Category Archives: Taxes

U-Haul Reveals 2020 Migration Trends As Pandemic And Taxes Take Toll, by Tyler Durden

Posted on January 10, 2021 | Leave a comment

They’re leaving the totalitarian states and headed towards the states that have preserved a vestige of freedom. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

A new report has found that Tennessee posted the largest net gain of U-Haul trucks than any other state in 2020, making it U-Haul’s top growth state for the first time.

Growth rates are determined by the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks entering a state versus leaving that state in a given year. U-Haul keeps tabs on more than two million one-way U-Haul truck customer transactions annually, allowing the company to observe migration trends, according to the report published by U-Haul.

“Tennessee’s influx of do-it-yourself movers during a turbulent year marked by the coronavirus pandemic means that a state other than Florida and Texas tops the growth rankings for the first time since 2015 when North Carolina led the way,” the report said.

Texas and Florida were the top two other destinations. For three consecutive years, Texas had the largest net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks before Florida displaced it for the number one spot last year.

Before the pandemic, Americans fled liberal-run states and metro areas because of high taxes to conservative states that were business-friendly, such as Texas and Florida. The pandemic certainly amplified the exodus.

Ohio, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, and Georgia made up the rest of the top ten states with a net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Collapse, Debt, demographics, Economy, Governments, Politics, Taxes

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The Coming War on Wealth and the Wealthy, by Charles Hugh Smith

Posted on January 6, 2021 | Leave a comment

Poverty is imminent for many Americans, and who do you think they’re going to blame? From Charles Hugh Smith at oftwominds.com:

Here’s looking at you, Federal Reserve–thanks for perfecting ‘legalized looting’ and neofeudalism in America.

The problem with pushing a pendulum to its maximum extreme on one end is that it will swing back to the other extreme minus a tiny bit of friction.

America has pushed wealth/income inequality, unfairness and legalized looting to the maximum extreme. Now it will experience the swing back to the other extreme. This will manifest in a number of ways, one of which is a self-organizing populist war on wealth and the wealthy.

To say the system is rigged to benefit the already-wealthy and powerful is a gross understatement. Take the tax code as an example–thousands of pages of arcane tax breaks and giveaways passed by a thoroughly corrupted Congress and thousands more pages of arcane regulations and legal precedents.

How many pages apply to the bottom 95% of American taxpayers? Very few. There’s the standard deductions for mortgage interest, healthcare costs, etc., but virtually no other tax breaks. Very few pages apply to even the 99%–go talk to a CPA and you’ll find there are no more tax breaks for a sole proprietor making $500,000 in earned income than than there are for a sole proprietor making $50,000.

99.9% of the tax code benefits the top 0.1% and the corporations, LLCs and philanthro-capitalist foundations and trusts they own / control. Stripped of artifice and spin, America’s tax code is nothing but legalized looting. This is only one small slice of the entire pie of legalized looting, of course, but it’s one we can all understand.

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California “Techsodus”: Tech Companies, Billionaires, Millionaires, Tech Employees Flee San Francisco & Silicon Valley, by Wolf Street

Posted on December 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

Money and business do tend to migrate to where they’re treated the best. From Wolf Richter at wolfstreet.com:

And we coined “Management by Zooming Around.” Which is what Oracle’s Larry Ellison is doing.

When on December 11, Oracle disclosed that it “is implementing a more flexible employee work location policy and has changed its Corporate Headquarters from Redwood City, California to Austin, Texas,” it was another step in the process that we will henceforth call “Techsodus.”

The exodus of tech companies, executives, billionaires, millionaires, and regular tech employees from California, and particularly from San Francisco and Silicon Valley, is a combo of fleeing California and a shift to work-from-anywhere. Texas, Florida, Colorado, and other states have been among the destinations. Texas and Florida don’t levy state income taxes, so sure.

