Avoid a VAT

Ernest S. Christian/Gary Robbins Our current tax system runs to more than 60,000 pages of laws, regulations and rulings. It's so confusing that many, if not most, Americans mail their return with no idea whether or not they've filled it out properly. ...However, a handful of tax reforms would do more harm than good....The proponents of this scheme (the so-called two-track system) propose a high-rate, value-added tax (VAT) of the type used in Europe, which is a hidden tax on wages, dividends and consumer purchases. ...the two-track system is a prescription for enormous expansion of government and escalating tax rates. The increasing taxes will especially burden the minority of voters subject to income taxes as well as the VAT. .... It would place a surtax on hard work, productivity and success. It would penalize Americans who have already succeeded and discourage others from even attempting to succeed. That's because even if they worked harder and more productively, they'd know that income taxes would take a large bite out of their earnings. A reasonable person near the income-tax threshold would likely decide that the increased income wasn't worth losing his exemption from the income tax and, in his view, having to start "paying taxes" for the first time. The Washington Times: Commentary

What you put online may be used against you!

...An alarming trend is developing at many universities where officials are searching Facebook profiles and Webshots accounts for incriminating photos to use against students. By Heights Editorial Board

GOP Plan to Tax You Out of House & Home

Chuck Muth ...the Jeffersonian notion that the nation would be stronger if more citizens owned their own homes, Congress in the early 1900s created the ìgovernment-sponsored enterpriseî known popularly as Fannie Mae (short for Federal National Mortgage Association). Fannie Mae - and its sibling, Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.), created in 1970 - are private companies which do NOT get direct money from taxpayers, but which DO enjoy some favorable treatment by the federal government in return for making home ownership more available to more Americans. The essence of these GSEs is this: They dont lend money directly to you, the home-buyer. Instead, once a bank lends you the $100,000 to buy your house, Fannie and/or Freddie buy your new mortgage from the bank. This is what is called the ìsecondary mortgage market,î and it immediately frees up that $100,000 lent to you for the bank to lend to another potential home buyer. This is an extraordinary benefit if you were #11 on the bankís lending list. Their purpose, then, is to help moderateñ and low-income families obtain the American dream of home ownership. ...Their purpose, then, is to help moderateñ and low-income families obtain the American dream of home ownership. ...In the old days,î before Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed mortgage was almost unheard of in the home-lending market. Today, somewhere around 70 and 80 percent of such home mortgages are issued under such terms. The 30-year mortgage, combined with relatively stable and lower interest rates, have made monthly home-loan payments affordable for millions of average-income citizens who otherwise would still be renting instead of buying. ...once Fannie or Freddie buys your mortgage from the local bank, they generally do one of two things with it: They turn around and sell it to investors (often overseas investors who see the U.S. real estate market as a safe bet and want a piece of the action), or they retain the mortgage in their own portfolio, allowing Fannie and Freddie share-holders and investors to reap the profits from the interest you pay on your home loan. ...Franklin Raines (a former Clinton official; go figure), OVER-stated its earnings to shareholders by a whopping $11 billion. ...Rather than merely assuring accurate accounting, these members of Congress are considering an active role in actually manipulating the market and picking new winners and losers. opinion editorials.com guestcontributors

Lands of Catastrophe: The Case of India and Pakistan

Jayant Bhandari ...For imperialist rulers, it is the land — not people — that matters. ...Millions suffer every year in the subcontinent from a cycle of horrible floods and water shortages. Millions die of easily and cheaply treatable diseases. Hundreds of thousands die like flies — and nature gets the blame. ...Facts will continue to come to light..is really the result of human arrogance and stupidity...To "make the nation strong," the state of India controlled the cement industry. ...Cement houses were far less insulated and, in a final irony, they needed more wood for heating. So much for saving the trees...While the "environmentalists" and the state destroyed the natural order, the void in the construction industry was filled by corrupt bureaucrats...Kashmir is one of the world's most militarized zones...To enable them to prepare for war, Pakistan and India spend 3.9% and 2.5% of their GDPs respectively...The total deployed troops are a million strong. Lessons: ...the people in these countries should have learned long ago is that when the crisis strikes, the state disappears...human stupidity has no limits...the media will romanticize whatever they can...Millions will continue to die, suffer, and live in utter misery, and the people of these countries will keep electing the same rulers. The culprits and the victims are the same; they only change positions. ...Leftists in the West will keep blaming globalization and the free market for all these problems. http://www.mises.org/story/1951

What's So Eminent About Public Domain?

