Tag Archives: Bandit Gang Writ Large

Illinois Enters the Fiscal Death Spiral

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“The class-warfare tax hike in 2011 was a terrible signal to investors and entrepreneurs.  Illinois already was losing both taxpayers and taxable income during the first decade of the century and the tax increase accelerated the process.  And keep in mind that the state also has a gigantic unfunded liability because of absurd promises of lavish pensions and fringe benefits for state and local government employees.  It’s almost as if the politicians in Springfield want to make the state unattractive.”

Read more: https://fee.org/articles/illinois-enters-the-death-spiral/

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Dallas freezes pension fund withdrawals, plans bailout with 130% tax increase

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Police and firefighter pensioners rushing for the exits to escape a government-run Ponzi scheme — the Dallas public-sector employee pension that had promised 8% annual returns — were hit with the news that further lump-sum cashouts would be denied thanks to a lawsuit by none other than the mayor of Dallas.

The city of Dallas pension board has recommended a 130% property tax rate increase with a goal of raising $1.1 billion to plug the present gap in the pension fund.

The pension fund had recently reached for yield in risky real estate investments, losing $320 million before filing a lawsuit against its investment advisory firm earlier this year.

Expect many more such revelations in defined-benefit plans such as pensions, annuities, and life insurance as ZIRP/NIRP run their course.

 

 

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Tens of thousands protest against India cash ban

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“India is still reeling from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s shock decision nearly three weeks ago to pull 86 percent of the currency from circulation overnight, triggering a chronic shortage of cash.  Many have been left without enough cash to buy food or daily essentials, while farmers have been unable to buy seeds and small traders say business has fallen off a cliff.  Nonetheless Modi has repeatedly defended the scheme, accusing its detractors of being tax evaders and urging all Indians to switch to non-cash payment methods.”

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/11/tens-thousands-protest-india-cash-ban-161128140259051.html

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More US cities charging illegal “Netflix tax” to residents

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“The Pasadena city council has been taking heat for weeks, after announcing a 9.4 percent tax on streaming video.  They’re calling it a utility, so it can be taxed like water and electricity. It happened when Pasadena voters modernized a law in 2008 to tax cell phones like landlines, never anticipating it could be applied to video streaming. Forty California cities now have similar laws. Chicago is currently being sued for charging a 9 percent tax on video streaming. And Pennsylvania’s charging a 6 percent sales tax on everything, from apps to downloads, to help close a $1.3 billion budget gap.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/netflix-tax-streaming-services-soon-coming-to-your-bill/

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IRS Declares War on Bitcoin Privacy, Sues Coinbase

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“Anecdotes and online braggadocio about tax avoidance are not a reasonable basis to believe that all Coinbase users are tax cheats whose financial lives should be opened to IRS investigators and the hackers looking over their shoulders. There must be some specific information about particular users, or else the IRS is seeking a general warrant, which the Fourth Amendment denies it the power to do.”

https://fee.org/articles/the-irs-just-declared-war-on-bitcoin-privacy/

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DEA regularly mines Americans’ travel records to seize millions in cash

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“DEA agents have profiled passengers on Amtrak trains and nearly every major U.S. airline, drawing on reports from a network of travel-industry informants that extends from ticket counters to back offices, a USA TODAY investigation has found. Agents assigned to airports and train stations singled out passengers for questioning or searches for reasons as seemingly benign as traveling one-way to California or having paid for a ticket in cash.  It is a lucrative endeavor, and one that remains largely unknown outside the drug agency. DEA units assigned to patrol 15 of the nation’s busiest airports seized more than $209 million in cash from at least 5,200 people over the past decade.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/10/dea-travel-record-airport-seizures/88474282/

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Revenue-Hungry States Canceling Back-To-School Sales Tax Holidays

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“[Massachusetts] isn’t the only state to forgo its sales-tax holiday in order to raise additional funds. Kansas, North Carolina, Nebraska, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, state legislators are among those that have also decided against holding new tax holidays or reinstating them during the last few years. ITEP estimates that state and local governments that retain the holidays will lose out on more than $300 million in revenue due to the holidays this year. Those losses in revenue come as states are also poised to see aggregate tax revenue growth below 4 percent this year, down from 5.5 percent in 2015, according to Moody’s Investors Service.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-04/tax-free-back-to-school-shopping-over-as-states-cancel-reprieves

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After Three Years, IRS Returns $68,000 Seized From Family Bakery

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“The family’s nightmare started in May 2013, when eight armed IRS agents descended on the bakery and began asking questions about a series of under-$10,000 cash deposits (the bakery was a cash-only business). The agents informed the Vocaturas they had seized the bakery’s entire bank account.  When IJ met the Vocaturas, they had almost given up hope. Federal prosecutors and the IRS had been hounding the family for years, first seizing over $68,000 and then threatening the Vocaturas with additional forfeitures and time in prison—all because of how they deposited money in the bank.”

http://ij.org/ll/august-2016-volume-25-issue-4/ij-bakes-fresh-forfeiture-victory-connecticut/

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After being hacked again, IRS shuts down e-File PIN service

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“The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced the abolition of its PIN tool due to the platform being hacked.  Under the now abolished electronic filing PIN tool (e-File PIN), people dealing with the IRS were able to use a PIN number to access services on IRS.gov or by toll-free phone call.  The agency cited ‘additional questionable activity’ as the impetus for the change.  According to Sophos, 800 cases of identity thefts were identified earlier this year causing the PIN system to be partially suspended in March, although at the time the IRS told taxpayers who already had a PIN to continue using the service to file their tax returns as they normally would.”

http://siliconangle.com/blog/2016/06/27/after-being-targeted-successfully-by-hackers-again-irs-shuts-down-e-file-pin-service/

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Introducing Europe’s Frightening New Tax Directive

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“A few days ago, the European Commission released details of a tax directive that will create a pan-European tax system, complete with a brand new Tax ID number for all the good citizens of Europe.  The proposal also aims to increase taxes across the board if they feel that a member state (like Ireland) doesn’t charge enough tax.  According to the proposal, other European countries like Ireland and Estonia ‘distort competition by granting favourable tax arrangements.’ The directive goes on to demand more onerous reporting, attack anyone who takes legal steps to reduce what they owe, and even threaten businesses with exit taxes if they try to leave Europe.”

https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/introducing-europes-frightening-new-tax-directive-19595/

 

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