Category / Internal Revenue Service

by Hoosier Econ

How the Wealthy Write Off Taxes

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Whenever I see someone famous on TV talking about the need for higher taxes or claiming they enjoy paying taxes I always say, “Their accountant is laughing”.
Senator Tom Coburn issued a report showing exactly what I mean.

The tax code is so peppered with special giveaways that companies such as Facebook end up getting refunds, and high-profile athletes and artists use their tax-free foundations to give friends jobs while avoiding taxes — all leading to higher income tax rates for the rest of us, Sen. Tom Coburn charges in a new report being released Tuesday.

Here is a snapshot of what was found by his staff:

-Baseball owners are able to claim their players “depreciate” over time, the same way farms are able to claim their tractors depreciate
– Athletes and Hollywood stars who form tax-exempt organizations that they then use as tax shelters, throwing parties or paying employees’ salaries from the tax-exempt accounts while dedicating almost no money to charitable works.
-Kanye West’s foundation spent more than $1 million in 2009 and 2010 but “gave virtually nothing” to charity. Fellow performer Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation raised $2.6 million but only gave away $5,000 in grants

You can read more via Washington Times

by Hoosier Econ

Economics & “Coolidge”

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Halfway through reading Amity Shlaes book “Coolidge”. Very detailed and good reference for what the country was politically/economically facing at the time. Here are some economic factors from Calvin Coolidge time period:

Debt after WWI was $27 Billion. Nine times higher than 2 years before.

College professor salaries in 1890 were $2,500. This was 20 times more then tuition. Average American wage earner made $425/year.

1905, home in Massachusetts cost between $2,000-$5,000. Banks did not do mortgages. Building associations did.

1915 IRS employed 4700 people

1920 federal budget was $6.3 Billion and Calvin Coolidge Vice Presidential salary was $12,000.

From 1920 – 1921 Ford Motor Company sold 1.25 million cars.

by Hoosier Econ

Obscene Profits by Government

Economist Mark J. Perry makes this point about Black Friday retail sales:

On Black Friday, avg retailer will make $3.30 in profits per $100 of sales, but the average state/local government’s take will be almost $7

by Hoosier Econ

MLB Player Change Teams Because of Taxes?

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Pablo Sandoval few days ago signed with the Boston Red Sox in a free agent deal for five years and worth $100 Million. Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes wrote why Pablo left San Francisco:

Massachusetts has a flat personal income tax rate of 5.2%. California uses a progressive rate topping out at 13.3% at and above $1 million of income. In other words, 95% of Sandoval’s income would be taxed at this 13.3% rate if he re-signed with the Giants.

The Giants play in the National League West, which boasts three teams from California, including the Giants. This means that in addition to the Giants’ 81 home games, the team plays another 18 road games in California. The Giants also play three road games against their cross-bay rival A’s, bringing their total California games to 103.While Boston has to play ten games next year at the New York Yankees, it also has division opponents in Florida and Canada, where the players will pay no state income taxes (and no federal taxes in Canada).

Baseball players living in no-tax states have about 18.4% of their 2015 salaries sheltered from state taxes due to Spring Training taking place in tax-free states (Arizona does not tax Spring Training days). The Red Sox enjoy an additional 14.3% of tax-sheltered income from road games, while the Giants only get to shelter another 5.8%.

Read the rest here

by Hoosier Econ

Gasoline Taxes Paid by Consumers

Consumers of gasoline pay state/federal taxes when they purchase gas. The tax is per gallon. The federal tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents/gallon. State taxes vary greatly. The map below shows both state/federal. Just deduct the federal to see what you pay in each state.

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Map courtesy of the American Petroleum Institute. Click here for their interactive map.

by Hoosier Econ

$995 Million Divorce Settlement

Via Reuters –

An Oklahoma County judge has ordered oil magnate and Continental Resources Chief Executive Officer Harold Hamm to pay nearly $1 billion in a divorce judgment, according to a court filing made public on Monday.