Tim Lee Or consider the newly formed Property Rights Alliance (a project of Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform) which sponsored a panel at last month's State Policy Network meeting in which lobbyists from the movie and recording industries shared the podium with grassroots activists fighting eminent domain abuse. The Alliance's founding press release lamented that "recent Supreme Court decisions gutting physical and intellectual property rights have left little choice but to unify and organize." ...The Eldred decision is a good example. Until 1909, an author could receive copyright protection for no more than 56 years, after which the work would fall into the public domain. But thanks to industry lobbying, Congress extended the terms in 1976, and again in 1998. As a result, no copyrights have fallen into the public domain since the 1970s unless their owners chose not to renew them. There's every reason to think Congress will grant another extension around 2018, when the current terms begin to expire. Despite the Constitutional requirement that copyrights be "for limited times," Congress has effectively made them perpetual, one extension at a time. ...By lumping together the very real threat of the government taking people's land with an imaginary threat of IP anarchists abolishing intellectual property, the copyright industry and its allies hope to portray themselves as defenders of traditional property rights. http://www.reason.com/hod/tl103105.shtml

USA: Huntington could become the first city in West Virginia to pass a payroll tax.

City council will meet next week to debate whether to impose the 1 percent tax on people who work in the city. The fee would replace Huntington's $2-a-week service fee, similar to Charleston's $1-a-week user fee. Instead of paying for police officers and street services, the payroll tax revenue would go toward paying down Huntington's skyrocketing employee pension debts. "Nobody's going to be happy with any tax. I'm aware of that," said Huntington Mayor David Felinton. "But I think this is a lot more fair than the user fee. You look across the border and you see all these other states have the ability to do things like this, but it's just brand new in West Virginia. I think all cities need more flexibility to do this." Cities like Pittsburgh, Columbus and Cincinnati have for years charged people up to 2 percent in payroll taxes for working there. Parts of surrounding states like Kentucky and Virginia also charge the fees. Until recently, West Virginia cities and towns had no authority to tax the income of their workers. Instead, places like Huntington and Charleston have adopted user fees, the across-the- board fee that generally helps pay for road repairs and police services. Payroll taxes, on the other hand, vary depending on a person's income, and the tax typically brings in a lot more money than $1- or $2-a-week service fees. Huntington, however, is the only city in West Virginia right now that's eligible to pass a payroll tax. State lawmakers approved a plan just last year to allow cities to charge the tax only if their employee pension plans are severely under-funded. Huntington is the only city so deeply in debt, with reserves to cover less than 3 percent of its future pension obligations. It has pension liabilities that top $117 million. "This (tax) is probably the most viable option the city of Huntington has, other than some sort of increased property tax," said Mark Muchow, fiscal policy director for the state Department of Revenue. The tax would affect any person or family in Huntington earning $10,000 or more a year. A household making that much would pay $100 annually, whether.the money supports one person or four. Someone with an income of $50,000 would owe $500, and someone making $250,000 would have to pay the city $2,500. If the tax passes, most people who work in the city will end up paying more than the $104 now charged for the service fee. Felinton said revenue from the tax would amount to about $8 million a year, all of which would go to pension payments. The city's service fee is bringing in $3 million a year, which helps pay for police and street services. If the payroll tax passes, those services would get some added support from money now being used to pay off pension debts. Felinton has brought up the possibility of passing a payroll tax in the pass, but other city leaders have shot it down in favor of other alternatives. Now, those options seem to be running out. Felinton said the city is likely to miss a state deadline in December to reconfigure its pension payments, a plan that would have allowed it to start a new contribution plan for new hires. "This is a bit tougher to sell," Felinton said. "This scenario isn't as good as (our other options were), but we have to do something and we have to do it sooner than later." Cities around the state have been examining several new funding options, like the payroll tax, that lawmakers approved last year. While most places don't have a choice of adding a payroll tax right now, cities do have the option of abandoning a business and occupation tax in favor of adding their own sales tax in order to boost revenue. Charleston City Council Finance Chairman Bobby Reishman said city leaders here aren't talking about changing the tax structure any time soon. The city has for two years charged a $1-a-week service fee for anyone who works in Charleston, and Reishman said that plan is working out well. "Some of those taxes have been set up for cities that are in real trouble, and we're in good shape," Reishman said. "We're collecting more than we used to, and we certainly don't want to raise taxes any more than we have to." Felinton plans to bring up the payroll tax at the Oct. 24 council meeting, and council members could vote on the option early at a meeting in mid-November. Contact writer Kris Wise at 348-1244. J Kennedy Bennett response to the Editor & K Wise. This regressive revenue measure was drafted by your city's privileged few, who do not receive the bulk of their income from wages but from tenant rents & monopoly interest payments. It will further alienate the wealth of the Produces and shift it to vested interest in land. Your article quotes Mayor of Huntington David Felinton as saying "Nobody's going to be happy with any tax. I'm aware of that." And then offering an alleged counter argument as "But I think this is a lot more fair than the user fee." Neither is fair nor economic and yet his first assertion is true. Nobody is happy with any tax because tax is theft it maybe legal but it is not moral nor economic. The economic alternative is to rate the value of land which the Mayor allegedly governs. None of your cities do this let alone the States or Federal Government. Taxation can only occur after wealth is produced and is therefore external to the economic transaction of its creation. The rent of land is the return for its use and is integral to the economic use and production process and is the just base by which public revenue should be raised. As the value of production and consumption is stored in the land on which it occurs land is traded in a monopoliconomy for a price which is capitalised rent. Fewer and fewer Americans are securing titles to the land. Due to the rising monopoly ownership laws. So that your cities are becoming wage slave centres of compliance and regulatory nightmares for the dispossessed and your public administrations are exporting these policies around the world. The debate is council should rate land via valuation notices with incremental increases in the dollar as all other imposts are struck off until the the single source of revenue achieves a site revenue society with the absence of land price and taxation a consequence. Poverty crime homelessness terrorism would all disappear with it. PS. In a revenue analysis, I am able to quantify what the magnitude is, of the amount of suppressed economic activity by the impost measure herein proposed. If I were to obtain the city's valuation data of all property values (which the Huntington Council should have.) I then can advise as to what the revenue base formulae is, for the highest economic integrity. To replace this proposed slum facilitating measure.