But Larry Ellison, co-founder and chairman of Oracle, isn’t moving to Texas along with the headquarters of his company. He has moved his primary residence to Hawaii, following Oracles new doctrine of working from anywhere. And Hawaii’s state income taxes are not far behind California’s.

Oracle already has a 560,000-square-foot campus in Austin, which it opened in 2018 – and moving its headquarters to Austin might not change all that much at first in terms of employment. Oracle said that it would “continue to support major hubs for Oracle around the world,” including its soon-to-be former headquarters in Redwood City. Oracle, founded in 1977, is one of the older tech companies that helped make Silicon Valley.

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New York Must Raise Taxes Regardless Of Whether It Receives Federal Relief, Gov. Cuomo Says, by Tyler Durden

Posted on December 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

Higher taxes should make New York an even more loathsome place to those considering fleeing. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

In what should come as a shock to precisely no one, New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo (famous for pissing away hundreds of millions of dollars in Tesla’s Buffalo boondoggle), thinks he’s such a great allocator of capital that his state needs to raise taxes. The Democrat playbook is becoming a bit predictable, isn’t it?

This, of course, comes while businesses and private citizens are moving hand over fist out of the state in favor of states like Florida and Texas, where there is no personal income tax.

Cuomo made the comments on Wednesday of this week when he was asked about the deficit created for his state by the Covid-19 pandemic. “Mr. Cuomo didn’t specify which taxes the state would look to increase, and his aides didn’t answer subsequent questions,” the Wall Street Journal reported. That’s some high quality leadership if we’ve ever seen it.

The state had adopted a budget in April that was dependent on further Federal relief that has not yet materialized. Now, Cuomo is saying that even if the Federal relief happens, tax hikes are still on the table. 

Currently, both sides of the aisle once again seem gridlocked on getting any type of stimulus deal done, with a punt of the issue into 2021 becoming more likely as the days pass by.

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Wealth Taxes, Mask Nazis, and COVID Rules, Oh My! by Simon Black

Posted on December 11, 2020 | Leave a comment

Simon Black’s weekly chronicle of the absurd. From Black at sovereignman.com:

Are you ready for this week’s absurdity? Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.

Argentina Passes Wealth Tax in the Name of COVID Recovery

In response to COVID-19, Argentina implemented strict lockdowns which further destroyed its already struggling economy. And Argentina’s lockdowns did not achieve the government’s objective of slowing the spread of the disease.

Now, these brilliant politicians think they have found the solution to rebuild: a new wealth tax.

The government introduced a “one time” wealth tax which affects any Argentine with assets totalling $2.4 million or more.

These citizens will owe up to 3.5% of their total net worth to the government, and 5.25% of any wealth held outside of Argentina.

The government plans to use the money to pay for healthcare supplies, small business relief, scholarships, and some natural gas ventures.

They might as well also buy a billboard that says, “Do not bring your wealth to Argentina.”

Click here to read the full story.

Mask Nazis Volunteer to Patrol Pasadena Streets

COVID Brownshirts will be lurking the streets of Pasadena, California to catch people not wearing masks in public.

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Biden’s Gun Control Plan Would Cost Gun Owners $34 Billion In Taxes, by Tyler Durden

Posted on November 26, 2020 | Leave a comment

There is no way that Joe Biden’s gun control plans would pass muster with the Supreme Court, but if by some travesty they did, they would be quite costly and a serious impediment to gun ownership. From Joseph Jankowski at planetfreewill.com:

With 20 million rifles and 150 million magazines to fall under the NFA with Biden’s plan, the amount of taxes paid by American gun owners would equate to $34 billion dollars.

Image Credit: Keary O/Flickr

Under Joe Biden’s proposed gun control plan, American gun owners would cough up tens of billions dollars in taxes as millions of rifles and magazines now in their possession would be subject to a tax under the National Firearms Act.

The center piece of Biden’s gun plan is to place a ban on the manufacture and sale of “assault weapons,” while bringing the regulation of possession of such firearms under the 1934 National Firearms Act.

