rules that can cost agents their jobs if they make a mistake.

"My issue is not that I want Geithner or anyone else punished," Kelley said. "I want there to be a re-examination of the law that holds IRS employees to a separate standard: one in which a simple mistake can cost them their jobs with no right of appeal."

The IRS worker's union doesn't want the Democrats they so strongly support in elections punished. When they get caught, they just want a "free pass" too.