Woodrow Wilson, (1856-1924)

All the country needs is new and sincere thought, coherently, distinctly and boldly uttered by men who are sure of their ground. The power of men like Henry George seems to me to mean that.

Throw Away the Key: Thousands of U.S. Children Serving Life Without Parole

Haider Rizvi OneWorld US NEW YORK, Oct 12 (OneWorld) - While most nations have abolished laws on sentencing children to life without parole, the United States remains one of the few countries in the world where minors are still regularly condemned to spend their lives behind bars, a new report released by two leading rights advocacy groups points out. Currently, there are more than 2,000 child offenders in U.S. prisons serving life-without-parole sentences for crimes they committed before the age of 18, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, an independent group based in Britain. Entitled, "The Rest of Their Lives," the 157-page report is the first-ever national study on the practice of trying children as adults and sentencing them to life in adult prisons without the possibility of parole. While many children in prisons are now adults, about 16 percent were between age 13 and 15 at the time of committing crimes, say authors of the study, which also reveals that nearly 60 percent of children are serving life sentences for committing a crime for the first time. "Kids who commit serious crimes shouldn't go scot-free," says Alison Parker, senior researcher with HRW and author of the report. "But if they are too young to vote or buy cigarettes, they are too young to spend the rest of their lives behind bars." Parker notes that states are increasingly handing down life sentences to children at a time when fewer children are committing serious crimes such as murder. In 1990, for example, 2,234 children were convicted of murder, and nearly three percent sentenced to life without parole, she points out. By contrast, in 2000, only 1,000 children were convicted, but nearly nine percent of them were sent to jail for life. "Untie the hands of state and federal judges," says Dr. William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International-USA. "Give them options other than turning the courts into assembly lines that mass produce mandatory life without parole sentences for children." In 26 states, the sentence of life without parole is mandatory for anyone who commits first-degree murder, regardless of age. Currently, outside the U.S., there are only 12 children facing life imprisonment without parole, say researchers, noting that the International Convention on the Rights of the Child forbids life sentencing without parole. The treaty has been endorsed by every country except for the U.S. and Somalia. Over 90 percent of children serving life sentences are convicted of committing murder, according to official figures. But researchers say they found that at least 26 percent of those convicted did not personally or directly cause the death. Citing an example, they say 15-year-old Peter A. was sentenced to death without parole for "felony murder." Peter had joined two acquaintances of his older brother to commit a robbery. He was waiting outside in a van when one of the acquaintances botched the robbery and killed two people. "I never shot or killed anyone," Peter told researchers in an interview. The report says a vast majority of children currently serving life sentences belong to Black or Latino families, estimating that Black children, for example, are 10 times more likely than white children to receive a life-without-parole sentence. The study also points out that many children in prisons are sexually abused by criminal gangs run by adult inmates. Challenging the notion that life sentencing without parole could be helpful in reducing the juvenile crime rate, the authors say they see no evidence of such a correlation. "For example, Georgia rarely sentences children to life without parole, but it has youth crimes rates lower than Missouri, which imposes the sentence on child offenders far more frequently," says Parker who asserts that public safety can be protected without subjecting children to "the harshest prison sentence possible." David Berger, a lawyer with Amnesty International, agrees with Parker. "Children who commit serious crimes still have the ability to change their lives," he argues. "It's now time for state and federal officials to take positive steps by enacting policies that seek to redeem children, instead of throwing them in prisons for the rest of their lives." In addition to seeking an end to the practice of life sentencing without parole, the human rights organizations are calling on the U.S. government to grant child prisoners immediate access to parole procedures.