Special Judge Howard Haralson found that Hamm should pay his ex-wife Sue Ann Hamm a total of $995.5 million, with about a third of the funds, or $322.7 million, to be paid by the end of the year, the filing says.

Hamm will then be required to pay the rest of the judgment, some $650 million, in installments worth at least $7 million per month, the filing says. Sue Ann Hamm has already been awarded around $25 million since the case was filed in 2012, the filing says.

by Hoosier Econ

Why Government Supports Minimum Wage Increases

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Tuesday, five states voted to hike minimum wage for workers. The common theme is that government really cares for the people. Not exactly. Government likes minimum wage increases because it means more taxes collected. Here is example:

“The minimum wage increase is not just the dollar an hour, but it’s also a raise in our taxes,” said Jason Lerner of Little Learner Academy. His family owns five child care centers in New Jersey, where the minimum wage rose from $7.25 to $8.25 on Jan. 1.
In total, these taxes add an extra 10.5% to Little Learner Academy’s payroll expenses.
Take Social Security. Employees have 6.2% of their wages withheld from each paycheck for Social Security. But what they don’t see is that their employer also chips in, matching the 6.2%. For Medicare, both the employer and the employee pay 1.45% of the wage.

Payroll taxes are a big concern when running a business. This tax is also regressive when managing a business. On top of this tax, business owners must also pay to the state disability/unemployment taxes based upon amount of employees they have.

Many years ago I had a boss tell me that payroll is the #1 controllable expense. When payroll goes up and sales don’t, payroll gets slashed.

by Hoosier Econ

How the Federal Government Sells it Debt

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In the United States, the federal government not having enough money for spending is the new normal. One thing that never gets discussed is how the government sells its debt in the form of “bonds”.

What may surprise many is that banks and other financial institutions  do it for the government and they are called “Primary Dealers”. Once the government has a certain amount to sell, these dealers take it to market and sell it. Here is the list of dealers:

Bank of Nova Scotia, New York Agency
BMO Capital Markets Corp.
BNP Paribas Securities Corp.
Barclays Capital Inc.
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC
Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc.
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.
Jefferies LLC
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated
Mizuho Securities USA Inc.
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC
Nomura Securities International, Inc.
RBC Capital Markets, LLC
RBS Securities Inc.
SG Americas Securities, LLC
TD Securities (USA) LLC
UBS Securities LLC

So next time you hear a politician claim banks or financial institutions are evil, they are the ones selling the debt to help that same politician in their spending addiction.

by Hoosier Econ

People Borrowing More from 401k’s

Via USA TODAY –

More investors are taking out loans against their 401(k)s, and that could hurt their retirement income by hundreds of dollars a month, according to an analysis by Fidelity Investments released Wednesday.

The number of investors borrowing from their 401(k)s has been steadily increasing for more than a decade. Today, more than one in five people, or 22.5% of Fidelity’s 401(k) investors, borrow against their retirement savings, up from 18.7% in 2000, according to Fidelity’s analysis of 13 million investors.

More than 2 million investors have outstanding loans, and nearly 1 million took out loans in the past year.

by Hoosier Econ

Michael Jackson Still Owes Taxes

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The King of Pop may be gone but his estate is still being hounded by the IRS. According to Forbes, they are going for more blood:

In a previously unreported court filing, the government says that IRS auditors originally thought the King of Pop owned only 50% of certain master recordings at his death in June 2009, when he really owned 100% of them. That 100% interest was worth $91 million by the IRS’ figuring, compared to the $11 million reported on the Jackson estate tax return.

The change brings the IRS’ valuation of Jackson’s estate and lifetime taxable gifts up to $1.178 billion, compared to the $7 million the estate reported. The IRS now wants a total of $525.6 million in tax and $205.1 million in gross valuation misstatement and negligence penalties. (Any interest owed will be on top of that.) Of course both the IRS and the estate’s values are best regarded as opening bids in what could be a long negotiation. A trial, if there is one, is far off.