It’s almost that dreaded time of year again: Tax Day. As if reaching deep into our wallets to fund profligate government spending isn’t bad enough, Americans also bear a tremendous hidden cost just to comply with the tax code. At over 3.8 million words, the tax code has 850 times more words than the U.S. […]

We’re hearing rumors that Secretary Geithner has agreed to provide a cost benefit on the proposed nonresident alien interest reporting regulation before it is finalized. But as I reported the other day, he has also stated their intention to go forward with finalizing the rule in the near future. Under the circumstances it should be […]

Secretary Geithner offered little more than ‘you can trust us’ to assuage concerns.

The Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation released today a policy brief highlighting the severe economic damage that would result from adoption of an IRS proposal (REG-146097-09) to require U.S. banks to put foreign law above U.S. law by reporting deposit interest paid to non-resident aliens. Entitled, “Proposed IRS Interest Reporting Regulation Threatens U.S. Economy,” the paper is the second in CF&P’s new Libertas series.

Early in 2010, I wrote about a reprehensible IRS plan to create a cartel in the tax preparation industry, which would screw small firms and entrepreneurs to help line the pockets of big companies such as H&R Block. And, earlier this year, I specifically criticized the IRS Commissioner for moving ahead with this scheme, which […]

This interview with the IRS Commissioner is really irritating. He wants us to believe that all the problems exist because of bad laws enacted by Congress. I certainly agree that the crowd in Washington is venal, corrupt, and duplicitous. But the IRS takes a bad situation and makes it worse, whether we’re looking at gross […]

The overwhelming fiscal policy challenge for America is entitlement programs, as I explain in this set of videos. To protect America from becoming another Greece, we need personal retirement accounts for Social Security. We need vouchers for Medicare. And we need to block-grant Medicaid back to the states. Real reform can give people more security […]

The Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation, joined by 23 of the country’s most influential free market and taxpayer rights organizations, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urging withdrawal of an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulation that would discourage capital from the U.S. economy and weaken the American financial system.

We are troubled by the Treasury Department’s failure to withdraw a rule that faces near universal opposition, provides no benefit to the U.S., and threatens to drive billions in much needed foreign investment out of the economy. We are therefore writing again to express our opposition to the nonresident alien deposit interest reporting regulation (REG-146097-09), and ask that it be withdrawn.

Leftists want higher tax rates and they want greater tax compliance. But they have a hard time understanding that those goals are inconsistent. Simply stated, people respond to incentives. When tax rates are punitive, folks earn and report less taxable income, and vice-versa. When tax rates increase, sometimes they engage in tax avoidance, lowering their […]