Currently, the NFA of 1934 applies to fully automatics firearms, silencers and short-barreled rifles. But Biden would drag “assault weapons”, meaning semiautomatic rifles, pistols and shotguns (think the AR-15) along with “high capacity magazines”, which have generally been understood to be magazines that carry more than 10 rounds, under the act.

According to a National Shooting Sports Foundation report on firearm production figures, Americans in total own at least 20 million rifles and 150 million ammunition magazines that would be subject to the NFA regulations if Biden’s plan were put in place.

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Doug Casey on the COVID Thanksgiving Restrictions and the “Great Reset”

Posted on November 25, 2020 | Leave a comment

It’s pretty clear that we’re heading toward a totalitarianism that’s even more total than what we have now. From Doug Casey at internationalman.com:

COVID Thanksgiving

International Man: Thanksgiving and the holiday season are here. The COVID hysteria has justified a new wave of government restrictions.

Many governors and mayors are ordering citizens to “stay at home” and cancel their traditional plans.

Is this a “new normal” in which local officials feel emboldened to dictate more and more of what people can do in their own homes?

Doug Casey: There’s not much question about it. First, let me draw your attention to an important fundamental: the type of people who go into government. It doesn’t matter if it’s national, state, county, or city government.

They’re the kind of people who think they know what’s best for others and like bossing them around. They see the virus as a great opportunity to make themselves important and to cement themselves in power. They want to deconstruct America. The phrase “build back better” is being used not just by people in the new Biden regime but by people all over the world.

These people see the COVID hysteria as an excuse for a “Great Reset.” They don’t describe exactly what the elements of the Great Reset might be, but they’re hitting the same notes sung by the people that go to the World Economic Forum in Davos. They’re promoting a great change in the world at large and America in particular.

It appears the world is ready for it; however, it’s for the same reasons that Biden won the election. I listed six factors why I thought Biden would win in our interview a couple of months ago: the virus hysteria, a pending economic collapse, negative demographics, the moral collapse of the old order, and the Deep State, and, of course, cheating—which was critical in the short term. There’s no question that stormy times are ahead.

We’re headed for a great leap forward—to borrow a phrase from Mao—in State power. Much higher taxes, much higher inflation, much more regulation, a big drop in the general standard of living, and a fair measure of social chaos.

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The Greatest Swindle in American History… And How They’ll Try It Again Soon, by Jeff Thomas

Posted on November 20, 2020 | Leave a comment

The inevitability of paying taxes has often been noted. Not so noted is another inevitability: no government ever thinks it’s collecting enough taxes. From Jeff Thomas at internationalman.com:

property taxes

International Man: Before 1913 there was no income tax, and the United States was a much freer country. Initially, the government sold the federal income tax to the American people as something only the rich would have to pay.

Jeff Thomas: Yes, exactly. It always begins this way. The average person is always happy to see the rich taken down a peg, so this makes the introduction of the concept of theft by the government more palatable. Once people have gotten used to the concept and accept it as being perfectly reasonable, then it’s time to begin to drop the bar as to who “the rich” are. Ultimately, the middle class are always the real target.

International Man: The top bracket in 1913 kicked in at $500,000 (equivalent to around $12 million today), and the tax rate for it was only 7%. The government taxed those making up to $20,000 (equivalent to around $475,000 today) at only 1% – that’s one percent.

Jeff Thomas: Any good politician understands that you begin with the thin end of the wedge, then expand upon that as soon as you feel you can get away with it. The speed at which the tax rises is commensurate with the level of tolerance of the people. And in different eras, the same nation may have a different mindset. The more domination a people have come to accept from their government, the faster the pillaging can be expanded.

As an example, the Stamp Tax that King George III placed upon the American colonies in the eighteenth century was very small indeed – less than two percent – but the colonists were very independent people, asking little from the king in the way of assistance, and instead, relying upon themselves for their well-being. Such self-reliant people tend to be very touchy as regards confiscations by governments, and even two percent was more than they would tolerate.

