Tax day has hit America. The United States tax code is well over 70,000 pages long with special give aways that benefit many organizations. One of those being nonprofits. Here is some tax day information about nonprofits via StastiticBrain.com
Number of nonprofit returns–
383,064
Assets controlled by nonprofit’s –
$3.796 Trillion
Washington Times and Stephen Moore put together a piece showing migration out of high tax states and migration into low tax states.
The least “regressive” tax states had average population growth from 2003 to 2013 that lagged below the national trend. The 10 most highly “regressive” tax states, including nine with no state income tax, had population growth on average 4 percent above the U.S. average. Why was that? Because states without income taxes have twice the job growth of states with high tax rates. Unlike the experts at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, most Americans think that fairness means having a job.
Read the rest here.
Researchers at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation did a study on lost productivity in America due to our tax code. Washington Times published an article on it entitled “U.S. economy out $233.8 billion due to ‘lost productivity’ as Americans wrestle with taxes: Study”
An interesting number was in the study concerning the amount of pages Obamacare takes up on the IRS website:
the researchers also found a “staggering” 3,322 pages of legal guidance for the Affordable Care Act at the IRS website. The content includes regulations, Treasury decisions, assorted notices, revenue procedures, and revenue rulings.
As far as the study of our tax code, here are some sad numbers:
The study also notes that the estimated length of the Tax Code itself is about 4 million words. The study grimly recalls that the Form 1040 instructions were once just two pages long. “Today, taxpayers must wade through 209 pages of instructions, quadruple the number in 1985, the year before taxes were simplified,” it states.
NFL free agency kicked off on Tuesday March 10th. Numerous players either stayed or left their teams in pursuit of greener pastures. How much in contracts were signed this past week? Sportrac.com has a system set up tracking these numbers and here is the breakdown from studying the signings.
– Over 100 free agents signed
– Average length of contracts is 3 years
– Total amount of all contracts signed (disclosed/undisclosed) tops over $1.5 Billion
– Total amount of guaranteed money NFL teams must pay is $634 Million. The top five contracts account for $170.9 Million of that.
NFL contracts almost never get fully paid out. Each year these contracts are reworked, players cut, retirement or clauses are invoked terminating the amounts paid. Guaranteed money is paid out in full barring any contract clauses not met.
Cancel out the noise of propagandist who continually say the economy is booming and follow the data. Wall Street Journal shows compelling data of states tax revenue is in bad shape as spending increases. Here is what the Wall Street Journal found:
There are 30 states still collecting less in taxes, adjusted for inflation, than when the recession hit, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts study that examined the data through September. Income-tax collections grew on a real basis by 7.1% since late 2008, while sales-tax receipts rose by 1%, according to an analysis by Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York.
Government employment is actually down on the state level. Most of the attrition is probably attributed to from an aging workforce i.e. retirement:
State and local governments are employing 620,000 fewer people than they did six years ago. New municipal-bond sales stand at a more-than-15-year low as states remain hesitant to start public works and other capital projects.
If anyone tells you all you have to do is magically raise taxes and all ills are solved, they are terribly wrong.
Coming out of the recession, several states raised sales-tax rates to make up for deep revenue drops. In Arizona, a sales-tax increase was only temporary, meant to serve as a three-year bridge until collections returned. Still, total tax revenues as of the third quarter of last year remained 10% below their prerecession levels on an inflation-adjusted basis, according to the Pew analysis.
You can read the rest of the Wall Street Journal article here.
American Morning News interviewed Kay Bell from BankRate.com explaining a survey they with 1,003 adults and how they will spend their tax refund. USA Today posted the survey and here is how it broke down:
34% say they’ll use it to pay down debt
33% say they’ll save or invest the money
26% say they spend the extra cash on necessities such as food and utility bills
3% want to use it to live it up and go on vacation or a shopping spree
Here is another snapshot of Americans thinking on income taxes/tax refunds that would make Dave Ramsey shake his head at:
Some people view having extra money withheld from their paychecks for income tax as a way to save, says Bankrate.com tax analyst Kay Bell. But she advises against it because “the bank of Uncle Sam” pays no interest.
The rest of the article is here and has some more good stats obtained by the survey.
Via CNSNEWS.COM –
Many people are living longer, but not to age 112 or beyond — except in the records of the Social Security Administration.
The SSA’s inspector general has identified 6.5 million number-holders age 112 — or older — for whom no death date has been entered in the main electronic file, called Numident.
The audit, dated March 4, 2015, concluded that SSA lacks the controls necessary to annote death information on the records of number-holders who exceed “maximum reasonable life expectancies.”
“We obtained Numident data that identified approximately 6.5 million numberholders born before June 16, 1901 who did not have a date of death on their record,” the report states.
Some of the numbers assigned to long-dead people were used fraudulently to open bank accounts.
Read the rest here
Tis the season where millions of Americans take a gamble in starting to fill out their NCAA tournament brackets. Men and women will take out their wallets and throw down some money to enter in a pool with other in the hope they make some easy money in applying their college basketball knowledge. How much money do Americans spend during this time of year? It’s very hard to estimate since 90% of all NCAA tournament gambling is off the books. But lets take a look at some history to guage this sports investing event.
In 1999 there was a report issued by then President Bill Clinton:
National Gambling Impact Study Commission, formed by President Clinton, released a 1999 report citing surveys showing that well over 90 percent of all sports betting nationwide takes place off the books. If accurate, that would push the total wagered on the NCAAs across the country closer to $1 billion.
Fast forward to 2014 where more data can be evaluated yet is still a rough estimate, one sports investing website gave this estimate:
The site Pregame.com estimates that wagering on this year’s March Madness tournament will exceed $12 billion, more money than was riding on the Super Bowl. Of that, $3 billion will be put into office pools of tournament brackets.
Comparing those two estimates, NCAA Tournament betting has exploded 1100% in America. Good luck with your tournament pools this year.
H/T The Fiscal Times and BetFirm.com
In the mail I recently got an advertisement pack that contained various business coupons. Huntington Bank had this offer if you opened a checking account:
I then took a look at the back for the details. Get ready to get an IRS 1099-INT tax form if you accept the $150.
Last week I reported H&R Block website had a new feel good name for one Obamacare tax. This week new analysis comes from Americans for Tax Reform about more taxes within the law:
The majority (52 percent) of Obamacare enrollees receiving an advance premium tax credit to purchase Obamacare insurance is facing the prospect of paying back $530 of that tax credit to the IRS, according to a new study from H&R Block. This clawback is reducing the refunds for these taxpayers by 17 percent this filing season.
Families of four earning less than $97,000 are eligible for a credit. So is a single mother with two children earning less than $80,000 and an unmarried/childless taxpayer earning less than about $12,000. By definition, these are the lowest income recipients of Obamacare health insurance outside the Medicaid-eligible population. Higher income taxpayers received no tax subsidy and aren’t facing this tax season surprise.
According to the study, a majority of credit recipients–52 percent–have had to pay back the IRS an average of $530, reducing their refunds by an average of 17 percent.
Read the rest here
Hoosier Econ 