Land records to be computerised in Kenya

All land records of Kenya will be computerised soon. "Kenyans can rest assured that the question of missing files is now a thing of the past," said Land and Housing minister Amos Kimunya yesterday as all rent cards will be available online." To begin with, information from three million land rent payment cards will be captured in a computer by December 2005. He said Nairobi title deeds; maps and letters will be available in digital form by next year at an initial cost of Sh18 million. The time taken to transact business will be reduced by half once all the data gets digitised." The ministry, after being fully computerised expects to collect Sh5.8 billion in land rates, up from Sh1.8 billion collected last year. Mr Kimunya said records already captured indicated that only 10 per cent of property owners paid their rent regularly.

Old figures to blame for wonky values

By Darren Goodsir and Bonnie Malkin October 5, 2005 (NSW) The State's property valuers are using outdated sales data to make land calculations and there was "insufficient time and resources" to check their determinations, the Ombudsman's report has concluded. The eight private firms instructed by the Valuer General's Office to assess properties in the 152 local government areas were charging as little as $1.77 per valuation and their analysis was often threadbare and cursory. The "contestable contract" system, introduced in 1996, had reduced the cost of performing valuations in real terms. But the Ombudsman, Bruce Barbour, said "the productivity savings arising from the deployment of reduced resources has started to impact on the quality of valuations …" This "may have reached the point where the costs cannot be driven down further without seriously undermining the methodology." Poor valuations had been arrived at because of a gap between the time sales data were received and when calculations were made. In a sample of 44 districts, the Ombudsman found 44 per cent of sales figures were between two and six months old and 25 per cent were six to 12 months old. Staff had no training in statistical anomalies or in the potential effect of data fluctuations, and this had compounded the errors. The report upheld the integrity of the Valuer General's complaints handling process, which it said was "far more thorough than many people believed". "However, there is still room to make it more transparent, consistent and accountable," the report said. Mr Barbour said the Valuer General failed to give property owners the most relevant comparable sales used to value their property unless requested. "It is unacceptable that the Valuer General failed to analyse objection trends and outcomes as his own 'health check' of the valuation system and had not implemented standard objection procedures to guide decision making," he said. The Sydney lawyer whose complaints prompted the Ombudsman's inquiry, David Singer, said the report uncovered such abuses of the system that it demanded a judicial inquiry. He said the "unholy mess" would continue to cause political disquiet. "This is only the beginning of the huge abuse of proper conduct in the valuation office in this State," he said, adding that the Government would come under pressure to drop the 1.7 per cent tax on land value or risk being accused of gouging. Philip Jenkyn was one of more than 20,000 property owners who contested the valuation they were given in 2003. Mr Jenkyn's three-bedroom house in Hunters Hill was considered to be worth $950,000, even though it was heritage-listed and could not be extended or extensively renovated. "The Valuer General valued the property that I own plus some adjoining properties without taking into account the fact that they were heritage-listed properties," Mr Jenkyn said. "I wrote a letter to the Valuer General saying they should have taken that into account and they had the typical response: get lost." The Land and Environment Court eventually ruled that the Valuer General should take into account the heritage aspect of the house. An independent valuation said the property was worth $650,000, a figure the Valuer General accepted. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/old-figures-to-blame-for-wonky-values/2005/10/04/1128191720175.html#top