By comparison, if today, say, Texas were to eliminate all state taxation and allow only two percent in federal taxation, Washington would come down on them like a ton of bricks, saying they were attempting to become a “tax haven.” They’d be accused of money laundering and aiding terrorism and might well be cut out of the SWIFT system. The federal government would shut down the state government if necessary, but diminished tax would not be tolerated.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Crime, Government, History, Taxes

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The Autocratic Future of the United States? by Guy Millière

Posted on November 1, 2020 | Leave a comment

The Democrats have been quite clear: elect Democrats and they’ll change the rules of the games so that they’ll never lose power. From Guy Millière at gatestoneinstitute.org:

  • If institutions of democracy — the state, the judiciary, opposition parties and the free press — suppress verifiable information instead of informing the public about it — as has just taken place for more than two weeks regarding alleged financial corruption and the possible resultant compromise — by China, Russia, and Ukraine among other countries — of an allegedly financially compromised family as possible a national security threat — these institutions of democracy instead become vehicles to sabotage a democracy.
  • A danger to American democracy in the past years — with threats to undo the Constitution by, for example, abolishing the electoral college, banning guns and, in 2014, eliminating free speech — has therefore become imminent.
  • There has been talk about killing the filibuster, to pass just about anything with a simple majority, and talk about enlarging the Senate by adding more states, presumably to enable one side to hold a permanent majority. Also on the agenda has been adding more members to the Supreme Court to turn it into a branch of legislative government, eliminating America’s historic system of checks and balances. There are also plans to raise taxes on everyone (remember, “You can keep your healthcare”?), abolish fossil fuels and fracking, and establish a Marxist-socialist economy of redistribution to replace a free economy.
(Image source: iStock)

There seems to have been an attempt for the last four years to instill among the population a hatred of America and of the president, to present them both as a criminal and to try to overthrow them. In any event, it is the first time in American history that there has been an attempted coup d’état against a duly elected president.

If institutions of democracy — the state, the judiciary, opposition parties and the free press — suppress verifiable information instead of informing the public about it — as has just taken place for more than two weeks regarding alleged financial corruption and the possible resultant compromise — by China, Russia, and Ukraine among other countries — of an allegedly financially compromised family as possible a national security threat — these institutions of democracy instead become vehicles to sabotage a democracy.

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The Home School You Pay For . . . Twice? by Eric Peters

Posted on October 29, 2020 | Leave a comment

Schools are closed but the property taxes with which you pay for them keep right on going. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

The fomented mass hysteria over WuFlu has cost us more – in terms of basic liberties – than the German Nazis and Soviet Russians ever managed to, combined – over the course of a World War and a Cold War that, together, spanned more than half a century. It has also cost us more in money – including the double-tax of being forced to hand over money for “the schools” and then forced to use our home as a school – without so much as a pro rata discount on the taxes we’re still forced to pay for “the schools” we aren’t allowed to use.

A reader sends in the following:

Lately, I’m concerned that our property rights are being infringed upon by educators restricting areas inside homes to do their “educating. Some require exclusion of some or all other activities that can take place in the space. If my child is educated in a room of my house that I can’t use during some hours, then the school system needs to cut me a check for using my real estate. There seems to be no end to how much of the “village” we have to let into our homes because of WuFlu. It is creepy that my home would become a digital playground for leftist-educators to inventory, monitor, make adjustments to and virtually own it for themselves during these sessions. If the state wants to rent space in my house to indoctrinate my child, then I certainly want to pay less in taxes or have some other kind of representation or consideration.

Indeed. And of a piece with being mulcted to pay for the retirement of people you never met at the cost of your own retirement security and then mulcted again on the meager pittance remitted when  – if – you ever manage to retire yourself.

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Posted in Business, Civil Liberties, Education, Government, Law, Politics, Taxes