Bodgie values to force up land tax bills

By Bonnie Malkin Urban Affairs Reporter October 5, 2005 Many property owners face higher land tax bills - and every NSW property will have its value re-assessed - after an Ombudsman's report attacked a culture of bodgie valuations and cost cutting which has resulted in 650,000 properties being under-valued. Despite widespread criticism that the Valuer General had routinely inflated land values, the report actually found 80 per cent of errors were linked to properties being under-valued. About 35 per cent of 2.4million valuations investigated contained errors more than 15 per cent outside a proper valuation. A spokesman for Mr Iemma, Ben Wilson, said it was too early to determine the precise fallout but added: "Obviously, if some properties are being under-valued [for land tax] this will have budgetary implications." The 1.7 per cent land tax is levied on residential investment properties and all commercial and industrial properties. However, from January a $330,000 tax-free threshold will be reinstated, meaning 350,000 property owners will escape the tax. In his special report to Parliament, the Ombudsman, Bruce Barbour, criticised almost all aspects of the land valuation process, saying no uniform standards applied. The report found the Valuer General's office failed to take enough time to check the accuracy of valuations made by contractors, which led to "an unacceptable risk of error". As a result, 35 per cent of valuations had a margin of error of more than 15 per cent. One in 10 valuations had discrepancies of more than 40 per cent, with 20 per cent of all errors involving over-valuations. Mr Barbour said it was likely the mass under-valuation meant land tax would rise but "people wanted to have a fair system in place". "People will have more confidence in the system, it will be fair and they will know it's a much more reliable valuation when they get it," he said. The errors had occurred because the Valuer General had failed to hold a systematic review of baseline valuations for 16 years, despite international standards recommending reviews every six years. Mr Barbour said a property-by-property review was "well overdue". The investigation also revealed a quarter of all objections to valuations had been upheld. "This reflects poorly on the general standard of accuracy currently being achieved through the mass valuation process," he said. Mr Barbour also criticised the objection process for not giving property owners clear guidelines on how to lodge a complaint, although he said the overall complaints handling procedure was fairer than many critics had suggested. The Valuer General, Philip Western, said he had accepted all the Ombudsman's 38 recommendations, and some changes had already been introduced. "The valuation system is sound but there needs to be more checks and balances and I'm in the process of implementing that." Mr Western said only 1 per cent of the 2.4 million valuations were contested each year. The Leader of the Opposition, Peter Debnam, said the report proved the system was flawed. "The Ombudsman has pointed out time and time again the land tax valuations were inaccurate." Unsound land valuations affect councils - and council rates - as well as individual property owners. Earlier this year, Hornsby Council was forced to buy a quarry it valued at $3million but the Valuer General said was worth $26million. Hunters Hill Council had a similar problem when a small piece of waterfront land was valued at $2.5million. The council expected it to be worth $1million, took the case to the Court of Appeal but lost. HOME TRUTHS The worst-hit areas NORTH SYDNEY: Valuations out by more than 25% on 44.1% of sales, and by more than 40% on 23.5% of sales. MOSMAN: Valuations out by more than 25% on 53.2% of sales, and by more than 40% on 21.3% of sales. LEICHHARDT: Valuations out by more than 25% on 30% of sales. CITY OF SYDNEY: Valuations out by more than 25% on 29.5% of sales, and by more than 40% on 10.6% of sales. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/bodgie-values-to-force-up-land-tax-bills/2005/10/04/1128191720172.html#